[lbo-talk] M.I.A. on Lady Gaga and more

[shag carpet bomb]

At 09:21 AM 4/28/2010, Matthias Wasser wrote:
>On Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 7:53 AM, shag carpet bomb <shag at cleandraws.com>wrote:
>
> >
> > four, another important point, i think, is that none of the military are
> > signaling that they are doing this for sport, that they are laughing as
> > people blow up. i think a lot of pop culture refs to this sort of thing
> > would individualize it: they get pleasure out of the sport of killing
> > people, that something about what they do is unique to them, as 
> individuals.
> > thus leading people to conclude that it's just aberrant individuals.
> >
>
>I'm not sure I agree with this. Not that Gavras/Arulpragasam are
>individualizing anything, necessarily, but the military are clearly treating
>it as sport. The violence opens on a relatively unambiguous note, with the
>heavyset driver's exclamation "boom!" at 1:11. They rush to beat everyone
>they can, regardless of whether they're bystanders or someone they'll shoot
>in five seconds. And of course "sport," big game hunting, is exactly what's
>evoked in the minefield - the gingers are forced to run like animals while
>their executioners snipe at them from jeeps, as on a safari.

i agree with you. I think I have a different meaning for sport: play, 
having fun, goofing off, cracking jokes. it's why I used the word 'pleasure'.

to me, you're using sport as institutionalized, systematic, grim work. 
nothing pleasurable or fun about it.

i was thinking of the way a film will show people has getting a real kick 
out of killing people, making jokes, laughing diabolically. This latter 
approach seems to pathologize and psychologize the issue as one of fucked 
up individuals. just fix their mental disorder, and things wouldn't be like 
that.

shag

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