 |
"We are what we pretend to be,
so me must be
careful about what we pretend to be."
- Kurt Vonnegut
"Through many decades and many
wars, the U.S.
military has been honing its
training skills, learning to take a civilized
human being and turn him into a
killing machine. A traditional way of doing this
was to motivate the soldier to hate
the enemy and want to
kill him. After
World War II, this approach
was shaken by the Army's official
World War II historian,
Samuel Marshall, who in 1947 upset the entire
military
establishment with a slim book
called "Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command in Future War."
In this book, he claimed that in
World War II, at best one
in four combat soldiers ever fired
their weapon at the
enemy, and in most combat units only
about 15% of the available firepower was ever used. Recently, I was discussing
the Marshall book with two World War II veteran friends.
The one who had not been in combat found the report hard to
believe, but the other, who had served in
the infantry in Europe, said, "I had a machine gun. I never fired the thing."
"Why not?" the other asked. "If you fired it, they'd shoot back at you." Many
in the military challenged
Marshall's fmdings. But military
training became focused on how to improve what Marshall had called the "ratio
of fire." Starting with the Vietnam War, the ratio of fire
has greatly increased through training techniques that involve simulated combat
- so that the soldier acts without
thinking.
Soldiers today often will commit acts that
they regret and will be uncertain about why they did them. In a documentary
I saw recently, a confused American
soldier in
Iraq said he was not sure why
he had intentionally run over a woman and killed her; his only explanation was that he
had been trained to respond that way in
that situation." - Mark Kurlansky
From
its original conception as the
reproduction of
reality through
dance,
ritual, theater,
image, and writing, mimesis has thrived as an
aesthetic
concept, capturing the
perceptual and
representational powers of mimicry,
imitation, and metaphor.
The
linguistic roots of
mimesis go back to fifth century Greece, to mimos, whose many
derivatives convey a dramatic act of representation through
imitation. At the outset, mimesis
attracted philosophical criticism, as
one would expect from any powerful form of representation that
created
whole
imaginary
realities, that made one
thing into some
thing
other, even if it was done
through symbolic actions.
We
know best the figure of the
'mime' -one who depicts life ‘as it
is', but with a satirical twist: he or she 'fools'
people. As imitation mimesis emerged as a
fundamental
force in
human
development.
In a highly condensed, almost poetic fashion, Walter
Benjamin presented his case in the 1933 essay On the Mimetic Faculty,"
Language, play, mystery and
violence are evinced as mimetic
manifestations. Nature
creates similarities. One need only
think of mimicry. The highest capacity
for producing similarities, however, is man's. His gift of seeing resemblances is
nothing other than a rudiment
of the powerful compulsion in
former time to become and
behave like some
thing else. Perhaps there is none
of his higher functions in which his mimetic faculty does not play a decisive
role."
This character of mimesis, ranging in effects from
theatrical artifice to political
deception, came under
renewed scrutiny in the period
between the I and II World Wars when
modes of violence took an
aesthetic turn.
Walter
Benjamin, acutely aware that new
technologies were changing the
nature of
politics and that
social-cultural-ethical theory was not keeping pace said, "One may
say that the harshest, most disastrous aspects of imperialist war are the result of the gaping
discrepancy between the gigantic power of
technology and the minuscule
moral
illumination it affords."
This was most apparent in the marrying of new
technologies of
killing with
new technologies of representation;
radio,
film and the
popular
press.
In his highly influential essay, 'The Work of Art
in the Age of its Technical Reproducibility,' Walter Benjamin warns of the
evolution of
warfare into an
art
form.
War was becoming the deadliest exhibition
of art, in which
self-alienated
humans "enjoy their own
destruction as an
aesthetic pleasure of the highest
order".
This is the aesthetics
that the politics of
fascism manufactures.
This form
of realism is
in that it purports to be
realistic, yet takes no account of differing realities, whether they are culturally,
historically or virtually produced and
runs the risk of propagating unintended and potentially
consequences.
"The genuine liberation from an epoch that has the
structure of
awakening is entirely ruled by
wisdom. Only with
wisdom can we
work free of the realm of
dreams. There is a
false liberation from
dreams; its
sign is violence." Walter Benjamin wrote, "A ‘social problem' such as an influx of refugees
can escalate into a ‘security
issue' and a
whole group of people can become
a ‘problem' leading to
violent final solutions. These
dreams, described as
reality, have become a shortcut to the
banality that starts
wars. No longer do these
dreams reveal an
eternally blue
horizon."
Literary
theorist Rene Girard looked at mimesis in
an anthropological light and investigated
how every desire is
desire for that which the ‘other' also
desires, which, unmediated,
inevitably leads to hatred, rivalry and violence.
Walter Benjamin's and Rene
Girard's study of mimesis gives considerable
philosophical depth to the
idea that we are prepped for
war from an early age.
We are left with all-too-real effects of virtual
violence: representations can
kill.
Opinion: It is realistic to
expect nations and
tribes to
war with one
another.
This version or
form of 'reality' treats
human nature as
immutable, unchangeable and
solidifies conceptual constructs of the
‘reality' of previously
experienced
historical ‘snapshots' of ‘reality' which may or may not be valid here
and now.
This form of
'reality' requires an
expression of the will born out of
resentment, fear,
terror and a need to
control or to isolate the ‘other'. It has a long intimate
history with
violence and requires us get up close to the
virtual representation, preparation, and execution of
war.
In
the realm of diplomatic and strategic
theory, this version of 'reality' creates a fluctuation of
appearances, at one moment fleeing
into the ideal of a "democratic peace" underwritten by an expanding
neoliberal
global order, and at the next, retreating into
a "fortress America" protected by a
ballistic missile defense.
The appropriation of the video game
Doom by the Marine Corps
was significant . Usually the technology transfer goes in the
other direction, with
military applications leading the
way in
research and
development, from the earliest
incarnations of the computer in simulation projects like "Whirlwind" at MIT's
Servomechanisms Laboratory during World War II, to "SAGE," the first centralized
air defense
system of the cold
war.
(1)
We could say there has
been from the very first a close "link" between
military simulations, the
development of the computer,
and the entertainment
industry.
In 1931 the
navy purchased the first aircraft simulator
from its designer, Edward Link. By 1932, the
military still had only one
Link Trainer; the amusement parks had
bought close to fifty.
Now the
developmental lag between the
real
thing and its simulation has just
about disappeared. From the F-16 to the
F-117 A, the
MIA2 tank to the
Bradley armored vehicle, the
Aegis cruiser to the latest
nuclear
aircraft carrier, the
video-game version arrives on the shelves
almost as soon as the weapon
system first appears. Indeed, a Pentium
chip and a joy-stick will get you into the Comanche helicopter, the
F-22, and the newest
Seawolf SSN-21 submarine.
I/ITSEC
2000: Highly visible-and offering the best food and drink at its reception -
was "The Solution Group," a consortium
of close to twenty industries formed
by Paradigm Simulation in 1994 to integrate product,
services, and support for
the simulation consumer.
Judging from current trends, one could
imagine two, maybe three enormous
booths filling the hall at I/ITSEC 2001: if you're not part of the
Solution, you're part of
Lockheed Martin
Raytheon or
Boeing
Northrop Grumman.
And even if there are no more enemies in sight by
the year 2001, one could surmise that there would still be a 'Solution' in search of a
problem. Niche synergy
was another
way to go. One member of the
Solution Group was leading the
way, infiltrating the
military-industrial-entertainment nexus by
creating an ever-expanding database of hyperreal, real-time 3-D simulations.
Viewpoint DataLabs might not have high name recognition, but anyone who has viewed,
over the last few years, an advertisement, a
television show, a hit
movie, or a
video game with computer-generated
graphics has probably sampled
Viewpoint's product. Their booth's
promotional video was riveting and revealing, for the eclecticism of the
content as well as the monotony of the style.
The promotional video
opens with the memorable scene of the alien fighters swarming the
F-18's in Independence Day, which buzz-cuts into a
pair of attacking mosquitoes in a Cutter Insect Repellent
advertisement, then to
spaceships attacking in Star Trek Voyager, followed by some
requisite mega-explosions, a
simulation of a missile launch from two helicopters, the dropping of a fuel-air
dispersal bomb from
Outbreak, and a trio of
Eurofighter 2000s doing maneuvers that
are aerodynamically impossible.
Ethical inquiry into the
relationship of this
form of 'reality' to organized
violence begins with an inquiry into
rationality of the necessity of, or need
for, government sanctioned
violence.
European philosophers,
Friedrich Nietzsche, and
American
philosophers,
Henry David Thoreau and
Ralph Waldo Emerson, are valuable in
understanding this
version of 'reality' because they
provide a philosophical
perspective that
links public
space with responsive as well as
responsible
private choices.
Modern philosophers have not
kept up with the avant-garde of the war
machine, which is continually at
work to
define the
ethics and
politics of state-sanctioned
killing and
patriotic dying. In spite of
the call for new world orders,
declarations of
democratic peace and celebrations of
globalization,
war continues to be the
rule of this
corrupted
form of
reality.
-adapted from James Der
Derian, Virtous War
"Maybe the only way to break through this paralysis
of analysis would be to stop talking
about weapons exports as a trade
at all. Maybe we shouldn't be using economic
language to describe it. Yes, the weapons industry has associations, lobby
groups, and trade shows. They have the same tri-fold exhibits, scale models,
and picked-over buffets as any other industry; still, maybe we have to stop
thinking about the
export of fighter planes and
precision-guided missiles as if they were so many widgets and start
thinking about them in another language
entirely - the language of drugs.
After
all, what does a drug dealer do? A
drug dealer
creates a need and then fills it. A
drug dealer encourages an appetite or
(even more lucratively) an addiction and then feeds it.
Arms dealers do the same thing.
Arms dealers suggest to
foreign officials that their military just might need a slight
upgrade. After all, arms dealers
point out, haven't you noticed that your neighbor just upgraded in jets,
submarines, and tanks? And didn't you guys fight a
war a few years back? Doesn't that make
you feel
insecure? And why
feel
insecure for another
moment when, for just a
few billion bucks, we'll get you
suited up with the latest model military… even better than what we
sold them - or you the last time around." - Frida
Berrigan
"Without
the media, without
television, the Lebanese
war or the Yugoslavian
war wouldn't have happened. The trigger
of the operations of the civil
war was linked to the
media, to those who
controlled
television, to their
crime inducing role, to their
ability to provoke and start a war."
-Paul Virilio
"Americans have,
for the most part, been exempt from the genuine
tragedy of
war and, as a
consequence, appear more ready to
accept myths about war. Modern
Americans have never endured the
reality against which
other nations readily measure
the cost of combat. And this makes us a very
people." -Richard A. Gabriel
"War is only a cowardly escape
from the problems of
peace." - Thomas
Mann
"What experience and
history teach is this -
that
nations and governments have never learned
any thing from
history
or acted upon any lessons
they might have drawn from it." - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
"War is nothing but a continuation of
politics by
other means." - Carl von
Clausewitz
"Bombs do not choose.
They will hit everything." - Nikita Khrushchev |
|
back to stacks
contents
 |
This web site is not a commercial web site and
is presented for educational purposes only.
This website defines a new religious
ideology to which its author adheres. The author feels that the falsification
of reality outside personal experience has created a populace unable to discern
propaganda from reality and that this has been done purposefully by an
international corporate cartel through their agents who wish to foist a corrupt
version of reality on the human race. Religious intolerance occurs when any
group refuses to tolerate religious practices, religious beliefs or persons due
to their religious ideology. This web site marks the founding of the religion
aptly named The Truth of the Way of Life - a rational religion based on reason
which requires no leap of faith, accepts no tithes, has no supreme leader, no
church buildings and in which each and every individual is encouraged to
develop a personal relation with God through the pursuit of the knowledge of
reality in the hope of curing the spiritual corruption that has enveloped the
human spirit. The tenets of The Truth of the Way of Life are spelled out in
detail on this web site by the author. Violent acts against individuals due to
their religious beliefs in America is considered a “hate
crime.”
This web site in no way condones violence. To the contrary
the intent here is to reduce the violence that is already occurring due to the
international corporate cartels desire to control the human race. The
international corporate cartel already controls the world central banking
system, mass media worldwide, the industrial military complex of America and is
responsible for the collapse of morals, the elevation of self-centered behavior
and the destruction of global ecosystems. Civilization is based on cooperation.
Cooperation does not occur at the point of a gun.
American social mores
and values have declined precipitously over the last century as the corrupt
international cartel has garnered more and more power. This power rests in the
ability to deceive the populace in general through mass media by pressing
emotional buttons which have been preprogrammed into the population through
prior mass media psychological operations. The results have been the
destruction of the family and the destruction of social structures that do not
adhere to the corrupt international elites vision of a perfect world. Through
distraction and coercion the direction of thought of the bulk of the population
has been directed toward solutions proposed by the corrupt international elite
that further consolidates their power and which further their purposes.
All views and opinions presented on this web site are the views and
opinions of individual human men and women that, through their writings, showed
the capacity for intelligent, reasonable, rational, insightful and unpopular
thought. All factual information presented on this web site is believed to be
true and accurate and is presented as originally presented in print media which
may or may not have originally presented the facts truthfully. Opinion and
thoughts have been adapted, edited, corrected, redacted, combined, added to,
re-edited and re-corrected as nearly all opinion and thought has been
throughout time but has been done so in the spirit of the original writer with
the intent of making his or her thoughts and opinions clearer and relevant to
the reader in the present time.
Fair Use Notice
This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has
not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making
such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of criminal
justice, human rights, political, economic, democratic,
scientific, and social justice
issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted
material as provided for in section 107 of the United States Copyright Law. In
accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is
distributed without profit to those
who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for
research and educational purposes.
For more information see: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish
to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go
beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
|
 Copyright
© Lawrence Turner
All Rights Reserved
|