As I finished the show (‘The Soldiers Heart’) last night I thought about a lot of things, but none more than why does one mentally and spiritually go a different way than the larger unit like some of those profiled on Frontline.
A recent study that was done showed that monkeys and us and probably many other species have these ‘mirror neurons’ in their brain that makes seeing or doing an action very similar as far as experience goes (e.g. why do I like porn?) For instance, a monkey in this study would eat a peanut and his brain would react a certain way. He then might see the scientist eat a peanut and his brain would react in exactly the same way. This was discovered quite by accident.
I write about this because I thought back to it while watching the show last night. You have this somewhat monolithic train going in a certain direction and explicitly and implicitly telling people what to think (you are a ‘fucking pussy’ if you need to talk to a therapist, you are loser if you can’t handle war, you would ‘be shot 50 years ago’ for being a coward like this) and certain people who say, ‘hey- this is not working for me. I am breaking down. I am cracking up.’ In the case of the profiled Jeff it is probably most difficult when these soldiers can’t come to grips with these feelings.
But who are the hero’s here? Well, I think they should all be proud of themselves- those who stay on the front line and never have a problem and those who need to rest and rethink things. I hope the military moves towards this direction and recognizes all.
It is hard to do though eh? Because on the one hand you want this brutal killing force who does as it is told every time and wins every time, but you also want to respect the individual and help your society and your citizens move in a healthy, peaceful direction.
The blade of war cuts in so many ways and it rests so deep inside. The reality is that our mirror neurons and probably other dark places in the grey matter in our head won’t ever let us truly get past these horrors. Even one who did his job heroically and comes home without a scratch harbors some very deep injuries- possibly even more destructive and deadly than some of the more outward injuries. Like as the case with Jeff, some come home ‘healthy’ seeing death as their only true way to peace.
A recent study that was done showed that monkeys and us and probably many other species have these ‘mirror neurons’ in their brain that makes seeing or doing an action very similar as far as experience goes (e.g. why do I like porn?) For instance, a monkey in this study would eat a peanut and his brain would react a certain way. He then might see the scientist eat a peanut and his brain would react in exactly the same way. This was discovered quite by accident.
I write about this because I thought back to it while watching the show last night. You have this somewhat monolithic train going in a certain direction and explicitly and implicitly telling people what to think (you are a ‘fucking pussy’ if you need to talk to a therapist, you are loser if you can’t handle war, you would ‘be shot 50 years ago’ for being a coward like this) and certain people who say, ‘hey- this is not working for me. I am breaking down. I am cracking up.’ In the case of the profiled Jeff it is probably most difficult when these soldiers can’t come to grips with these feelings.
But who are the hero’s here? Well, I think they should all be proud of themselves- those who stay on the front line and never have a problem and those who need to rest and rethink things. I hope the military moves towards this direction and recognizes all.
It is hard to do though eh? Because on the one hand you want this brutal killing force who does as it is told every time and wins every time, but you also want to respect the individual and help your society and your citizens move in a healthy, peaceful direction.
The blade of war cuts in so many ways and it rests so deep inside. The reality is that our mirror neurons and probably other dark places in the grey matter in our head won’t ever let us truly get past these horrors. Even one who did his job heroically and comes home without a scratch harbors some very deep injuries- possibly even more destructive and deadly than some of the more outward injuries. Like as the case with Jeff, some come home ‘healthy’ seeing death as their only true way to peace.
