Read main thread: A cult of death?
January 23rd, 2006  
Missileer
Nuclear Duck Hunter
 
 
Gear

Quote:
Originally Posted by Insight
The primary purpose of any military service is to employ violence to compell action, even if that means taking of human life.
What about defending one's nation, way of life, or property from those who would destroy it?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Insight
Despite our ability to wrap these actions in the cloak of patriotism, service, and honor, doesn't it merely cover up what is in essence a cult of death?
I don't buy the statement that we choose to claim patriosm or honor for a reason to go to war. I still believe it is a reaction to imminent danger. People choose to join cults. The inherent fight or flight in the face of danger triggers self preservation mode.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Insight
We celebrate our ability to kill and destroy. We make heros out of those who kill better and braver than the rest. Can society truley be enlightened as long as we continue to celebrate the destruction of
human life and human endevour? How do we rise above it?
I don't believe we, or anyone for that matter, celebrate killing and destroying. On the contrary, we celebrate the fact that a conflict ends and the killing stops. We celebrate the fact that our kids come home safe and that they chose to go in harm's way to defend their loved ones.

How do you know human kind can ever rise to a higher plane where there is no malice toward no one? Maybe that enlightenment doesn't exist and never will. If eternal peace on earth was a plan by a higher power or just human evolution, there would never be a Cain and Able impulse in us.
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“War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.”
—John Stuart Mill
 
 
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