Why military participants who die in war are called heroes

[SoCalDem]

I have always thought that it was because what parent/widow/widower/child could ever "accept" the "waste" of that precious (to them) life?

As a society, it is beneficial to laud publicly the war dead of their own in the short term, and eventually to even (somewhat) "recognize" the dead of the vanquished.

It "sanitizes" war, and allows for the ready embrace of the "next war". It makes possible (in the lizard-brain" we all have) waiting to be reactivated at a future time in the next war., the desire to avenge, to re-enact, ....to memorialize the ones who fought before us.

Soldiers don't die in battle, on purpose. They are all trying to stay alive, so they can come home.

They die because wars are all about the killing, and the overwhelming of the enemy. When the people who run the wars , who plan the wars, who have no "skin-in-the-game", make mistakes in planning, people die. Many times they are fighting "the last war" with today's soldiers. Sometimes they cannot accept the fact that they have a stalemate on their hands and just need to declare victory and stop the killing.

Many wars are the physical manifestation of failed/short-sighted foreign policy, or politics on steroids.

For ordinary soldiers to die as a result of "paper-pushers" who cannot find a reasonable way out of political fights, is a wasteful end-result. If the ones killed are seen as "heroic", and "given" some parades, remembrance celebrations, and posthumous recognitions are handed out, it somehow salves the consciences of the "decision-makers".



I'm sure there are heroic actions in battle, because sometimes people DO heroic things to save a friend or even someone who is not yet a friend, but being a soldier is not inherently "heroic". Soldier A of the US, killing Soldier B of <insert country-name here> creates a "hero/martyr" for "the other side".



A life lost in wartime has to be about more than the fact that the young family of that soldier needed a breadwinner with a better income than fry cook at IHOP could provide.

The most awful thing for a loved one to accept, has to be the fact that their soldier died for no good reason...that their life was "wasted". If they are seen as heroic, it has to help if there is to be acceptance.

[mopinko]

1. if you are a believer in evolutionary psychology, as i am, you would posit

that hero worship leads the tribe to rear the offspring of said heroes, and therefore continue the supply of those willing to die for the tribe.
no hero worship, and the supply of heroes dries up pretty quickly.

[SoCalDem]

2. agreed.

The group-think has to idealize the deaths of those who fought before..

[Warren Stupidity]

3. yes pretty much, and hero-worship is fundamental to fascist regimes.

The PTB looked in horror at the unraveling of the 60's and 70's and set out to undo the damage done. They have been remarkably, depressingly, successful in doing so.

[mopinko]

5. well, that unraveling is also something

that i think is influenced in this way- one thing that has to happen for there to be warriors is that you have to be either facing a threat (incredibly easy to fabricate these days) or you have to just be a brutalized (either by someone or by circumstances) from the start.
i "blame" dr spock for the 60's. he made physical punishment unpopular (another thing that is defended with a deep seated, knee jerk response). combined with the plenty of the 50's, the warriors just weren't shaped in the way that they need to be.
if women and children come first, if children are raised with love and care and plenty, war is over.

[RC]

6. As some here on DU idolize some of our political leaders.

And brook no descent in others not doing so.

[tularetom]

4. That's exactly what Chris Hayes meant

Of course the idiotic liberal media has responded to the fake outrage of right wing mouthpieces by condemning Haye's entirely appropriate comments,

[FarCenter]

7. Most die of artillery, mines, machine guns, IEDs, drowning and plane crashes

There is very little heroism involved and most are the result of incaution or bad luck.

[99Forever]

8. Gotta keep that cannon fodder coming.

YAY death and destruction!

[TreasonousBastard]

9. It goes back to the ancient Greeks, and probably long before them...

War is a terrible thing, and we have to be taught to accept it. There are "natural born killers" and warriors, but most of us would not willingly engage in something so horrible without a damn good excuse. Or a lifetime of propaganda telling us it's not so bad after all.

Anyone who has been through military training knows how reasonably decent kids are turned into trained killers without knowing at first what's going on. A chestful of medals, unit cohesion, blind obediance... All of this is instilled in the recruit and the first real action will be a shock, but, hopefully, not blind panic and there will be few second thoughts about the killing.

The public is trained the same way, with talk of heroes, patriotism, loyalty and all the other pomp, pap, and pageantry that goes along with it.

Marine General Smedley Butler, winner of two Medals of honor, saw through it and in the end preached against war, largely laughed at and pitied for being an old fool, and Mark Twain before him wrote "The War Prayer" which I think should be required reading every Memorial Day. Before Twain was General Sherman, who spit on the thought of the honor and glory of war. To Sherman it was an occasionally necessary evil that should be hated not celebrated.

But these are small voices compared to the immense propaganda machine convincing us how war is somehow really a good thing and we should willingly accept it as one price of our way of life.

And, of course, there's big money in war.

[mopinko]

15. war and violence have served the human animal well.

imho, it is what made us the ones to evolve- altruism, self sacrifice and the willingness to gang up and go thump the other guy. chimps do it, and it serves them well, also.

i think we are evolving out of it, as evolutionary biology would predict. now that we have mutually assured destruction, violence is just becoming too costly. at least on an epic scale. while we are at war now, we are doing it with a fraction of the soldiers, a fraction of the popular support and a fraction of the public frenzy.
it no longer serves us all that well. there is little new ground to take.
we do have a very long way to go, tho.

[rustydog]

10. What I have to offer is probably too simplistic, but look at the culture we are raising,

kids and young adults engrossed in ultra-violent video war games. They brag about how good a shot they are (with a friggin' computer game) as a sniper, or with a 40 cal.

Look at the violene is the answer tv fare on tru tv (I call it goober tv), spike and network tv where a funny look brings about the righteous violent retribution. (accompanied by cool rockin' music)

WWF is bigger than ever and MMA is everywhere. Posing and name-calling is the norm and a violent response to a verbal attack is acceptable...if not mandatory. Don't dis me mofo.

Today, it is the tough look. it is the fantasy of video game kick-ass. and it is the simplistic view that violence will solve everything mantra of the GOP.

To keep this circus show running, they have to have war, they have to glorify the brave men and women who either out of love of country or lack of employment join the military and become the grist for the military mill.
These people are doing what they are trained to do. they are not the ones who generate the drumbeats to war, they are the ones the cowards send in.

Some people are true heroes, they sacrifice their life to save a comrade. They are not teachers who work two jobs, it is NOT the single mom who works AND volunteers...

Hero is overused to where it is a meaningless honor to bequeath one with. Which is sad, because there are true heroes who walk amongst us. There are true heroes who lay down their life to save others and they would probably be deeply offended at being called a hero and they would probably be repulsed an the GOP's rape of the word and its meaning for their political gain.

[gratuitous]

11. Simplistic? Perhaps.

But our culture is awash in violence. Violence leads our foreign policy, it permeates popular entertainments, and is the life-blood of our diversions such as video games. The diversionary non-sequitur is almost always, "Well, I play Diablow XVD3 all the time, and I've never gone on a hunt for mutant gargoyles and shot up a castle. So there!" As if that has anything to do with the observation of how large the role of violence is in our society.

Any suggestion that we dial it back or ramp it down is met by predictable squeals and howls, but there's never really an affirmative argument put forth to justify a game in which the player gets points for killing prostitutes with golf clubs or machine guns a nightclub.

The only quibble I have is that this violence as panacea mantra isn't confined to the GOP.

[SoCalDem]

12. Just take a look at what the HISTORY channel is offering

just a short selection: :pukr:

HOW IS THIS HISTORY?

(the Hatfield & McCoy thing is the closest to it, but is still more "folk-history" than "real history&quot

ET

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Hatfields & McCoys: Part 2

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Episode Guide | Show Site


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American Pickers: Picker Man Blues

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Morning (am)
Time Zone:

ET

1:12 AM
Pawn Stars: Three Hour Tour

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Pawn Stars: Family Feud

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Info-Documentaries.

Informational programming. TVG
4:30 AM
Info-Documentaries.

Informational programming. TVG

[SoCalDem]

13. and then there is the LEARNING channel

http://tlc.discovery.com/tv-schedules/daily.html

[raouldukelives]

14. Generally a war "hero" is someone who has sacrificed themselves

for the noblest of causes. At that point it's all about perception as you point out. One mans trash is someones treasure. And yeah, we do it to make the death more palatable.
Your valiant, brave, courageous, patriotic, honorable, intelligent, hospitable and hygienic biped offspring perished as the result of efforts to develop increased security for economic expansion in a resource rich area wouldn't really fly with people.
Much for the same reason we refer to them as "volunteers". Being an employee just doesn't have the same pleasant ring when your talking about ending peoples lives.