Inquiring minds might wonder: What are the origins of bad taste? There must be base lines at different levels of society. Suppose Hitchcock was brilliant but the idea was abhorrent (ie Birds). When do we belive or become what we think. The undercover cop becomes the criminal. The altruistic become cynical. Is it natural design of society or limits of human capacity. Genetic? The pendulum of exhaustion?
I'd normally lean toward cultural, say, aztec sacrifice or ancient blood rites, except that doesnt answer the question-these things weren't in said society, necessarily in bad taste at all, despite, surely, being regarded as abhorrent by some portion of the community. Gladiatorial combat? To us, "bad taste" doesnt come close, yet it filled stadiums, same as WWF does now, and crappy horror movies fill cinemas. Maybe some of the answers can be found in the "stanford prison experiment", perhaps leaning toward the idea of both natural design of society, and the limits of human capacity, as they appear to point in the same direction.
It has been quite some time since I have read a book that doesn't have anything to do with the market. I needed a change of pace. Completely different than any genre I've read before. I bought a book on submarine warfare in WW2. That did the trick. Finished that, I picked up a book on the screaming eagles, I know jack shit about paratroopers in WW2. I seldom do anything in moderation so next on my list was tank warfare of WW2. I thought I had covered the war genre, but then bought Flags of our Fathers. I didn't know it was a movie because I seldom keep up on hollywood or tv, but that is neither here nor there. My daughter was getting married and I had to get fitted for a tux. At the tux shop is this old geezer working by himself and I noticed his coat and hat hanging in the back room when I went to try on my tux. It was all Marine insignias, VFW hat with decorations, so I chatted the guy up, what the hell, I'm a book expert on WW2 and should be able to hold a conversation. Turns out the guy was a sargent in Marines and fought on Iwo Jima, his picture is in the book Flags of our Fathers. I brought the rest of my kids over to meet him and gave him a case of oranges, sort of like a thank you gift.
Hope the book was better than the movie! That's often the case, though. Reminds of a commision work i saw, done in pastels (incredibly difficult medium), done for a WWII vet (commisioned by family, i think), life size, of a military jacket, ribbons, brass etc, hanging in a dark cupboard, it was remarkable, cost a couple grand or something-top notch artist. Id never seen anything like it, the detail was so fine you could practically see (given art is mostly illusion, your eye is 'tricked' into seeing actual detail) the threads in the ribbon, spots of tarnish on the medals. Absolutely amazing, you would swear you could reach in and grab it off the hook! Of course, a case of oranges is always good, to
Guy I played golf with told me a story. He was a 17 year old Marine on Iwo Jima. They found a frogman, predecessor to the SEALS. They had come in to map and blow up beach obstacles. The Japanese had captured one, and "stuck a flamethrower up his ass". Then the guy looks at me sort of wistfully and says, "you know, it's War. You're gonna kill him, kill him. but that." Surreal. To thisday, he hates all Japanese and will not ride in a Japanese car. How can you judge him ( true to the thread). Is he right, or wrong? can you really understand? I suggest you read "With the Old Breed on Peliliu", Eugene Sledge. Sledge was the son of a doctor in Mobile Alabama. He became a Doctor of Biology at some Southern University and recently died. I can't find out when. The tales of brutalilty in that book are chilling. It's happening now, when Al Queda beheads a dead Marine; this happened on a massive scale in the Pacific. How could a culture as deep and rich as the Japanese yield such animals in such scale, and approve o f the behavior? (thread true)? Answers please. Good topic, because it comes round again.
I'll hazard a guess, flytiger-(given, nutmeg seems to be on holiday) that people are, basically bastards; anyone, anywhere, could be convinced to do virtually anything, in the right circumstances. Ive met many vets, who wouldnt spit on a japanese person, based on the pacific theatre alone. As for the japanese having a remotely noble tradition, thats ludicrous, they spent more than a thousand years in total subservience to a ruling warrior class, people who would happily lop your head off if you looked at them the wrong way (or at all) , or didnt bow deeply enough. The meiji restoration, well all well and good, but its no different to the experience of the russians under the golden hordes. The english?No different, drawing and quartering were largely rejected because the french were doing it, dont want to be like THOSE bastards, huh. To some degree, a conditioned response, and at the other end, something like a pavlovs dog response to sheer authority, or perhaps the sheer "freedom" to pillage and murder, like napoleans troops conducted in their conquest of portions of spain. Their simply isn't a logical, explanation-just people are apes, animals, with better weapons than our hirsuit brethren.
Oh, and just for the heck of it, imho, for the next few weeks, short oil from the 100 + bracket, not that i care or give a crap, just seems like a gimme.
Their simply isn't a logical, explanation-just people are apes, animals, with better weapons than our hirsuit brethren. ___________________________________ I have to agree. Re flys book suggestion, just one more account of the evil that men do. Inquiring minds want to know why, in the end we find there is nothing. Someone commits an atrocity and we want to put them to death for "justice" sake. On the flip side, someone commits an atrocity and then commits suicide, we feel deprived of an "answer" of "why". We bring the evil of the world to the psychiatrists/analysts of the world in the pursuit of hope.
You can leave the collective "we" out of it , for a start. There's no hope to be had down the road of psychiatry, the entire feild was invented to study mind control for military use. True.