War, we have come to believe, is a spectator sport. The military and the press have turned war into a vast video arcade game. Its very essence-death-is hidden from public view.
Interpretation
This quote critiques the desensitization of society towards war, viewing it as entertainment rather than a grave reality.
Chris Hedges's quote reveals how modern society has come to perceive war through a lens of distance and detachment, much like watching a game rather than experiencing its harsh realities. The military and media's portrayal of war reduces the actual suffering and death to mere spectacle, obscuring the true human cost and ethical implications of conflict.
In practice
Using this quote in a discussion about the impact of media on public perception of war.
As long as we think abstractly, as long as we find in patriotism and the exuberance of War our fulfillment, we will never understand those who do battle against us, or how we are perceived by them, or finally those who do battle for us and how we should respond to it all. We will never discover who we are. We will fail to confront the capacity we all have for violence.
The moral nihilism of celebrity culture is played out on reality television shows, most of which encourage a dark voyeurism into other people's humiliation, pain, weakness, and betrayal.
The few surviving Armenians no longer ask to go home. They do not ask for restitution. They ask simply to have the memory of their obliteration acknowledged. It is a moral obsession, the lonely legacy passed onto the third and fourth generation who no longer speak Armenian but who carry within them the seeds of resentment that will not be quashed.
It is better to be an outcast, a stranger in one’s own country, than an outcast from one’s self. It is better to see what is about to befall us and to resist than to retreat into the fantasies embraced by a nation of the blind.
Of the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history.
There are two sets of principles. They are the principles of power and privilege and the principles of truth and justice. If you pursue truth and justice it will always mean a diminution of power and privilege. If you pursue power and privilege, it will always be at the expense of truth and justice
The history of our spiritual life is a continuing search for the unity between ourselves and the world. Religion, art, and science follow, one and all, this aim.
Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human.
It is often said by religious people that without its framework, there is no sense of right or wrong. My view is that religion comes after ethics.
Cheap medical care is one of the most expensive things there is. So long as politicians can create the illusion of something for nothing, that gets them votes, which is what it is all about, as far as they are concerned.
There's no difference between what is seen and the mind that sees it.
War is never a lasting solution for any problem.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.