Monday Class Notes from 2/6: Sacred Victims & Nationalism

In War is a force, Hedges writes that "war finds its meaning in death" (144). We discussed the ways that war, for Hedges, is linked through the initial loss of victims deemed crucial to the cause. Since death is always linked to ideas and ideals of the sacred, or the religious, the deaths of war's first victims become indeliably linked to the war itself. This has the effect of creating an environment where criticizing the war is equivelent to criticizing the dead (p.145). As a class and as individuals, we will have to find ways to discuss war without trivializing the dead or those fallen soldiers who, perhaps later, sacrificed their lives for the cause. The situation is not either/or; it is acutely complex.

Although we didn't get the opportunity to elaborate or expand on his ideas, we also briefly touched on Hedges concept of "nationalist triumphalism" (p.45).

On Wednesday, I hope to explore that idea further, including notions of the "easy way" (45), "collective amensia" (46), the "creation myth" (47), and the individual examples of Slavica (48) and Fejzic (52).

I also hope to finally touch on "nihilistic relativism," from Ch 6 (150).