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As a veteran war correspondent, Chris Hedges has survived ambushes in Central America, imprisonment in Sudan, and a beating by Saudi military police. He has seen children murdered for sport in Gaza and petty thugs elevated into war heroes in the Balkans. Hedges, who is also a former divinity student, has seen war at its worst and knows too well that to those who pass through it, war can be exhilarating and even addictive: "It gives us purpose, meaning, a reason for living." Drawing on his own experience and on the literature of combat from Homer to Michael Herr, Hedges shows how war seduces not just those on the front lines but entire societies--corrupting politics, destroying culture, and perverting basic human desires. Mixing hard-nosed realism with profound moral and philosophical insight, War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning is a work of terrible power and redemptive clarity whose truths have never been more necessary.… (more)
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There are many literary references in this book, especially to the classics of antiquity which Hedges studied at Harvard during a hiatus in his work as a journalist. He gives these their due as evidence of the enduring attributes of war, but he avoids elevating them into sanction for it. He also returns at various points to his own need for literary sustenance in the midst of war (e.g. 90, 169).
In his introduction, Hedges disclaims a pacifist agenda. He writes that his aim is "a call for repentance" in the face of growing US military hubris. The book is concerned with the ways in which war is fostered by the dehumanizing falsehoods of nationalism, destroying culture and erecting an abstract "cause" to which life must be subordinated. Hedges proposes memory and love as the antidotes to the martial impulse, where these are rooted in lived contact with others, particularly across ethnic and religious divides. Unfortunately, this book is as timely now as when it was first published, and there is no real likelihood that it will become irrelevant in the foreseeable human future.
Hedges
The writing here is a professional product, well written and easy to read. He has an excellent knowledge of the classics and uses that knowledge well. I urge everyone to read this book.
I would add one point in closing and that is that Chris Hedges has the unique ability to synthesize great
I think it should be required reading for people from all countries.
(JAF)
Hedges examines, in a literary and
It is a mistake to characterize him as anti-patriotic or anti-American, despite his fierce criticism of Bush II.
Patriotism is not mindlessly waving a flag, buying ribbons and singing ballads, it is not hating those who are different or rewriting history to support your worldview, it is not destroying history or culture, or the addiction of violence, of being caught up in the narrative of war and good v. evil. It is standing for values and morality and, as cliche as it might sound, love.
There is another segment which I find particularly interesting - how war and violence are made appealing, perhaps through selective distortion of history, positive media, and 'other-ization' of the enemy.
Perhaps the only criticism I have of Hedge's sermonizing writing style - how can Hedges be more repetitive in 200 pages than Wililam T. Vollmann is in 3000? I don't say this because I disagree with him - on the contrary. I agree with nearly everything he's said. I cannot offer anything but the most subjective reasons of personal taste, and suggest you form your own opinions - especially with a book like this. It is proposing ideas far too important simply to be ignored.
I give this work a very rare 5-star rating. Not only is it well-written and documented non-fiction, but he wrote this in 2002, in the face of the lies told by the Bush Administration to the American people to justify launching three expensive and ill-conceived wars: Al Quaida (a global network), Afghanistan (religious herdsmen), and Iraq (secular oil producers).
"The Hurt Locker", the Academy Award-winning film about the Iraq War opens with a quotation from the book: "The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug." The full quote is found on page 3. Hedges is critical of the film, and Hollywood, for its participation and enablement of the fictions which support the War Machine.
An important idea and one worth circling a few times, but too many times and we get tired and numb. By all means
Know then the full extent of my meaning when I say I was greatly disapointed by this book.
Well written, easy to follow, powerfull in its imagery, and very unbiased, this book was on its way to a higher score when I noticed what I found to be a large and fatal flaw.
A serious lack of sources to follow.
This is not to say I do not beleive his arguements, I am well informed enough in certain parts of recent history to know that what he says is true. But many people who may read this book will not. You can tell them that during the various Balkan Wars many of soldiers were nothing but local gangsters in uniforms, but frankly, considering the massive amount of disinformation that exisits this day in age, you must at least point an arrow in the right direction. I also understand that some of this evidence does not exists, but some still does. You cannot simply say it as common knowlegde, because it is not.