Collateral Damage

[chaotic_nipple]

I recently read a book by Travis S. Taylor, better known to denizens of Baen's Bar as "Doc" Travis. It was his first novel, and was pretty good as first novels go. His characters occasionally missed really, blatently obvious clues, and not all of them were fully realized. The main character was a Kung-Fu-Blackbelt-Super-Scientist-All-Around-Badass. He was also a very transparent avatar of the good doctor himself. Ordinarily, this sort of writing is referred to as "Mary Sue-ing", and is grounds for defensestration of the author. However, reliable sources all concur that "Doc" really _is_ that studly in real life, the sort of Shining Golden Boy Paragon Of All Things Cool who would arouse instant hatred in all lesser males if only he weren't so gosh darn nice.

However, there seems to be one 'super' attribute that the doctor lacks, and that would be compassion. Towards the end of the book, the main character explains to a small child that the massive casualties that the 'Good Guys' are about to inflict on the bad guys, and which will include millions of civilians, are all fully deserved. That the civilians got what they had coming to them for not overthrowing their despotic governments. It appalls me that someone who can be so educated and erudite can be so utterly heartless. Even John Ringo, bloodthirsty reactionary that he is, doesn't write his characters that ruthless. Not the Good Guys, anyway.

Obviously, Doc has had no experience whatsoever with societies less free than our own. This is a mindset typical of 'self made' Americans: "I done good, I succeeded in life, if those furriners live worse than I do, it's their own damn fault". Not to belittle to good doctor's accomplishments, but if he were born in a third world slum, all the hard work and dedication in the world would not have made him what he is is in this timeline; the best he could hope for would be Local Strongman or Political Refugee. As for not submitting to tyranny, well, he's never had to stand up to it in real life, so how can he know what he would do? One of our interpreters _did_ stand up to Saddam's tyranny, and ended up shot in the back and buried alive for his troubles. Luckily for him, he was on the top layer of corpses, and the dirt was packed loosely enough that he could breath for the time it took to dig himself out. The rest of his family weren't so lucky.

Another example: One of the locally employed cleaners at our FOB has a truly magnificent set of prison tattoos from his time in Saddam's jails. He also has a vast assortment of whip, burn, and cut scars. One of the worst is on his arm; A guard handed him a knife, held a gun to his head, and told him to start cutting. All of his scars and tattoos were acquired before he was 17 years old. As a child, he spent 12 years in prison because his parents were accused of plotting against the ruling regime.

It's easy for us comfortable first-worlders to blame third-world civilians for the crimes of their governments. We've never had to face the sorts of choices that they've had to. In their position, most of you reading this would have done the same.

Comments

[larksdream]

This is a mindset typical of 'self made' Americans

Yup. Unfortunately, people whose range of experience is fairly narrow tend to, well, lack perspective.

Unrelated

[(Anonymous)]

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Goetzie!

Same old song

[shadoutcarver.livejournal.com]

Most americans lack the larger perspective. It is disapointing coming from an educated person. I hate to tell you though, a huge percentage of native born americans never did and never will have a clue. You get used to it.

The whole lack of compassion thing is new. At least I think its new, maybe I just didnt want to see it. I always thought of americans as generally empathetic. That sympathy seems to be vanishing. (or is it must me?)

Re: Same old song

[shadoutcarver.livejournal.com]

I meant JUST me.

oops

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, people don't understand how much of who we are and the choices we make are based on our experiences, health, the choices and resources of the people around us. What would any of us do, if un- or undereducated, poorly fed, probably with untreated health problems, afraid, all of our energy going into survival for ourselves and our families? It happens in every country in the world, you know. Is it worth giving your life for an ideal if it means that you are imprisoned, maimed or killed (or in the west 'just' lose your job), so that your family is left without you or your contribution, and whatever else may happen? We can only do the best we can with what we have, and remember that here in the west we are 'on the shoulders of giants', much of the work has already been done for us. Many forget that 'we' didn't build our country, our ancestors did, and we are not more worthy for having been descended from them, just luckier. It is unfortunate that often intelligent, high-minded people are so out-of-touch with reality, even what goes on here in the US, much less elsewhere.