TimmyBoy
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I would like to quote author Chris Hedges from his book "War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning." Here is the quoted text from his book:
"The young are drawn to those who wield violence and power. Why study to be a doctor or a lawyer when such academic toil was not rewarded, indeed often considered worthless? Why uphold a common morality, including hard work, when the outcome was destitution? Why have any personal or moral standards when these standards were irrelevant?
The killers and warlords became the object of sexual fantasy. The paramilitary leader Zeljko Raznatovic, known as Arkan, was, according to Serbian opinion polls, one of the most desired men in the country.
War turned Belgrade, along witth every other capital caught up in the conflict, into Caligula's Rome. There was a moral lassitude in the air, bred of hopelessness and apathy. The city's best known gangsters, sometimes in the company of Milosevic's son Marko, who threatened bar patrons with automatic weapons, cruised the streets in BMWs and Mercedes. They filled the nightclubs of Belgrade, dressed in their expensive black Italian suits and leather jackets....
War breaks down long-established prohibitions against violence, destruction and murder. And with this often comes the crumbling of sexual, social and political norms as the domination and brutality of the battlefield is carried into personal life. Rape, mutilation, abuse and theft are the natural outcome of a world in which force rules, in which human beings are objects. The infection is pervasive. Society in wartime becomes atomized. It rewards personal survival skills and very often leaves those with decency and compassion trampled under the rush. The pride one feels in life devoted to the nation or to an institution or a career or an ideal is often replaced by shame and guilt. Those who have lived upright, socially productive lives are punished for their gullibility in the new social order."
This sort of passage from his book is a good reason why we as Americans should learn about what happenned in the Former Yugoslavia. The common question many Americans pose is why should we care or learn about what happenned in a country half a world away? The answer to this question is simple, because by learning about what happenned during the violent break-up of Yugoslavia, we learn alot about ourselves.
"The young are drawn to those who wield violence and power. Why study to be a doctor or a lawyer when such academic toil was not rewarded, indeed often considered worthless? Why uphold a common morality, including hard work, when the outcome was destitution? Why have any personal or moral standards when these standards were irrelevant?
The killers and warlords became the object of sexual fantasy. The paramilitary leader Zeljko Raznatovic, known as Arkan, was, according to Serbian opinion polls, one of the most desired men in the country.
War turned Belgrade, along witth every other capital caught up in the conflict, into Caligula's Rome. There was a moral lassitude in the air, bred of hopelessness and apathy. The city's best known gangsters, sometimes in the company of Milosevic's son Marko, who threatened bar patrons with automatic weapons, cruised the streets in BMWs and Mercedes. They filled the nightclubs of Belgrade, dressed in their expensive black Italian suits and leather jackets....
War breaks down long-established prohibitions against violence, destruction and murder. And with this often comes the crumbling of sexual, social and political norms as the domination and brutality of the battlefield is carried into personal life. Rape, mutilation, abuse and theft are the natural outcome of a world in which force rules, in which human beings are objects. The infection is pervasive. Society in wartime becomes atomized. It rewards personal survival skills and very often leaves those with decency and compassion trampled under the rush. The pride one feels in life devoted to the nation or to an institution or a career or an ideal is often replaced by shame and guilt. Those who have lived upright, socially productive lives are punished for their gullibility in the new social order."
This sort of passage from his book is a good reason why we as Americans should learn about what happenned in the Former Yugoslavia. The common question many Americans pose is why should we care or learn about what happenned in a country half a world away? The answer to this question is simple, because by learning about what happenned during the violent break-up of Yugoslavia, we learn alot about ourselves.