I read a good post on Milan and John's blog about Americans and the over glorification of war. And I have to agree with them. Americans seem to glorify war even when there is nothing to be glorified. We have to keep in mind that America was founded based on wars, and it always seem to be involved in wars. There was the war with the British to gain independence, then the Civil war on the issue of slavery, then there are the two world wars, WWI and WWII, and the Korean war, and the Vietnam war, and the most recent one, the war in the middle-east. The people who fought in these wars war viewed as patriots, they served their country, and helped to protect the right to free speech and so on...
If they died, they are said to have died while defending the idea of democracy, died for the right of other people to practice the freedom of speech, religion, and so on. But that is the idealized version of war, spoon-fed to us by the media. All the negative side of war are left out. And I think that no one want to see the negative side of war. They are blissfully unaware of everything other than their immediate concern, kind of like in Brave New World. The negative side of war is never shown to the public. And the people who sign up for the army did not have the full horror and death hit them in the face. It may not be until that they are on the battlefield, that they realize having a high kill/death ration in COD does not mean anything in the real world. Plus they are playing on survivor mode. Video games make people think that they are very good at what they are doing. It take away the downside of the situation, and focuses only on the glorious side. There is nothing wrong with playing video games, but it is important to know that in the real world, things are hundreds of time harder. There are people out there who joined the army just because they think that being able to silently sneak up behind people and knife them in COD or CS translate to being able to do that in the real world.
A funny example of how video game cannot translate into the real world can be found in airsoft, which is basically one step below a full out battle with real guns. Many people who are looking to join airsoft, they typically choose the sniper rifle. The sniper rifle in airsoft is probably one of the worst weapon to choose, because its range is about the same as most of the machine guns, and it is not super accurate unless its one of the super high end ones that cost a thousand or more. The reason that new player tend to choose the sniper rifle is because they were good with the sniper rifle in COD or CS. They can get five kills in a row without dying in the game. And most people think that it translates into the real world. But it doesn't. The role of the sniper in airsoft is probably one of the least rewarding role. It gets the least amount of kills, you have to stay in one place for a long time, then craw to another place and stay there for another long period of time. The new players who do not understand this get killed almost immediately because they are moving around too much like they do online. Most of the new player who choose to be a sniper either end up switching to another role, or quitting airsoft altogether. I think that the reason that choose to not stay is because they realized that there is no such thing as quick scoping in the real world.
People does not realize that when there are wars, many people are going to die, and maybe their death could have been avoided. Of course they know that people will die, but I don't think they fully comprehend death. When they hear of the death count, or the casualty count in the news, there is no feeling for those who have died, merely "Ok, that's a lot of people" and then move on. Violent video games and fast action movies make us feel less about death. How can we show a strong emotion to something if we are always surrounded by it?
