[lit-ideas] Re: The Soldiier as Sacrificial Victim
- From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 15:53:13 -0400
What an astonishing incongruity between the joyful, optimistic song
that emboldened men to become soldiers and the nauseating results of
battle. How sad to know how societies play upon the idealism and
good will of young men in order to send them "over there," where
they may become sacrificial victims.
____
You forgot to mention corpse gas. Soldiers slogging through the mud,
their boots crunching through the decaying bodies of fallen soldiers
hidden in the mud, releasing the gases of decomposition. Corpse gas.
Imagine a setting where soldiers are sent to battle with depressing
and dispiriting songs like this, to the music of "Over There."
You're gonna die.
Quickly die.
It's absurd. In a Word.
You're gonna die.
The Dupes are coming.
The Dupes are coming.
Und Sie werden nicht hinter dann es ueber... (little identification
with the enemy language just to further demoralize)
etc.
The incongruity between joyful songs and battlefield horror is only
astonishing to someone incapable of understanding the need for hope
and good morale.
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