I really enjoyed this article. imho The quest/test for manhood theme is one of the most dominant in our media, yet it is also kind of a taboo topic. Breaking Bad and Fight Club come to mind, where "castrated" protagonists fight back for their manhood... The Big Lebowski is, among many themes, about how different people prove their masculinity in different ways too. The whole damsel in distress genre... Also, movie/tv male comic relief is often portrayed as asexual or incredibly dorky.
Why Young Men Go to War
101–110 of 223 posts
Re: Why Young Men Go to War
#102I forgot who said it, but it went like this: "If people recognise the banality of war, there will be no more wars." Of course its not that simple, but we, I suppose especially us techie boys (us because I am one), think that an M1 Abrams tank, a F-15 airplane or a Sig Sauer rifle are, well, cool. We also think uniforms look good. And we dream of being heroes, especially when we are young. It is, of course, nonsense.…
No we need weapons to defend others. The USA and UK are in part two of the richest nations in the world because they are physically isolated from threats, we grew, and continue to grow, rich of trade with the rest of the world. The West has the capacity to be heroic and for a brief period at the turn of the millennium was actually doing that. Kosovo and Sierra Leone were examples of successful military intervention f…
"The recent Philippines disaster saw HMS Illustrious deliver all the spare rice in Singapore in a short space of time along with a number of helicopters as well as fit, motivated, organised and well led teams to assist in disaster relief."
Then you can have the same efficient result with a non-military organization. What's so special about them having guns?
Re: Why Young Men Go to War
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think that's an entirely accurate depiction, given the article. I believe this is strictly in a modern context, and given that every soldier, sailor, Marine, and airman is a volunteer, it misses the point. We can point at Cheney and Rumsfeld and Halliburton, but as the article states, this robs every service member of his or her agency. The reason every one of my friends from high school went to war is becaus…
If someone joins during a war, I agree, they are usually doing that of their own accord, modulo a few people who maybe felt they had no other economic/etc. choice. But that's not that many people, which is why the U.S. military started having recruiting problems after they launched the Iraq and Afghanistan wars: many people who had previously signed up now regretted it, and the supply of new volunteers dwindled. My o…
It's a pity that this cycle repeats itself so often. "The army is cool, they fight wars. My army won't fight but I'll still get to feel cool.". My dad fell into this trap too and got stuck going through a war. But ultimately it really is their own fault. They did agree to kill people if told to, and they did lock themselves into being unable to quit even if the situation changed. They also wanted to get the feeling of being associated with the other killers in the army, which they got. So I don't think signing up in a brief moment of peacetime excuses any soldiers of their immoral actions.
Re: Why Young Men Go to War
#104I forgot who said it, but it went like this: "If people recognise the banality of war, there will be no more wars." Of course its not that simple, but we, I suppose especially us techie boys (us because I am one), think that an M1 Abrams tank, a F-15 airplane or a Sig Sauer rifle are, well, cool. We also think uniforms look good. And we dream of being heroes, especially when we are young. It is, of course, nonsense.…
No we need weapons to defend others. The USA and UK are in part two of the richest nations in the world because they are physically isolated from threats, we grew, and continue to grow, rich of trade with the rest of the world. The West has the capacity to be heroic and for a brief period at the turn of the millennium was actually doing that. Kosovo and Sierra Leone were examples of successful military intervention f…
"Before that the first Gulf War was again a successful intervention."
Successful? You must be joking or only talk about US and UK side.
First Gulf war was a disaster. The US and UK invaded a country and asked the locals to support them, but then they went away. So Saddam took all the people that supported US and UK and simply killed them.
First GW only served one purpose, to claim hegemony of the US military on the war after the cold war and fall of the wall, that there was only one military ruler in the world.
But it was a disaster form an strategic point of view, killing all your supporters in one country, then killing the other side,thus creating a power vacuum as no educated elite is left, creating a failed state.
Remember that Saddam was a US ally and now we know he asked US what will happen if they invaded Kuwait. The US said it was none of their business. Of course it was.
Re: Why Young Men Go to War
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your second paragraph seems callous to me. Going to war for the sake of not wasting one's hard training, so to speak, is not moral. At least as I look at it. War is horrible and should be avoided at all costs. Sometimes it is justifiable and necessary. War should be a last resort. I wish society had alternate means of accomplishing your first paragraph without resort to the second.
It could be a callous viewpoint, but intent certainly matters. Just going to war to use your training is wholly callous. But take any of the recent genocides (Rwanda) or even ISIS - innocent people are unquestionably being killed. A soldier hears about this in the news, prepares every day to stop large forces like that, and instead is being asked to stand down. The media obviously plays a large role in shaping the pe…
Keep in mind that the average war kills as many civilians as it does combatants. War is not precise, despite what we are told. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualty_ratio
Re: Why Young Men Go to War
#106I forgot who said it, but it went like this: "If people recognise the banality of war, there will be no more wars." Of course its not that simple, but we, I suppose especially us techie boys (us because I am one), think that an M1 Abrams tank, a F-15 airplane or a Sig Sauer rifle are, well, cool. We also think uniforms look good. And we dream of being heroes, especially when we are young. It is, of course, nonsense.…
No we need weapons to defend others. The USA and UK are in part two of the richest nations in the world because they are physically isolated from threats, we grew, and continue to grow, rich of trade with the rest of the world. The West has the capacity to be heroic and for a brief period at the turn of the millennium was actually doing that. Kosovo and Sierra Leone were examples of successful military intervention f…
Well, you didn't seem so upbeat when your ex-allies practiced some 'nation building' on 9/11. Things don't look so heroic when happen in your own backyard, do they?
Re: Why Young Men Go to War
#107Re: Why Young Men Go to War
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are actually interesting parallels to Silicon Valley and startups for techies. It is "the place to be", "the place to prove yourself". The cosy safety net of corporate life leaves you with the naggging feeling that you're not quite as good as someone "hacking" at the startup. The notion isn't new, Shakespeare as usual sums it up: And gentlemen in England now-a-bed Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not h…
Not being a native speaker, I can't find a handle on this quote. Can anyone please explain in simpler words what Shakespeare meant?
"When you tell other men that you were at this battle, everyone will think you are cool, wish they had been here too and question their own manhood!"
Re: Why Young Men Go to War
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
The rejection is not in not wanting men to go to war, or in favouring any particular social order, but in denying innate sex differences. According to Junger, these theories are strongly rooted in academia, and particularly the social sciences. “I have friends who are anthropologists and primatologists and evolutionary psychologists … [who are under] an enormous amount of pressure to generate data that shows that all…
I have a (lefty) colleague who sincerely believes that testosterone does not significantly affect personality[0]. I understand that human history has been overwhelmingly male dominated, and that this has undesirable consequences and side effects. I think these effects and ideas should be counteracted "with prejudice"[1] to use a policing term. I don't think counteracting the horrible facts of the past should include…
The science is much less settled on the link between testosterone and personality than you think.
Some interesting discussion of it here: http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/cognoculture/testosteron...
It's hard to tease out what behaviour is culturally learnt and what is caused by innate biological differences. Folk wisdom about testosterone is just one example. The downside is that these "biotruths" are used as justification for discrimination.
Re: Why Young Men Go to War
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
The rejection is not in not wanting men to go to war, or in favouring any particular social order, but in denying innate sex differences. According to Junger, these theories are strongly rooted in academia, and particularly the social sciences. “I have friends who are anthropologists and primatologists and evolutionary psychologists … [who are under] an enormous amount of pressure to generate data that shows that all…
> “I have friends who are anthropologists and primatologists and evolutionary psychologists … [who are under] an enormous amount of pressure to generate data that shows that all gender differences are cultural.” You would think that, no matter what your goals for the roles of gender (or sex) in society are, you would achieve these goals best by deliberately seeking out and investigating the properties of the underlyi…
Are blacks less intelligent than whites? How many jews were really killed in the holocaust? These are absolutely not settled questions but what university will allow that kind of research? Who will publish it if the results support something that's illegal to publicly state? Even academics put their careers ahead of integrity when it would result in losing their career as well as being widely condemned.