4 ms·
"This Christmas Day, hundreds of men will be bleeding to death in the Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan sands, or blowing one another to pieces in the Mexican drug wars;
by orwellsadvocate 8y ago
"This Christmas Day, hundreds of men will be bleeding to death in the Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan sands, or blowing one another to pieces in the Mexican drug wars; homeless children will be begging in the streets of one of the wealthiest nations in history".
I know that it's not fair to compare the death rates today to that during the height of WWII, but _completely_ alien? That seems extreme to me. There's still plenty of suffering, and while it may not be quite so universal as it was during the 1940s, it's still prevalent enough that the essay should be relevant today.
- rossdavidh 8y agoEssay is still exceedingly relevant, but the "completely alien" part is probably that the men doing the bleeding and dying were from the wealthiest societies on the planet. During WW1 and WW2 there was actually more violent death among the wealthy societies than among the poorest. That is extraordinarily different.