View Single Post
Old 12-07-2004, 03:34 PM   #25
warch
lurkin old school
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 2,796
Images are weapons. Insurgents, terrorists use the gruesome images of beheadings, carnage to scare the opposition into behaving as they wish. Its played for horrid, evil effect. The images here are not all media images, they are taken as souvenirs by the soldiers there. That has its own creepiness and the real debate is "how do these play?" Image control and interpretation is a front of this war. Its journalists' jobs to reveal what we may not want to know or what may not be convenient- that might be an insurgent begging for his life in a "cowardly" way or a US soldier beating a kid. Its the perps job to be accountable. Its tricky when one cultural group seeks to rule through the power of perceived horrific God given force and the other by embracing God given human rights and freedoms. You can see how it can become confusing, message-wise.

I do think these images, however spun, however less evil, are ammo for the bad guys. Our culture is based on an assumption of critique! We are strong enough to deal with them, thats the check. And when it works, that the beauty and power.
warch is offline   Reply With Quote