Monday, March 08, 2004
The Truth About Killing is a fascinating program about studies from wars about the lack of ability of men to kill other men, even in the midst of war. A lot of men assume that 'if they were forced to' they could kill someone else but evidence doesn't seem to bare this out. The presenter takes part in a war game and, tired in the middle of the night, finds he's terrified. Some scientists, including ex-soldiers, suggest that when fear shuts down the rational forebrain, the supposed animal backbrain is not the bit of the brain that helps fighting. They think that to kill someone needs the rational forebrain, rely on the backbrain and all you're going to get is the posturing of apes struggling over who is the domnant Alpha Male. Hand to hand soldiers have a lower success rate in managing to kill someone than those that didn't have to see the people they were fighting, the people fighting bombing planes, firing line squads who didn't have to see the faces of the people they killed.
Food for thought after watching Saving Private Ryan last night. Overlong but any film where Vin Diesel gets killed in the first hour are fine by me, though I was sorry to see Giovanni Ribisi buy it in hour two. Certainly miles better than Windtalkers which I saw a couple of years ago and is shit in all it's forms.
The second part of The Truth About Killing next week is about what the military has done to make soldiers more able to kill.
Food for thought after watching Saving Private Ryan last night. Overlong but any film where Vin Diesel gets killed in the first hour are fine by me, though I was sorry to see Giovanni Ribisi buy it in hour two. Certainly miles better than Windtalkers which I saw a couple of years ago and is shit in all it's forms.
The second part of The Truth About Killing next week is about what the military has done to make soldiers more able to kill.
