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Don't be ashamed, war's a game
Aug. 24th, 2005 03:37 pmYesterday, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bethje and I went out to eat at Pizzeria Uno. I had a deep dish Chicago Classic pizza. It was good, but I think there was a bit too much sausage on it. I mean, I like sausage (pizza sausage, anyway; I'm not generally so fond of sausage patties, although some of them are all right), but this might have been too much of a good thing.
After dinner, we went to pick up Beth's copy of Nintendogs, and then came back to her house. There was a new episode of Stella, which was quite funny. After that was over, we watched Wes Craven's New Nightmare, the only installment in the Nightmare on Elm Street series that I hadn't seen yet. In case you don't know, this is the one where Freddy Krueger tries to come into the real world, and Wes Craven, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, and Robert Englund all play themselves. It was an interesting idea, but it struck me as kind of confusing, and it didn't entirely seem like Wes knew exactly where he wanted to go with it.
Incidentally, a disturbing trend that Beth and I were discussing last night was that of seeing significant issues from a football game mentality. We watched a few minutes of Bill O'Reilly, and he said something about how it's significant for the Republicans that they win in 2006. The way he said it implied that it doesn't really matter who's elected, as long as they're Republicans. It's like the leadership of our country is a game, and what team wins matters more than the individuals who are actually going to hold important offices. I mean, the party is significant in a way. I usually don't vote for Republicans, because I disagree with many (perhaps even most) of their party principles. If a lousy candidate wins, though, the problem isn't that he (or she) is from the wrong "team," but the possible harm that they can do to the country in general, and to particular people. What's even more disturbing is when people carry over this "team" mentality to war. Something Beth brought up was how, when there's a major defeat for "our side," some people aren't concerned about the fact that people died, but simply see it as a setback that they'll make up in the next quarter, so to speak. Honestly, I kind of think the team mentality is silly even when applied to actual sports ("This team is based in the city that's close to where I happen to live! I'd better support them!"), but it's just a game in that situation, and if it's fun for some people, that's cool. But a country isn't a sports team, and war isn't the NFL playoffs.
I think the larger point here is that seeing the group as more important than the individuals within it is a dangerous attitude. Is a country important? Yes, but only insofar as it helps the people living in it, because that's supposed to be the whole POINT of the nation-state system. I think some nationalists lose sight of that. This can also apply to political parties, companies, and other groups of people that some members start seeing as more important than the people themselves.
( The Random Question Meme! )
bethje and I went out to eat at Pizzeria Uno. I had a deep dish Chicago Classic pizza. It was good, but I think there was a bit too much sausage on it. I mean, I like sausage (pizza sausage, anyway; I'm not generally so fond of sausage patties, although some of them are all right), but this might have been too much of a good thing.After dinner, we went to pick up Beth's copy of Nintendogs, and then came back to her house. There was a new episode of Stella, which was quite funny. After that was over, we watched Wes Craven's New Nightmare, the only installment in the Nightmare on Elm Street series that I hadn't seen yet. In case you don't know, this is the one where Freddy Krueger tries to come into the real world, and Wes Craven, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, and Robert Englund all play themselves. It was an interesting idea, but it struck me as kind of confusing, and it didn't entirely seem like Wes knew exactly where he wanted to go with it.
Incidentally, a disturbing trend that Beth and I were discussing last night was that of seeing significant issues from a football game mentality. We watched a few minutes of Bill O'Reilly, and he said something about how it's significant for the Republicans that they win in 2006. The way he said it implied that it doesn't really matter who's elected, as long as they're Republicans. It's like the leadership of our country is a game, and what team wins matters more than the individuals who are actually going to hold important offices. I mean, the party is significant in a way. I usually don't vote for Republicans, because I disagree with many (perhaps even most) of their party principles. If a lousy candidate wins, though, the problem isn't that he (or she) is from the wrong "team," but the possible harm that they can do to the country in general, and to particular people. What's even more disturbing is when people carry over this "team" mentality to war. Something Beth brought up was how, when there's a major defeat for "our side," some people aren't concerned about the fact that people died, but simply see it as a setback that they'll make up in the next quarter, so to speak. Honestly, I kind of think the team mentality is silly even when applied to actual sports ("This team is based in the city that's close to where I happen to live! I'd better support them!"), but it's just a game in that situation, and if it's fun for some people, that's cool. But a country isn't a sports team, and war isn't the NFL playoffs.
I think the larger point here is that seeing the group as more important than the individuals within it is a dangerous attitude. Is a country important? Yes, but only insofar as it helps the people living in it, because that's supposed to be the whole POINT of the nation-state system. I think some nationalists lose sight of that. This can also apply to political parties, companies, and other groups of people that some members start seeing as more important than the people themselves.
( The Random Question Meme! )
