Quote:
Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski
100,000 years ago we needed to kill other tribes people. Coltrane argues that 3,000,000 years of walking upright isn't enough to fix our spines. How could so many fewer years create an aversion?
|
Of course it creates an aversion -- that's what civilization does. 100 years ago it was very normal here to hate anyone not from your "tribe," now most of us (everyone here) have a strong aversion to racism and racist thoughts. 200 years ago, it was natural to think women inferior, to beat your wife, beat your children, etc. Now, civilized people have an aversion.
With soldiers -- particularly those whose job is to kill, not to guard or lay down cover fire or whatever, and especially to kill people they can see (meaning, for example, a sniper vs a bomber pilot) -- we get them to cross that line that civilization has created. For some it's easy, they are killers -- but I suspect that those people are actually pretty shitty at the job, because they don't have to think very much before pulling the trigger. For others, it's harder, and they need to have justifications (I'm protecting my men, mine is the greatest country in the world, they are evil, etc.)
And then, we ask them to come back.
