RE-sensitization

[Brenda86]

I sometimes have to push myself a little when a sott article comes up with a link to pictures of for instance war casualties. Watching those images disturb me greatly also, but I think it has purpose to look at those as they're real, as opposed to all the fake violence in movies and the like. Still I find it hard to go through. It can be so shocking. I vividly remember a picture I saw from Iraq, taken when US soldiers killed a couple traveling with their children in a car. The image of a girl crying her heart out, blood all over the place, a soldier moving the girl away from the car she was just in... It's not like the image hunts me, but I can still feel the horror I felt when I first saw it when I think about it. Those poor helpless children, traumatized for life, violently robbed of their caretakers, the people they love and depend upon most, their mom and dad... It makes me very very sad. Images I saw more recently of wounded children in Gaza invoked the same reaction. Still, when pictures like that come up I often consciously decide to look at them, because I think it helps me to have a more objective view of reality.

Yes, I'm the same way. I can't watch the fake, gratuitous stuff, but I feel that somehow I must at least be a witness to the real suffering of others. If they are experiencing it, how can I turn away and try to pretend it isn't happening?

That little girl you mention actually does haunt me. And how many more are there whose lives are destroyed and then shoved into the darkness and no one knows or cares?

That girl haunts me too, and her little brother next to her. She's crying in desperation and he is silent in shock and fear. Same thing with that Iraqi man who had his picture taken while crying on a line of wooden coffins. Same with the Palestinian girl who got all her family killed by an Israeli boat during a picnic on a beach. Pure nightmares. I absolutely despise war and what it does to people.

What kills me is how we (people in general, and unfortunately, at the time myself included) were able to believe in the war in Iraq as necessary. And now I think, my god... most the people who die in war have absolutely nothing to do with the war - don't want it, don't deserve it. People's lives are utterly destroyed. And for what? My god, for absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. And how can I sit here and even try to build myself up to be such a great person, when even I was suckered in to thinking somehow it was ok, was for a purpose... And it wasn't for any real purpose at all. And even IF the reason we went there had been true, the great majority of people whose lives were ruined would have not even been involved. So much pain and suffering.

 

[Vulcan59]

What kills me is how we (people in general, and unfortunately, at the time myself included) were able to believe in the war in Iraq as necessary. And now I think, my god... most the people who die in war have absolutely nothing to do with the war - don't want it, don't deserve it. People's lives are utterly destroyed. And for what? My god, for absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. And how can I sit here and even try to build myself up to be such a great person, when even I was suckered in to thinking somehow it was ok, was for a purpose... And it wasn't for any real purpose at all. And even IF the reason we went there had been true, the great majority of people whose lives were ruined would have not even been involved. So much pain and suffering.

And that should lead you to the next article on your reading list, if you haven't read it already, Depression as A Stepping Stone (to Soul Growth). :)

 

[Brenda86]

What kills me is how we (people in general, and unfortunately, at the time myself included) were able to believe in the war in Iraq as necessary. And now I think, my god... most the people who die in war have absolutely nothing to do with the war - don't want it, don't deserve it. People's lives are utterly destroyed. And for what? My god, for absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. And how can I sit here and even try to build myself up to be such a great person, when even I was suckered in to thinking somehow it was ok, was for a purpose... And it wasn't for any real purpose at all. And even IF the reason we went there had been true, the great majority of people whose lives were ruined would have not even been involved. So much pain and suffering.

And that should lead you to the next article on your reading list, if you haven't read it already, Depression as A Stepping Stone (to Soul Growth). :)

I haven't read that yet. I'll read it now. Thanks :)

 

[Smallwood]

I have noticed some re-sensitization effect the last few months (since starting the EE), whereas before I'd watch gore movies and play violent video games without flinching. For some time I haven't been able to look at real pictures of war or terror attacks, although I have forced myself to look at the victims a few times.

I was watching BSG (a fantastic TV-series by the way as others have mentioned) the other night. There was a big battlescene (the beginning of season 4) during which several hundred people died in a small instant. I had to stop watching for a moment and cry out tears because it so reminded me of the victims of the modern "warfare".

It's so much more terrible these days, at least in some respects. Back in the days of WW2 for example I think pretty much everyone thought that the war was a horrible thing, nowadays it is widely considered as entertainment (that is, if it is on a screen and not on your lawn)! Lost and godless is the society brought up by XBox 360.

 

[bjorb]

Lost and godless is the society brought up by XBox 360.

Around a year ago I noticed that when you sign in for Xbox-live (to be able to play online) the first time you get the opportunity to play free on the network for a month. Since I have no desire to actually pay for it. I tried it out.

I tried several games. All of them where 18+ still that didn’t hold back all those kids. Who really just infested the whole thing. Besides they weren’t really lovely either. I mean it’s quite annoying listening to a kid who screams non-stop at you that he is going to ‘rape’ you.


In my days:

We had shooters like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An4iRCd3SAY

Nowadays:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9FbWA0Cq_Y

violence/gore and death. Entertainment at your fingertips. More realistic then ever. Advertising focus group: Children.


I have all kind of games lying around but I really don’t have the urge to play those anymore.

Yeah, sometimes, But that’s mostly when I am challenged by mine brother. (multiplayer HALO 3) And somebody has to show him who is boss.

Did I become more sensitive to violent games?

I think so instead of just making a massacre without flinching. I just see so many things more which just didn’t saw before. Which is, well the merciless killing of everything that meets the eye. It's actually realizing what is truly happening.
It’s also that I just don’t see the excitement anymore in getting a high score. Or terminating the ‘bad’ guy.


As for movies. I hardly watch any television. I don’t even download them.

But I have to say:

That I Yesterday went to the movie ‘2012.’ Well I did enjoy ‘the day after tomorrow’ which is a-like, It came out I believe 4 years ago. But this was just the opposite for me. I didn’t saw the awesomeness in seeing the world ‘go to hell.’ Was quite shocked actually. Yeah I was like ‘holy mother -flick-’ the entirety time. But not really in it’s positive form.

I had to enjoy the movie, my ‘old self’ would. But no I didn’t enjoy it.


Thou I still like ‘Steven Seagal’ etc performing his passion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMu2xNBpyQc


As for the world we live in, I also hate to watch those pictures. It’s awful. It haunts more than it ever did. Those People who play ‘God’ on others. It makes me sick. It always did and it hasn’t decreased. I don’t know how to pretend if nothing had happened.