Comments on: Vigilante Marines wanted?

By: JT

JT — Sat, 14 May 2005 09:38:18 +0000

I think it is fair and healthy to go through an idealistic phase.

I heard somone once say you should be overly compassionate and liberal as a youth and restricted and measured as a conservative elder.

I hope this is just hogwash. The only reliable tie I’ve seen pan out in my experience is that money makes you fiscally conservative and socially skeptical and paranoid, if not down right mean.

The sheer mass of ‘enough’ necessary for any awesome change should seem depressing, if you place the burden of responsibility on yourself wholly. I’m becoming more individualistic because of the very problem you present.

I think, philosophically, the better answer is deontologically centered. For you non-philosophers out there, that means your value is in your duty, not the result it creates. There is a lot to this to debate, but I’m presenting this as my general schema for escaping depression. If I focus on doing the right thing, the end becomes something ridiculous.

My favorite enemy, in this regard, are capitalists using the ‘big picture’ to justify the little souls they trample on. If they were trying all they could to assuage every valued life, I’d buy it. That’s not the nature of these people, though you can see the influence of society when you consider the U.S. Military’s rather focused concern on reducing innocent deaths during military operations.

‘Enough’ people would be pissed if they didn’t ‘feel’ the military was doing all it could to lower collateral deaths. We are getting to the point to where we are dismissing the rights of prisoners and the enemy, something much harder for the general society to realize as being of equal importance.

Overall, it should be considered an improvement, but I think, where life is at stake, there is no rest for those who would tout liberties and justice for all.

In another blog of mine, I had a phrase I had quiped to sound intellectual, but I suddenly realize I believe it more and more.

I don’t have faith in humanity, but I believe in individuals.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Thu, 12 May 2005 16:29:01 +0000

I’ve all but lost faith in the US and, more frighteningly, humanity in general. As much as I hate to say, people just tend to suck. We’ll forget the morality we stood upon yesterday at the drop of a pin and turn a blind eye to whatever it is we don’t want to see. Our idealism numbs our senses and dulls our ethics.

I’d love to write my senator or congressman, but I fear that there will never be “enough” of us to stem the tide of ignorant public opinion.

You’ve managed to severely depress me, dammit.

By: Adkenar

Adkenar — Tue, 10 May 2005 23:15:33 +0000

There’s a lot of focus on obedience in the marines. Someone I knew who was involved told me that if your commanding officer told you to shoot your friend, you shot your friend, no questions asked, that was that. I imagine that sort of training would desnsitize you to the sort of violence being discussed.

As for going to court…it is my understanding that in these sorts of cases, it is the state that prosecutes, and although I’m disappointed, I’m not surprised that the state isn’t keen on prosecuting what is essentially intended to be an extension of itself. I may write the senators about it, I have a few things I’ve been meaning to tell them about but haven’t gotten around to yet.

Personally, I don’t like the wartime excuses for anything. Lincoln was my favorite president until I learned about how he stamped all over the rights of the citizens under the excuse of holding the union together. It seems to me that, of all times, war is when we should be most focused on preserving our freedoms and ideals–after all, aren’t they supposed to be what we’re fighting for? Doing otherwise seems to me to be like going on a diet to lose weight but then injecting fat directly into your flesh.