* PARKEER *
‘ Wat er psychisch gebeurt met de combattanten in Gaza en de Oekraïne, daarover lezen en horen we nagenoeg niets, nul koma nul, terwijl dat uiteraard enorme ‘negatieve externalities‘ zijn, waarmee we wereldwijd, globaal en mondiaal, (duurzaam) te maken hebben en krijgen. De berichtgeving gaat over aantallen dodelijke slachtoffers en verminkten-die-niet-meer-inzetbaar zijn als vechtmachines, of zelfs als kanonnenvlees te min worden bevonden. De relatieve percentages worden nauwlettend up to date gehouden, maar de psychische averij is (letterlijk) onmetelijk – niet te meten, niet te kwantificeren.’
- ‘Psychische en morele schade. Shay (een psychiater) gebruikt als ondertitel: the undoing of character. Je kunt de lijntjes naar het verbranden van (heilige) boeken, het tot pap bombarderen en moedwillig uithongeren van mensen, het plegen van bloedige aanslagen, moeiteloos trekken. Dat wordt niet gedaan, daarop is de spiraal van stilzwijgen van toepassing. Politici wauwelen, kwaken en snateren, ze vechten om “prestigieuze posities” op het wereldschouwtoneel – wie is de brutaalste, wie heeft de grootste waffel en de scherpste ellebogen – en ze nemen de ene resolutie na de andere aan, maar eigenlijk zijn zij de grondoorzaak van de ergste problemen en de grootste rampzaligheden …’
geredigeerd citaat uit Shay; p.5, p.32 – www.amazon.com/Achilles-Vietnam-Combat-Undoing-Character/dp/0684813211
SHRINKAGE OF THE SOCIAL AND MORAL HORIZON.
The vulnerable relationship between child and parent is a metaphor for the relationship between a soldier and his army. It is also more than a metaphor when we consider the formation and maintenance of good character. The parent’s betrayal of themis through incest, abuse, or neglect puts the child in mortal danger. [p.5 – No single English word takes in the whole sweep of a culture’s definition of right and wrong; we use terms such as moral order, convention, normative expectations, ethics, and commonly understood social values. The ancient Greek word that Homer used, themis, encompasses all these meanings. …… The vulnerability of the soldier’s moral world has increased in three thousand years because of the vast number and physical distance of people in a position to betray “what’s right” in ways that threaten the survival of soldiers in battle. Homeric soldiers actually saw their commander in chief, perhaps daily.] 
Despite intellectual limitations, the small child usually grasps the danger, although the child’s mental representation of the danger differs from the adult’s. The child’s inner sense of safety in the world emerges from the trustworthiness, reliability, and simple competence of the family. Similarly, the child’s acquisition of self-control, self-esteem, and consideration for others depends upon the family. Absent inherited mental disorders, good parenting will produce good character and all the other adult resources of dignity and maturity, including ideals, respect for others, self-respect, ambitions, self-care, prosocial rather than antisocial activity, reliable capacity to distinguish reality from fantasy, and so forth.
Lurking behind these supposedly settled truths is the Platonic assertion that good character is a firm wall between a good person and evil acts, regardless of the betrayals of “what’s right” and other blows, such as bereavement, that may simply happen to an adult. Often there is the invisible, unstated assumption that those who hold power in society exhibit loyalty and care in their fulfillment of themis.
WAR DESTROYS THE TRUSTWORTHY SOCIAL ORDER OF THE MIND.
Homer makes us witness to the weakening of Achilles’ fine character by betrayal and its subsequent destruction by bereavement. Many veterans’ narratives ask us to witness the same. (………….)
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