2011 Year of the Photo Post
The information age has reached a new level of mobility. I predict that in 2011 the spread of photo messages will increase 10 fold because the charges are now being absorbed by cell phone carriers.
Here is the most interesting photo that I looked at from Denver Post's annual year in review in photos.
http://tiny.cc/lz8uy
I find this photo interesting because the front three rows of the Afghan Armies graduating class of officers are all female.
I have often wondered how war would change if soldiers were primarily female. A deeper look at the photo reveals that the majority of the soldiers in the room are male, and the females were probably being accommodated as a minority for this ceremony. The photo still begs the question, "What would a primarily female war look like"?
In my opinion, I think it would change the way wars are fought in face to face interaction. Females are less likely to commit genocide because they understand the helplessness better of a new mother going through pregnancy and care of a small child. Those who start wars usually do it from an ideological belief network that both sexes would tend to embrace. So the actual cause of war would not change. However in the trenches things could look different. A man fighting along side another man will unite in solidarity with his comrade in arms to defend his own survival, and beyond that the protection of his family. If that means justifying the killing of innocent people then so be it. A man will tie his survival to his existence purpose. This purpose can reside in their own family's protection.
Women fighting along side other women would find it more difficult to justify the killing of the innocent. The fear of an attack against family is hard to justify when women are the very people being protected. It would also be more difficult for those attacking the women soldiers to kill them because they could easily represent the very people that they are attempting to defend within their personal ideological struggle.
What do I mean by ideology? The root of this word is idea. Ideology represents ideas that are launched in our minds and then made practical by expressing them in action. When the action is combined with emotion this process can become virtue or vice depending on the emotion and how we regulate it. An example of this taking the form of vice is Hitler's genocide of the Jewish people because of the fear that the pure race of the German motherland would become corrupted. The idea that the means are justified by the ends is de-motivating in the confounded scenario of irony above. Will the women of war bring about more peace because of their face to face interaction in the trenches? Perhaps only "Twitter and facebook" will be able to tell us in the next year in review of photos. Next year will certainly look different. There were only two blurry pictures from camera phones in this years review.
Perhaps next year the horrors of war will not be reduced by wiki leaks, but by cell phone pictures. Images have a way of connecting our emotions to our actions that words can not easily accomplish. These picture messages may connect us to scenes of conflict that make good men and women ask, "Why are we still doing these things"?
http://tiny.cc/lz8uy
I find this photo interesting because the front three rows of the Afghan Armies graduating class of officers are all female.
I have often wondered how war would change if soldiers were primarily female. A deeper look at the photo reveals that the majority of the soldiers in the room are male, and the females were probably being accommodated as a minority for this ceremony. The photo still begs the question, "What would a primarily female war look like"?
In my opinion, I think it would change the way wars are fought in face to face interaction. Females are less likely to commit genocide because they understand the helplessness better of a new mother going through pregnancy and care of a small child. Those who start wars usually do it from an ideological belief network that both sexes would tend to embrace. So the actual cause of war would not change. However in the trenches things could look different. A man fighting along side another man will unite in solidarity with his comrade in arms to defend his own survival, and beyond that the protection of his family. If that means justifying the killing of innocent people then so be it. A man will tie his survival to his existence purpose. This purpose can reside in their own family's protection.
Women fighting along side other women would find it more difficult to justify the killing of the innocent. The fear of an attack against family is hard to justify when women are the very people being protected. It would also be more difficult for those attacking the women soldiers to kill them because they could easily represent the very people that they are attempting to defend within their personal ideological struggle.
What do I mean by ideology? The root of this word is idea. Ideology represents ideas that are launched in our minds and then made practical by expressing them in action. When the action is combined with emotion this process can become virtue or vice depending on the emotion and how we regulate it. An example of this taking the form of vice is Hitler's genocide of the Jewish people because of the fear that the pure race of the German motherland would become corrupted. The idea that the means are justified by the ends is de-motivating in the confounded scenario of irony above. Will the women of war bring about more peace because of their face to face interaction in the trenches? Perhaps only "Twitter and facebook" will be able to tell us in the next year in review of photos. Next year will certainly look different. There were only two blurry pictures from camera phones in this years review.
Perhaps next year the horrors of war will not be reduced by wiki leaks, but by cell phone pictures. Images have a way of connecting our emotions to our actions that words can not easily accomplish. These picture messages may connect us to scenes of conflict that make good men and women ask, "Why are we still doing these things"?
posted by pparris9 at 10:16 AM
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