Please, have a look at this and then tell me what it means to be a human being:
Seeing this left me in a state of shock. What do we do to each other? And with such an unbearable lightness… I guess it is the denial that makes this possible. The denial of humanness of other people. Evaluating them as some less worthy THINGS, downgrading people to mere numbers. Then it is possible to pull the trigger, I guess.
When you deny the fact that you are taking lives of individuals, not of numbers. Lives of individuals that have had their childhoods with all the ups and downs and dreams and sorrows. Individuals that are somebody’s brothers, mothers, sisters, fathers, sons, daughters. Individuals that are somebody’s best friends and lovers, individuals that love and feel and have the full lives and worlds.
Yes, individuals that have their full and only lives. Just the same as we have ours.
When we deny this beautiful life in them, then I guess it is possible to pull the trigger. Because you are just shooting some targets out there.
It’s as though the whole killing thing has been turned into a computer game. They aren’t people any more, just sprites and pixels.
I saw a very interesting movie tonight, called “The Battle for Haditha” and I recommend it to you. I found the movie (which for sure had some propaganda elements in it) a very poignant exploration of what goes on in Iraq.
Comment by razzbuffnik — April 18, 2010 @ 3:19 pm
Razz – yes, it is really like a computer game, where people are pressing some triggers miles away… I guess things would be different if the killers would have to do it as in the old ages, with knives, looking into the dying eyes and the vanishing life of a person they just killed.
Another movie – OK, I am writing it down on my too-see list. Thanks, mate.
Comment by Robert — May 3, 2010 @ 8:16 am