"Culture of Violence" and the Drone War

[A Son of Liberty]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-11/guest-post-america-loves-drone-strikes

Lately, I've been developing a theory that the "culture", specifically movies, television and video games, does in fact desensitize and enable violence in society, at least among some segment of the population. But rather than the standard view that it is inuring people to gun violence and general mayhem among the population, I believe the actual and far more relevant consequence is that the general American public have become more desensitized and accepting of the US government's foreign policy tactics. Please note poll in the above referenced link. The American population is more accepting of drone strikes and the inevitable consequences than any other population on the planet, by a wide margin.

Aside from a general lack of regard for people who live in lands and cultures utterly foreign to the average American, which is certainly not unique to that population, I think the major cultural media has led to a belief that America is "in the right", and those who we attack are "logically", then, "in the wrong". Given this monochromatic perspective, I believe many also consider that those acting on behalf of the US government cannot be characterized as anything other than noble and heroic. Witness the reaction to Ron's "Kyle Tweet". If there is any acknowledgement of innocents killed, they're blithely cast aside as "collateral damage", and shouldn't have been keeping such close proximity with such "bad guys", to begin with (see Robert Gibbs' response to concern over the killing of the 16 year old al-Awlawki boy).

I think that many people actually believe that what they see portrayed on the movie screens and their television sets is an accurate or reasonably fair analog to what actually happens in the real world. Thus, even though the evidence is plain to see that when the dust settles after a drone strike, even on the off chance that a "terrorist" was killed (for the sake of argument, let's ignore for now why this particular person was a "terrorist"), it is highly likely that quite a few more will have bene spawned, as is described at the above link. But in the movie, those consequences are not shown, or are mitigated.

So, I do agree that the "culture of violence" leads to more violence; we're propagandized into supporting unconscienable acts in far-flung lands.

[Lucille]

I was just going to post that piece!

http://azizonomics.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/bc2a006caaebsj2.jpg?w=291&h=500


Lately, I've been developing a theory that the "culture", specifically movies, television and video games, does in fact desensitize and enable violence in society

It's right out of 1984!

Though I think if people saw the death and destruction on the news, and knew how many enemies these wars are creating, they wouldn't be so supportive. When the media stop self-censoring during the Vietnam war, public opinion turned. Too bad the press is more interested in covering Obama's ass than reporting WTF is really going on, eh?

But then again, maybe it's like Raimondo (http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2011/10/23/the-return-of-barbarism/) says; that imperialism has corrupted the soul of America and they're beyond moral repair.


Insulated by distance, and inured to “old-fashioned” concepts of right and wrong, Americans are largely indifferent to this evidence of advanced moral degeneration: after all, these things are happening in faraway places, not here in the good old US of A. It’s images on a television screen, or a computer screen: perhaps it is not real at all. They look at these images and turn away – not out of revulsion, but out of ennui. It’s just another day in the life of the American Empire.

Yet that empire is now embarking on a dangerous course, one that involves placing every American – and every Westerner – in mortal danger. In rampaging through the world, imposing “order” and “democracy” on nations that have never understood or experienced either concept, we are unleashing what will turn out to be a whirlwind – one that will surely once again visit our shores in the form of a terrorist act, or, more accurately, an act of retribution against the heedlessly arrogant policymakers who made us a target.
[...]
What both the administration and their sock-puppet pundits are counting on is the complete ignorance – and indifference – of the American public. And in that they are not likely to be disappointed.

[...] During the Vietnam war, the details of every development were on every American’s lips: today, I doubt whether one American in five could locate Afghanistan on a map.
[...]
How did this happen? We return to the link between virtue and rationality – and the nature of evil as inherently irrational. A President who can hail a death as brutal and bloody as Gadhafi’s, a Secretary of State who can shriek her appreciation of such a revolting spectacle – these are not marginal exceptions to the general rule. Instead, these responses are reflective of America’s inner cultural and political rot – an America that long ago betrayed the Founders, ditched realism, and is now the complete captive of a debilitating madness.

As the Obama administration outdoes its predecessor in its relentless pursuit of empire, what we are witnessing is the return of barbarism, open and unashamed. It is the culmination of a trend that has been long in the making, and one that will go unnoticed as long as it continues – because evil, after all, is blind to its own nature.

[Lucille]

I guess it doesn't help matters when stupid idiots like Feinstein lie about how many innocent people are begin slaughtered by the USG's drone wars.


Senator Dianne Feinstein claims (http://reason.com/24-7/2013/02/11/sen-feinstein-understates-deaths-due-to) civilian casualties in drone strikes by the U.S. number in the single digits annually.

[Lucille]

BEING MANIPULATED INTO LOVING YOUR SERVITUDE
http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=49071

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”
– Edward Bernays

[Brian4Liberty]

I was just going to post that piece!

http://azizonomics.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/bc2a006caaebsj2.jpg?w=291&h=500



Interesting. Note that India is the only other country where support outnumbers opposition. Considering that the drones have been mainly striking Pakistan, that makes sense. Killing enemies is good, collateral damage is justified by that "good intention".

[heavenlyboy34]

The OP has some good points. However, it seems to be more the fact that the horrifying acts of violence are occurring "over there". Out of sight, out of mind. Even the drone operators don't truly experience what they're doing. Some have even been quoted describing the experience as similar to playing a video game.

I remember all the public uproar about games and movies causing violence in the 80s and 90s. (The correlation was never proven to be causation though, AFAIK) However, even the perpetrators generally understood that what they did was horrifying.

ETA: The fact that pictures of the destruction caused by wanton violence regularly in the "war" zones aren't released very often doesn't help much.

[bolil]

I guess it doesn't help matters when stupid idiots like Feinstein lie about how many innocent people are begin slaughtered by the USG's drone wars.

Even if the claim were true, even if only one innocent person was killed by a drone strike, it would be too many,

[A Son of Liberty]

You know what? Here's Tom Woods, saying it better than I could:

http://mises.org/media/7367/What-War-Does

[Occam's Banana]

I think Führerprinzip (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BChrerprinzip) plays as much a role in these issues as anything else.

A perfect illustration of this can be found in an excellent Glenn Greenwald column from a couple of days ago:

FTA: DOJ kill list memo forces many Dems out of the closet as overtly unprincipled hacks (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/11/progressives-defend-obama-kill-list)

Beyond the inherent dangers of fealty to political leaders for partisan gain, this behavior has a substantial effect on the ability to fight radical government policies. Progressives often excuse Obama's embrace of these extremist Bush/Cheney terror policies on the ground that Americans support these policies and therefore he's constrained. But that claim reverses causation: it is true that politicians sometimes follow public opinion, but it's also true that public opinion often follows politicians.

In particular, whenever the two political parties agree on a policy, it is almost certain that public opinion will overwhelmingly support it. When Obama was first inaugurated in 2009, numerous polls (http://www.salon.com/2009/01/22/torture_12/) showed pluralities or even majorities in support (http://my.firedoglake.com/jimwhite/2009/02/12/huge-majority-favors-investigation-of-bush-policies-and-actions-gallup-spins-poll-headline/) of investigations into Bush-era criminal policies of torture and warrantless eavesdropping.That was because many Democrats believed Obama would pursue such investigations (because he led them to believe he would), but once he made clear he opposed those investigations, huge numbers of loyal Democrats followed their leader and joined Republicans in opposing them, thus creating majorities against them.

Obama didn't refrain from investigating Bush-era crimes because public opinion opposed that. The reverse was true: public opinion supported those investigations, and turned against them only once Obama announced he opposed them. We see this over and over: when Obama was in favor of closing Guantanamo and ending Bush-era terrorism policies, large percentages supported him (and even elected him as he advocated that), but then once he embraced those policies as his own, large majorities switched and began supporting them (http://www.salon.com/2012/02/08/repulsive_progressive_hypocrisy/).

Progressive willingness to acquiesce to or even outright support Obama's radical policies - in the name of partisan loyalty - is precisely what ensures the continuation of those policies. Obama gets away with all of this because so many progressives venerate leader loyalty and partisan gain above all else.

[Tinnuhana]

Firedoglake (Jane Hamshire's progressive website/group) weighs in on "kill list":


Tell Your Senator: No Memos, No Vote on Brennan


President Obama would rather succumb to Republican extortion than release the targeted killing memos to select members of Congress.

The New York Times reports that the Obama administration is working on a deal to give Senate Republicans on the Intelligence Committee more information on the Benghazi embassy attack in exchange for the confirmation of CIA Director John Brennan, without having to release the targeted killings memos to the committee first as he promised.1

This bargain will leave Congress in the dark about the President's so-called authority to execute anyone - including American citizens - without charge or trial. It will set back efforts to make the memos fully public and further obscure the most controversial executive program since torture and rendition under the Bush administration.

Please call your Senators today to strongly oppose CIA Director John Brennan's confirmation until President Obama provides all requested documents on the targeted killing program.

Click here for phone numbers and a script: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/sen-memo-call

The confirmation of John Brennan, whose career spans working on George W Bush's torture regime to being the 'architect' of Barack Obama's kill list, will be the product of a shadow effort to keep the targeted killing memos secret unless we speak up now.

President Obama has consistently promised to be more transparent. Working behind closed doors to appease Lindsey Graham in order to keep legal opinions on the President's supposed extrajudicial killing powers secret does not meld well with the administration's frequent claims of exceptional transparency.

It is the job of the Senate Intelligence Committee to oversee the intelligence community. The idea that any senator on that committee would vote to confirm John Brennan without seeing these memos is truly amazing. We must demand that these senators carry out this most basic charge.

Please call your Senators immediately to oppose the President's deal.

Call your Senators today to strongly oppose CIA Director John Brennan's confirmation until President Obama provides all requested documents on the targeted killing program.

In solidarity,

Brian Sonenstein
Campaign Director,
Firedoglake.com

Sources:
1. Obama to Give Information on Benghazi to Republicans to Avoid Sharing Drone Memos with Senators, Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter, 2/21/13.