Unfortunately, things are not really well - which is the reason you haven't heard from me in a while: My body doesn't do as my mind wishes (another evidence that Hegel is wrong and Marx is right! Matter over mind. ;-)).
I'm off to the hospital in a few days again (this off/on is going on now for several months) for the final decision medical therapy vs. surgery.
On your point considering the military story lines: It IS difficult. When the military is "your" military, then we brush away their wrongdoings. If it is the military of "the enemy", then, well, they ARE the "evil ones".
Bertholt Brecht once wrote a short piece about soldiers:
The war was over and the soldier returned home. He had no bread and was hungry. He saw a baker who had bread and he wanted some. The baker said: Give me money. The soldier had no money. He shot the baker and took the bread. The judge said to the soldier: Thou shalt not kill! And the soldier asked: Why?
I really like that piece because it sums up a lot. War is the man-made scourge for mankind, and soldiers are part of that. On the other hand - self defense. So - complicated.
(IMO, the only depiction of soldiers, armies and war which is rather near the truth comes from people who despise war - even if they think it is inevitable. Stanley Kubrick made three films which come near the complicated situation, then there are a lot of very, very good movies about war, soldiers and armies from the post-war soviet cinema. But then, these pieces of art all concentrate on this dilemma. In a TV series about body integrity and ownership and identity of one's self i think the complicated matter of warfare and its participants cannot be explored to the fullest - at least not in the typical 40 minutes, 10 episodes format we are given.)
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2014-06-27 06:19 am (UTC)I'm off to the hospital in a few days again (this off/on is going on now for several months) for the final decision medical therapy vs. surgery.
On your point considering the military story lines: It IS difficult. When the military is "your" military, then we brush away their wrongdoings. If it is the military of "the enemy", then, well, they ARE the "evil ones".
Bertholt Brecht once wrote a short piece about soldiers:
The war was over and the soldier returned home.
He had no bread and was hungry.
He saw a baker who had bread and he wanted some.
The baker said: Give me money.
The soldier had no money.
He shot the baker and took the bread.
The judge said to the soldier:
Thou shalt not kill!
And the soldier asked:
Why?
I really like that piece because it sums up a lot. War is the man-made scourge for mankind, and soldiers are part of that. On the other hand - self defense. So - complicated.
(IMO, the only depiction of soldiers, armies and war which is rather near the truth comes from people who despise war - even if they think it is inevitable. Stanley Kubrick made three films which come near the complicated situation, then there are a lot of very, very good movies about war, soldiers and armies from the post-war soviet cinema. But then, these pieces of art all concentrate on this dilemma. In a TV series about body integrity and ownership and identity of one's self i think the complicated matter of warfare and its participants cannot be explored to the fullest - at least not in the typical 40 minutes, 10 episodes format we are given.)