20170416 War may not go away

To my mind war is the last societally approved outlet for the release of that immense human rage accumulating in us with each denial, insult, deprivation, and offense. We had to learn to suppress that whole-body response instinctive in an infant’s reaction to hunger and other basic needs. Supposedly we sublimate these feelings and release this energy in physical exercise.

I’d argue against that. Consider the fan-wreckage that results when a boisterous mob leaves the stadium after their team has “suffered” an ignominious loss at the hands of their rivals. It doesn’t even have to be a loss to convert cheering masses into an exuberant mob who explode in a comparable fit of collegial vandalism. This occurs despite several hours of  yelling, strenuous getting up and down in their seats, which by itself would have been exhausting. Instead of quietly returning home, these benighted souls, fueled often enough by alcohol, break storefronts, flip over a few police vans, and set them on fire till the scene resembles many from Apocalypse Now.

Granted my example adds the social frame, elements of peer approval and expectation very like the camaraderie fostered in military training, gang participation, identifying with bullies. Muddle the mix with a heritage of competition and issues of self-esteem. Perhaps I should have first and more simply likened rage-release to a fist fight, social but limited to one on one.

By removing the social aspect entirely one can conclude the destructive acts of a frustrated artist or sculptor who in the privacy of the studio slashes paintings with a pallet-knife or smashes figures to dust with his hammer may have a cathartic effect for the individual involved independently of whether they are witnessed or not. As we examine factors affecting this issue we can see there is more than a categorical difference between violence on objects and violence on sentient creatures, particularly when witnessed or even aided by comrades.

Merely confronting an adversary has the perk of self-affirmation when one decides to take on an issue “OK, this room isn’t cleaning itself,” rather than continuing to ignore or circumvent it, “Hey, Bully, do I have your attention?” 

I remember reading in David Grossman’s On Killing that military trainers begin with one-on one exercises in which combatants are urged to “Pull out the stops; hurt the other guy.” The trainer assures them he will stop the fight before actual harm occurs but often errs on the side of excess to allow their full rage to emerge. It isn’t long before the two are drawing on that underlying reserve and inflicting damage neither of which would have considered themselves capable. As I first said, war (here, training for war) is where society permits release of primeval rage. Sounds a lot like Fight Club but the film was fantasy. Military training is real.

Several other examples come to mind, though, of state-sanctioned rage release: over-the-top police violence and the death penalty. How many times must we see amateur videos of police using unrestrained violence against offenders whose violations merit little more than warnings?  Eric Garner’s death in Staten Island from a choke hold for selling loose cigarettes and more recently Nandi Cain, Jr.,’s beating for jaywalking.

Killing convicted criminals has often been shown to be be unmerited in many cases shown in the work of the Innocence Project. Nevertheless, the death penalty lingers as a way of addressing the inner rage of many, both within and outside the family of the victim, demanding “closure.”

The last example of state sanctioned methods of speculatively disabling the ID, that inner madman present in every human being, is through vicarious experience: drama, cinema, audio, and literature. I say speculatively in that I have not researched to determine if any vicarious activity (from watching Saving Private Ryan, to music, to having a beer in bar with a talkative veteran) has any proven reduction or aggravation of inner rage. Such studies can be plagued with variation in individual subjects, as is so commonly observed in comparable studies of viewing violence or pornography.

Undeniably the inner I’m writing about is the product of evolutionary development which increases a species likelihood for survival: “The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” the screaming baby is likelier to have its needs met to survive and ultimately to pass its genetic heritage on to future generations than a genetically docile child who despite its other potentials for genius might be neglected, get sick, and die. 

I confess I can’t say whether war can be abolished however much I hope that it can, should, and must be. My fear is the rage instinct which is so deeply rooted in our infant and childhood psyches, will be extremely difficult to uproot despite our responsibly over layering it with sophisticated and maturely considered analyses and training. Such urges will defiantly persist to rise as strongly again under the proper (probably subconscious) appeals like nationalism, racism, self esteem. and self-defense.

But since war is so heinous, the argument that eradicating it will be difficult does not excuse us from trying. Part of trying will involve greater awareness of the realities of war. The Red Badge of Courage and All Quiet on the Western Front contribute to that greater knowledge as do songs like Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ya and So Long, Mom, I’m off to Drop the Bomb. 

Today’s mass media are doing a terrible job of realistic war coverage: first by not scrutinizing the push for war or labelling the lies that make truth the first victim of war; second by not showing the horrors of war and sparing the public the images they, as taxpayers, are supporting by not pressing to end or to prevent wars; third by not describing the evil wreaked upon the aged, the sick, the women and children, in short, the innocents among the enemy; and last by not following through on the long lasting effects of war on the warriors, the families of warriors, and the damage to the humanity of our own culture and that of the enemy

Only by protracted and specific telling of the truth about war, only by expunging the “glory” and phony high moral status attendant on battle, and only by developing alternatives to managing extreme inner stress early in childhood and consistently through family life and citizenly endeavor can we say we’re making an honest effort to abolish war.


c. 2017, J.S.Manista