| From: | Gurth gurth@******.nl |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Spirits of War |
| Date: | Thu, 15 Jul 1999 19:44:53 +0200 |
the street was...
> >honorably. What has made modern wars much more horrific is the de-
> >personalization of the whole affair.
>
> No argueement. I'd much rather get tagged by a long range rifle man that
> has to SEE me and concously choose to remove my life than get a couple
> hundred pounds of high explosives dropped in my face by some shmuck at 40K
> who is cruising along at a high fraction of the speed of sound.
I don't think that makes all that much of a difference in a protracted
war, in the end (and I don't just mean that as "you're dead either way").
> I think that this is going to come down to a difference of interpretation.
It certainly looks like it.
> I see the Spirits of Man in SR to be the embodiments of idealised aspects
> of man's nature. Conflict is a large part of man's nature.
No argument there.
> There are honorable reasons to go to war. These IDEALS are what form the
> normal forms of a War Spirit (perhaps it should be named a Spirit of
> Defense, but I don't stoop to political correctness). The way that I would
> have one act is tired, sad and generally wishing it could be someplace
> else, and it ask you if you were really sure the situation had come to a
> point were violence was the only way. The cost toraising one would include
> nightmares, and an odd, haunted, gutted feeling that lasts for a long time.
This is contradictory, if you look at it. First you say "I see the Spirits
of Man in SR to be the embodiments of idealised aspects of man's nature."
and then you would have the spirit act in a way that goes against that.
Idealized warfare is Good vs. Evil, or in other words Us vs. Them -- with
the Good/Us coming out on top because We're the Righteous Ones. In short,
the attitude many people have toward a war when it's just beginning (and
not just in "unenlightened" countries, either). A spirit if war would be
following that idealized view of warfare, IMHO.
--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Cooking with the devil, frying down in hell.
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