You aren't going to like this diary, but that's okay.
You know that uneasy feeling you get when you see some war footage that makes real death and destruction look as inconsequential as a video game? I'd like to suggest that part of the unease comes from what such footage reveals about us. It is a visual metaphor for how we engage in our country's military aggression. That is to say, how we keep ourselves remote from the wars we start because they feel nicer that way.
Just replace the video monitors with our mainstream media. Replace the high-tech controls with our day-to-day political involvement as citizens of a democracy. Replace the almost miraculous guidance systems with our abstract political-religious values ... You see? There we are, blindly excelling at making war in such a way as to convince ourselves that it is always someone else's doing.
What this diary attempts to do is yank the data cable out of the machine and jam it right into your heart.
Like I said, you aren't going to like it. But you should read this diary anyway.
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