[Leica] The Horror, The Horror

[phong at doan-ltd.com (Phong)]

Adam Bridge wrote, in part:
> ...
> America's decline in sensitivity into a kind of depraved
> indifference
> ...
> However much you want to put the blame on these blunderings
> of the current administration they are merely exploitable symptoms
> of the  American culture.
>...
> We've lost the concept of honor.
> ...

I don't know about that.  Every generation has its share
of heroes and villains.   If anything, I think the current
American generation is much more attuned and sensitive
to the plight of others, and more open minded than previous
generations.

There is a New York Times article (online version at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/30/arts/30RICH.html?th)
that ties the horrors at Abu Ghraib, with Janet Jackson,
Susan Sontag, photography  and other themes we talked
about here.  It also mentions the same atrocities perpetrated
throughout several generations in the US.  It is my deep
belief that we have always had the capacity for cruelty,
and always will.  All we need is a cataclyst.

But don't blame it  on MTV (or porn, or video games)

I blame it on the current administration, as I blame every
other administration before it that led the country into war
unnecessary.  War is nasty business, and nasty things
happen in war, even in the most righteous ones.   When
you go to war, you open the gates of hell, and you turn,
not only your ennemies, but your brothers and yourself into
demons.  To engage in the businesses of war in the defense
of one's country is one thing; doing it for ideology, for
political gains, for money, for oil, is another.  It is immoral
in my books, and I am just about the most amoral person
I know.

Then to lie to me about it (sorry if I take these things
personally) tops if off.   Bush must go.

- Phong





Adam Bridge wrote:
>
> No, Kim, these are NOT the reasons. In fact they aren't coupled
> to the reasons
> for America's decline in sensitivity into a kind of depraved indifference.
>
> However much you want to put the blame on these blunderings of the current
> administration they are merely exploitable symptoms of the
> American culture.
>
> You don't have to look far to see it: the profound sense of
> entitlement, casual
> rudeness, thoughtless behavior and the inability to have any sympathy with
> another's plight.
>
> And you don't need some special lens to catch it. You need a
> quick eye and a
> well chosen location so you can catch any number of these small,
> but indicative,
> events. Or fly and watch a patron in first class come unglued
> because after
> they've had their fifth drink the flight attendant refuses to
> serve them. It's
> not even HARD to record these things.
>
> We're bombarded with messages about actions without consequences - real
> consequences, broken hearts and spirits, severe injury, death.
>
> In fact Arnold made a pretty good movie about this when he made
> "Last Action
> Hero" in which a villain and hero from the movies are injected
> into the real
> world where you can't smash a car window with your fist without
> being hurt,
> where you can die from a single shot to the gut. It didn't do
> very well, but it
> was, in its way, quite insightful.
>
> We've lost the concept of honor. I listened to a Talk of the
> Nation a week or so
> ago that had a NY Times reporter, a young man from the sound of
> him, who tries
> to "cover" issues of honor and ethics. And he didn't get it. He
> was totally at
> sea trying to apply the concept of honor in the tide of cultural
> relativism. I
> felt badly for him because without a guiding moral, and an
> underlying ethic,
> there is no honor, no proper sense of right behavior at all.
>
> Of course this doesn't mean that the underlying ethic is the ONLY
> possible one,
> because in the real world there are many conditions and there will be many
> ethics which can be in conflict with each other - probably a good
> thing since
> without a test or trial no value system can be truly understood.
>
> I submit that you can explore the human condition with your
> current glass. Just
> as someone can explore the textures of the world. They are both fine
> explorations for an artist.
>
> It only takes observation and empathy.