From: entropy@farviolet.com
Date: Fri Jul 02 2004 - 17:41:43 MDT
On Sat, 3 Jul 2004, David Picon Alvarez wrote:
> > Because self sacrifice (not necessarily fatal) is the ultimate pleasure.
>
> I believe you will find out that if you ask a statistically significant
> proportion of soldiers in modern history (mercenaries are another story)
> they'd tell you they're not happy soldiering.
Soldiers may be soldiers for more reasons other than a well understood
choice:
1) They may need the money and signup for the military in peace time.
2) They may be recruited for a war with a serious misunderstanding of
whats involved in real war. Rarely do any 'lofty' ideals surrounding
the war survive actual combat.
3) They may have been drafted.
However what matters isn't the experience of the war in #2, its the
decision to 'self sacrifice' at the recruitment center, after that they
are stuck. A suicide bomber may decide in the few instants after blowing
themselves up before full death that this really sucks, but again its
too late.
However there are cases where one makes such a choice and its pleasure
throughout. Some of the accounts by the Christian Saints of there
punishment for good deeds includes this, not to mention that masochistic
pleasure in general often includes this component. Enough that it
overrides ordinary perception of possibly quite severe pain.
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