Death

[hyphenate]

I just don't know: we were taught to respect the dead. We were taught that the dead were living people just like me, just like you--men, women and children with feelings, thoughts, ideas, compassion, blood, tears and every other little nuance that makes us all people.

They were never considered numbers, they were never considered faceless and they were never thought of as cannon fodder. Whether they were rich or poor didn't matter--you can't take it with you and the bones of the rich are the same as the bones of the poor.

People throughout history have written about death often: even though it's been an inevitability to all of us, we have often worked, sometimes against our best interests, to stave off death and fight until there is no longer a death to fight. Poets: Dylan Thomas: "rage, rage, against the dying of the light!"; John Donne: "any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls it tolls for thee."

It seems that back in the "good ole days" death was man's constant companion. Early folk lived by the law of the sword, and therefore knew life was dangerous regardless of any other factor in their lives. Women frequently died in childbirth, men died at harvest, and both died from the smallest of injuries because not enough knowledge existed that could help save them from virii, bacteria, and other horrible germs and more.

Still, at one point, small villages would all come out to mourn someone who passed away, however it might have occurred. The names of the dead were uttered at mass, printed (if print was available) in the local papers, and everyone would come out to the funerals. No one died alone.

It seems to me now that many people, especially warmongers, don't have any compassion or empathy toward death anymore. We've seen it most of our lives, where people who die now are just statistics. If it's a war, they're either soldiers or collateral damage. The names of the dead are rarely brought up--it's like soldier #1875 or #2423 or whatever. And the numbers of dead civilians and other foreigners, for example, are often spoke dispassionately as "casualties" and nothing more.

I think that is the one element of war that completely and totally dehumanizes us all. And I think, in this administration, this apathy and the eagerness to which everyone of these chickenhawks went to war speaks loads about why we hate them.

These people don't want their "enemy" to be people. They want the "enemy" to be whatever ideal they follow, to represent something bad that we don't want in our own society. They can't personalize people in other nations as the "same as us" because that would make it obvious that we're not fighting a war--we're committing murder. And that's exactly what we ARE doing--we are committing genocide. And because our current government is so hyped up on it, it is being considered glorious and it's being considered "just." Just like when the RRR says they will be "raptured" and everyone else left behind. They don't think of it, though--they think of themselves, and are happily twisted enough in their minds to forget that wishing all the "rest of us" to be put through trials and tribulations is like committing murder.

Once, death was something that mattered. People were named, their praises were spoken of, and then they were laid to rest to lie peacefully into the hereafter. They were people, and they were human beings. It seems antiquated now to think of them that way, it seems. With the powerful weapons and far away thoughts, those who die in war especially are merely numbers, not flesh and bone like the victors in that war.

[auntAgonist]

1. thank you!

I can't add to your sentiments. Just thank you.

K&R

[hyphenate]

4. Thanks

I've been wanting to write about this subject for a long while, and it's just one of those subjects that is hard to write about. There was a lot more that I wanted to say, but I didn't have time this morning to do it the way I originally envisioned.

[knowbody0]

2. have you any idea

what the reasoning behind showing all the actual dead in this conflict while in Irag not EVER? clearly in Iraq, orders from this administration, but these days we are shown death constantly. to scare us? to numb us?

[hyphenate]

3. Desensitizing

It's like if you work in certain jobs, you get numbed to it, regardless of how horrific and how terrible it might be. People like cops have to handle atrocities day in and day out, and as long as it's wholesale, they learn to cope after a few years. However, you will find that most cops and others who experience that sort of thing often will one day simply stop, look around and break down. It's the same as post-traumatic stress disorder, and it's a bitch. Often times, it's a single incident which provokes the unraveling, because of the individuality of it. That one incident has a face, has a name and is the one that makes the permanent mark.

They can't scare us. Objective images from all these wars, as well as those haunting images from 9/11 will live with us always.

[hyphenate]

5. A gentle kick

:)

[RagAss]

6. I grew up watching Death on TV every night....Vietnam

[hyphenate]

7. Every generation

has its warmongers and chickenhawks. My generation was also Vietnam. I hate the way that these people glorify death, and try to make it sound like it's something reasonable. Can you imagine where the energy of all these people could take us if we allowed it? Can you imagine where the thoughts of every single person on earth could bring us untold bliss, reveling in each other's differences? Except it seems now that too many hold too much hatred to recognize the real "god" of life itself, and the death of true souls. I hate, too: I hate those who hate all who are different. They are wrong and need to be punished for their lies, their intolerance and their insanity.