What kind of upbringing allows the creation of human beings who are capable OF THIS or OF THIS??
Are all of us capable of behaving this way under the "right" circumstances? Does the fact that so many Germans were complicit in the Holocaust suggest that this is true?
All I know is that I want to raise my children to stand up bravely and, if necessary, be willing to risk their personal well-being for justice, peace and human rights at home and around the world.
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I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.
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2006
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May
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6 comments:
The Marine story is an example of what happens in war. People who might otherwise never do this are pushed to the extremes of human nature and act accordingly. It's not an excuse for their behavior.
Which is why we as a country should never send our troops into a war without a clear reason why, a clear objective, and a clear conclusion. All of which the Bush adminstration did not have or still does not have.
Interesting that men who have actually been to war (like John Kerry) are much slower to send others into battle.
People will do all kinds of bad things if someone they believe is an 'authority' tells them so.
Remember the 'shock' studies where a guy in a lab coat that made him look like a doctor persuaded people to deliver ever-increasing shocks to other subjects for giving 'wrong' responses? Most people kept going until they knew they were 'hurting' the other person significantly (who wasn't really being hurt, by the way.)
Same with soldiers. In the absence of an officer, many of them won't kill. They have to be persuaded by authority figures that it is the right thing to do.
so, when your parents, your culture, your commander, your teacher, tells you that some people are not worthy of being treated as humans, you will do bad things to them. You will tolerate bad things being done to them by others without interfering, too. It hasn't been too long ago that women were not considered fully 'human' as men in society(still the case apparently in the Congo and in many homes in the US). So it was OK for men to beat their women or to see a man beat his wife and not interfere because she wasn't as much of a 'person' as he was. Same with kids. No one used to interfere when people beat their kids.
A good thing to teach kids is 'question authority.' It's annoying as hell when they're little and they ask 'why should I' all the time but it pays off when they're older.
All of us adults need to practice it, too. "Who says?" Who says it's OK for the homeless to sleep under the bridge? A society that says if you got there it's your fault and you aren't as much of a citizen as the rest of us, for example.
This is not a question of questioning authority. It's a matter of an ordinary human being walking the streets of death day by day, seeing his bosom buddies blown to smithereens every day by assassins mingling with the population, shielded by civilian sympathizers, and when your buddy is blown to bits beside you, you automatically lash back at all around the bomber. The airman has it easier. He can drop his bombs on the town, killing thousands of women and children, but that's different. He's protected by "collateral damage". No weeping and wailing of the press. Where were they when Saddam was torturing and maiming tens of thousands of men, women and children. Not one peep. I don't heard any loud outcry when day after day Palestinians blow up busloads of children and women, blow up restaurants filled with women and children all over Israel.
But don't be a hypocrite. You know it's indirectly driven by hatred for George Bush, not great concern for the Iraqis.
Yes, Virginia I think most people are capable of those kids of atrocities. I highly recommend the Hannah Arendt book, "Eichmann in Jerusalem: The Banality of Evil" to get some idea of how it evolves. So much of the time when we're raising our kids we're training them to get along...give in...work out a compromise. But in order to help prevent my kids from ending up as an atrocity creator or victim, I'm trying to find a balance between being a good group citizen and being a moral individual. If I have to choose, I'd choose the latter as what I would want for my kids.
But the women and children who are being raped and killed by these soldiers AREN'T blowing anyone to bits, nor are they sympathetic civilians to anyone. This is a different situation than the one you are referring to. The situation we are talking about here is one where some groups of people are being considered as 'less than human' so they are fair game for whatever atrocity you can think up.
Sure, cops and soldiers get worn down and have trouble identifying who is my enemy? and they are driven to do things like shoot a kid 'cause he might be a bomber. We saw it in Vietnam and we're seeing it now. But do they rape and torture a kid? NO!
I don't like his policies, but I don't hate Bush. He's a person just like me and dehumanizing him would be doing the same thing I'm against.
Really amazing! Useful information. All the best.
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