The Enjoyment of Justifying

Posted by Naeem Goins in English 3 · Block/Franz/Taylor-Baranik · E Band on

For my last essay, I wanted to go down a different route than what I am used to. I decided to analyze text and do reflections on what I got from the sources. My essay expands on the idea of violence to a soldier and militarism to an american child. I experienced very little writer blocks and wrote more than expected. I ended up with about 2000 words and the limit was suppose to be 750. I had to narrow it down to 900 and take out a lot of my quotes. I couldn't cut down to the 750 mark because it would of effected the flow and took out a lot of strong  points. 

NA'EEM GOINS

Living in a society where violence is accepted, to what degree, mentally, can violence be justified for the better even when you are the doer?


Militarism and Violence  have held a critical device that shaped us into the people we raise today.  Dating back to the biblical ages with David and Goliath and the drowning of Pharaoh's Army, the interrelation of militarism and violence have been a widely accepted motive. It is the key to survival that involve strategies even God himself has used. With this information, I found my next question. How can humans live in society without the use of violence or some form of militarism? The answer being that we can’t. It’s our foundation and what helps keep the world spinning. It is  okay to learn about violence.  By  accepting it , we are able to  determine if violence should actually be reflected upon as a negative tool. I revisited many  articles, in search of perspective of war veterans and children. I figured that veterans come home to expect there to be an uproar of violence while  children are viewed as soldiers who need to be against violence but enjoy it at the same time because implementing it is a great way to blow off steam. It amazes me how contradicting and framed mentally a society as one can think. It can’t be widely accepted for veterans of all ages to be treated with a superb lenses because of their violence by entertainment and smiles. Children who produces violence are only widely accepted when it’s either done in the dark or for the benefits of the great U.S.A.


Young minds can blossom like a butterfly when manipulated.  This is a highly shared  thought between older beings when it come to the youth. The military has enforced propaganda on students to join the fight. At a very young age, I felt that violence was accepted because the schools allowed the army to come in and give us the cool key chains and posters that were dedicated to joining the fight. I’m referring to fight as the war against terror and protecting this country. It is an honor to sign your life over at 18 and fight in a war without knowing exactly why we're fighting  in the war. The lack of knowledge could be a reason for why so many veterans are scared mentally because they would not know what they are getting themselves into. This robe of honor that we give the army sergeants who promote the fight  has turned them into people  not being obligated to share the gruesome details involving the fight. The same obligation we force on the young minds to share every piece of action that happen when they got into a fight over a disagreement. In an interview titled Forced to Fight, Charbonneau explicitly gave  his opinion through an adult perspective by saying “These children live in constant fear of being killed by the troops if they don't obey. Many of them are being tortured and raped. "Unfortunately there are 'advantages' to using children for armed groups: Children are cheap fighters and easy to manipulate. They are often drugged and indoctrinated with propaganda and movies before they are sent out to fulfill their missions The psychodynamics of the TV cartoon or comic book are marvelously simple: children identify with the good guy so that they can think of themselves as good. This enables them to project onto the bad guy their own repressed anger, violence, rebelliousness, or lust and then vicariously to enjoy their own evil by watching the bad guy initially prevail.” The merriam dictionary definition of violence is an intense, turbulent, or furious and often destructive action or force. A children’s cartoon expose a hidden truth insides each human. We are all violent by nature. There is negative energy that we all bound up because we don’t want to create violence but have no problem forcing that same energy on someone we feel deserves it.

In order to enjoy being the creator of violence, you will have to believe that you are right. When Justifying a force of violence on someone, the defense story comes up. You want to propose to the witnesses that you were defending yourself or someone else. Though you smiled or cheered because you had the upper hand, we try to forgive ourselves because we hate the feeling of guilt. Not every situation is avoidable and violence can never be justified. However, observing this idea through the lenses of  a soldier, justifying violence can be a coping mechanism in the conscious. In war, soldiers are the suspect, victim, and witness of violence. With a gun in their hands and a big playfield to damage up, the feeling of sympathy for other humans are quickly non existent. Instead, the battlefield becomes an illusion of the mind where every one is the target and as long as there are sounds of screaming and bullets, violence is in the air. In the soldier mind, killing the enemy is the only way to suck the violence out of the air. Though it may sound horrible from the outside looking in, soldiers are taking their repressed negative energies out on the battlefield. The same way children compare themselves to the good superhero and enforce their own repressed violence on the bad guy. In both scenarios, the doer is responding in violence with the help of personal issues.

Militarism and violence should never be enjoyed. We can’t enforce violence with our own personal repression or militarize someone else because they are easy to manipulate. This is what leads to the decline of governments and start of an barbaric nature, both interior and exterior. For a change in society, we must acknowledge the fact that violence and militarism will always be a necessity. We can't go against it or be patriots of its actions. Treat both actions as sentimental principles instead or ways to protect the alpha status. Violence is not something that needs justification when being used in an militarism culture.


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