I've got to recommend Lt. Col. Dave Grossman's book "On Killing"

[dawgman]

I am currently reading it and although my mind wants to reject the assertations he has made so far I am having trouble refuting his research.

The book is about the psychological trauma that killing has on the mind and human kind's natural aversion to killing our own species.

So far it is fabulous and I am going to try and have my Father-in-law read it. It would be good for him.

[Baclava]

1. "Natural aversion"?

I thought we had evolved into the new, improved, high-tech killer apes...

[Mattforclark]

5. Shooting someone in the face from 2 feet away

is psychologically different from pressing a button on a submarine that fires a cruise missile that flies hundreds of miles away. The 'natural aversion' spoken about decreases with psychological (a component of which is physical) distance.

It is also a mistake to assume that any aversion evolved biologically and not culturally (though there can be overlap).

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. They're called republicans.

The "new, improved, high-tech killer apes...".

[TexasMexican]

2. Isnt he that quack who...

says that video games make people kill.

[Mattforclark]

4. It is a bit more complicated than that...

He says (basically) that they lessen the psychological barrier to killing and make it easier to kill reflexively.

[dawgman]

6. One of his premises is that the violence of our culture is symptomatic

of a society that is completely removed from the Ritual act of killing. We don't slaughter our own animals for food.

He likens it to the Victorian era of sexual repression, which gave rise to all sorts of things. Everyone was still doing it but it was a dirty backdoor type of thing. This gave rise to all sorts of sexual perversions (and no I don't mean porn or consensual sex among adults.)

He believes that because there is no connection to something that has been an intrinsic part of life forever, Death, a morbid and unhealthy fascination with it has risen in our society. The same with the Victorians and sex.

There is more to it than that but that is the guts of the argument as I understand it.

[Mattforclark]

3. Me too, it is an excellent book.

I read it about a year ago... I am not sure that I agree with all of its conclusions, but it makes a pretty strong case.

[dawgman]

7. Just the idea that 80 to 85 percent of grunts WON'T shoot

without strong operant conditioning is hard for me to accept, but like I said his evidence is hard to refute.

[bpcmxr]

8. I haven't read the book,

but I like your sig!

[dawgman]

9. Thank you. I have actually been thinking about changing it to a quote fro

m the book.

[dbt]

11. GREAT book!

Well-documented and very thoughtful. I would be interested to know if his views have changed any since our culture has become more hateful and violent during the Limbaugh Era.

:freak:
dbt