War.

Just came back from watching War of the Worlds as a Canada Day cool-down event with my summer housemates. Because it was bloody hot and we were in the mood for a summer movie.

Steven Spielburg angers me.

From the casting of Tom Criuse (who, despite being introduced in a shot showing him working on a dock, still doesn't look like normal people) to the obligatory cute/precocious/unsufferably annoying child to the ridiculous preponderance of American flags to the saccharine ending, this movie was not enjoyable. I'm glad I saw it, if only to remind myself what a bad movie is.

Not to mention, the obligatory Morgan Freeman voice-over at the beginning and end was gender-specific. Now, I'm not militant about this -- you can call God 'He' if it floats your boat -- but hearing someone repeatedly refer to "mankind" and "man" really angers me. C'mon, how hard is it to say "human"?

Final line, which really had nothing to do with the movie or the ending, was this: "Man does not live or die in vain."

Well isn't that just lovely. Apparently women live in vain.

argh.

In other, less frustrating news, I've read a very good book recently; War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges. As a former war correspondant, Hedges writes very easily, honestly, and powerfully about the addictive force that is war and what it does to people, to families, and to society. Fascinating.

Hedges is also extremely well read, and uses quotes from philosophers, Shakespeare, Homer and others to back up his points. Some good quotes:

"The poison that is war does not free us from the ethics of responsibility"

"...every recruit headed into war would be well advised to read The Iliad, just as every soldier returning home would be served by reading The Odyssey."

"The destruction of culture plays a crucial role in the solidification of a wartime narrative. When the visible and tangible symbols of one's past are destroyed or denied, the past can be recreated to fit the myth."

"We believe in the nobility and self-sacrifice demanded by war, especially when we are blinded by the narcotic of war. We discover in the communal struggle, the shared sense of meaning and purpose, a cause. War fills our spiritual void. I do not miss war, but I miss what it brought. I can never say I was happy in the midst of the fighting in El Salvador, or Bosnia, or Kosova, but I had a sense of purpose, of calling. And this is a quality war shares with love, for we are, in love, also able to choose fealty and self-sacrifice over security."

The book certainly has it's share of politically-charged rhetoric (which I find sneaky and repulsive, even if I agree with the political statements being made), but generally it's a fascinating read. Certainly it made me, while in my chilly movie theatre, look at the guns being brandished and the army men fighting back in War of the Worlds in a new light. Why do we like movies which show humanity being invaded by scary aliens? Because an invading force from without has the seductive, adrenilin-charged power (which no amount of peace-making and talking and kumbaya-ing can achieve) to bring humanity together and make us feel -- however briefly -- connected.

It's creepy though -- why are we made in such a way that hurting others bonds us together?
Why is war so addictive? Why does it feel good?