The US Military and the Myth that Humanity is Predisposed to Violence

[eridani]

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/09/09/us-military-and-myth-humanity-predisposed-violence

How does this relate to war? If we believe that violence among humans is natural, we will believe that war is inevitable.

But violence is not natural. Our conscience tells us killing another human being is wrong. And it is the military that knows this better than anyone.

The military has taken notice that, over time, and through the history of war, the vast majority of individuals refuse to shoot to kill. That means, instead of firing directly at an “enemy,” soldiers (used here to cover all members of the Armed Forces: soldiers, Marines, airmen and women, and sailors) would fire their weapons away from their “targets,” or pretend to shoot. One investigation found -- and these studies have been replicated -- that in World War I only about 5% of people shot to kill; in World War II, about 15% of people shot to kill. By the US war in Vietnam, the rate at which soldiers were shooting to kill was found to be 90%. Today, that number could be even higher.

What happened? Training evolved to meet the military's goals.

There is a science of teaching soldiers to kill and it is called killology. It is the science of circumventing the conscience.

In order to get an otherwise psychologically healthy individual to kill, US military training has been developed to bypass the conscience and have the act of killing – the act of firing one’s weapon with the intent to kill -- become reflexive.

Our conscience knows that taking another human life is wrong. We don't want to do it; we know that it is the worst possible thing we could do. So the training has been developed to teach a soldier to kill without thinking, without filtering through the conscience.

[Juicy_Bellows]

1. We, as a species, are incredibly violent but we franchise it out.

You and I are mostly clean but as a species we share that common trait, we farm out death in spades.

Perhaps Al and the gang can better explain my point -

They get you ready to fight
The fuse is ready to blow
You shoot to kill on sight
They call you G.I Joe
You never wanted to stop
The smell of burning flesh
The hero marches alone
Across the highway of death

It's not a matter of rights
It's just a matter of war
Don't have a reason to fight
They never had one before
You're just a killing machine
He's come to take you down
We take the gas that we need
And pump the blood on the ground

They're gonna set you up
So they can take you down
They're gonna suck you dry
They've left the blood to be found
They're gonna rip you apart
You're gonna burn at the stake
Cause when it's time to collect
It's only heroes who pay

[brer cat]

2. Very moving words, Juicy_Bellows.

Thank you for adding to the thread.

[Juicy_Bellows]

3. Gracias brer cat - I appreciate it. nt.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

4. This may come as a shock to the author but --

Every culture everywhere had practiced violence. For thousands of years before the US was even an idea and in places where the US has no influence. Much of that violence is shocking to us by the nature of its depravity but to those engaging in it it is as natural to them as morning coffee is to us.

[eridani]

5. It's one thing to get pissed off at someone and strike out at them--

--but quite another to get people to participate in organized bureaucratic violence. Otherwise special training in the military to get people to shoot to kill would not be necessary.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

7. I'm an anarchist because I'm well aware of the breadth of systematic, organized violence.

But plenty of societies have managed to perpetrate rampages without having to indoctrinate its participants. Some societies are even predisposed to lashing out in fairly heinous ways. Consider Imperial Japan. They didn't require schooling to commit atrocities just a perception others were inferior. ISIS has no school for its crimes, just their rabid imaginations. Some primitive tribes have rape as an institutionalized part of their conduct towards other tribes.

Yes, basic military training contains an aggression aspect but what would a reasonable person expect? But its simply untrue to suggest American recruits are having their minds turned inside out to become unfeeling killers. First, American society is not like that and the article admits as much. Second, discipline is more highly prized than savagery.

[Lee-Lee]

6. The author assumes all people and cultured are the same

And presumably all just like her.

That's where she fails.

There are plenty of people with no qualms about killing in this world. There are cultures where killing is the norm for settling disputes.

All the horrific crimes you hear about as well as many that never make the news are people without those qualms or reservations. Movements like ISIS are the result of entire cultures that think that way.

Yes, the military in a western nation like the US has to train good people to be willing to kill when the need arises- because of the basic fact that they are GOOD people with a conscience and a cultural background that goes against killing.

The evil people in the world don't need that kind of conditioning because either their brain isn't wired like that or culturally they were not conditioned like that. That a huge distinction, and one the author failed to comprehend when she halfway studied the issue.