I often wonder how my grandfather must have felt knowing he had killed thousands of innocent people in the line of duty. But i know not to ask. I learned that long ago. Not all questions are to be asked. Some are simply to be forgotten. One answer will suffice: for God and country.

These thoughts have been more present in my mind in recent months. I remember being asked how i could be anti-war and pro-soldier, as though these ideas were completely contradictory. My response was always simple: Stanley Milgram. On a listserv today, someone noted that they would never participate in killing others, that they would rather risk jail than participate in the military, that the only justifiable option is conscientious objector. I wish i could live in a world where that option was available to everyone. Instead, i wrote:

This is a privilege that is currently afforded to you, yes. But it is not something that is afforded to all people everywhere, nor does it guarantee that you will never be situated in a kill-or-be-killed environment.

In many places in the world, you are required to serve in the armed forces. In many places, war is on your front step. Sure, you can say that anyone could rebel for moral reasons, but obedience to authority runs very deep. Are you familiar with Stanley Milgram’s work (mostly stemming from Obedience to Authority)?

Of course, the most interesting analysis of how stress will motivate “good” people to do “bad” things is Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment…

One well established perspective is that people’s moral values and practices are highly context-dependent. Put people in a position of fear, stress or anxiety and some of the worst characteristics of humanity are bound to emerge, even if they are the most altruistic and well-demeanored people in everyday life.

This research is very interesting in light of most war-vets PTSD. Needless to say, both Milgram and Zimbardo induced PTSD on their subjects (and they are the reason that we have the IRB today). Anyone who has been to war will articulate the conflicting feelings of not wanting to kill and yet doing so. It’s hard to make sense of and it tears at the fabric of your self-perception.

It’s also really important to note that we live in a very individualistic society. Most societies are more driven by community and family pressures and norms than personal beliefs. Rebellion is an act of dishonoring your family/community, a cultural force that most people don’t overcome. Also (best noted by Milgram), the values of an individual and the values of a group are often very different.

While we have the privilege to sit in (mostly) American cities and voice our dissent towards military participation, the forces that operate in most places would push any (even educated) member of society towards participation. Also, for the most part, we have education, jobs (or job potential), and lack family responsibilities, all of which affords us a lot of mobility and freedom. Most of the US’s military force is comprised of the poorest and least mobile individuals. Most signed up to get out of their home environment and never expected to have to participate. I would guess that most are not motivated by murder, but then put in that context…

I would love to believe that i would never kill. I would love to believe that if i were drafted, i would have the strength to rebel. Yet, i imagine that instinct would kick in and if i weren’t so privileged, so would need to conform.

Given this perspective, my personal view is that it is the responsibility of those of us with privilege to create a worldwide context where the worst in humanity doesn’t need to emerge. How can we reduce the tension so that the instinct to kill out of fear does not need to be considered? How do we increase communication so that the worst-case-scenario is never realized?

Of course, i realize that this is not the perspective that most people have. My grandfather came back from war to a culture that realized that whatever happened in wartime stayed in wartime. It was not to be discussed; simply honor the vets. In Vietnam, vets came back from their harrowing experiences to a country of people who hated them for doing what they didn’t see as representative. Anti-war activists took a stance that any conscientious person would object to the war and thus our own people were criminals. This divided our country unnecessarily and we saw the ramifications very recently. People still cannot separate between anti-war and anti-soldiers. The public sees the two as synonymous and it always saddens me to hear people validate that. To believe that soldiers are evil and immoral people is to be so steeped in privilege that you’ve lost touch of humanity.