My recommendation to anyone who erroneously believes that human beings, including "demonic males" are naturally violent: A book by a military officer studying exactly what it takes to train a human being to kill another, instead of simply making a chest beating threat display. Conclusion: humans, like every other animal, are quick to posture and bark, but loath to actually enter into a conflict which could be damaging or lethal to either party. We are, in short, all talk. Great book.
_On Killing :
The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society_
by Dave Grossman
(November 1996)
Little Brown & Co
ISBN: 0316330116 ;
>From Booklist , October 15, 1995
What makes soldiers kill--or not--animates this intriguing survey by a
psychologist and
former U.S. Army officer. Grossman reveals that only a fraction of soldiers
kill during
warfare (and feel revulsion when they do); the rest (about 85 percent in
World War II)
resist by missing the target or refusing to fire. With an eye to the
military command's
imperative of overcoming that innate resistance, Grossman quotes numerous
anecdotes
that exemplify the phenomenon and studies that examine it. With such
knowledge, the
military has implemented training that gets firing rates up to 90 percent
of soldiers, but
the psychic cost of blazing away for real is heavy. Individually, a killer
goes through
thrill-remorse-rationalization stages; socially, the killer needs
reassurance and if it is
not received, will suffer post-traumatic stress syndrome, characteristic of
Vietnam
veterans. Grossman concludes his findings of "enabling factors" in killing by
identifying them at work in the rampant violence afflicting American
society. A book
that requires some steely fortitude to finish, but once done, On Killing
delivers
insights on human nature that are both gratifying and repelling. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright© 1995, American Library Association. All rights reserved.
Reed Konsler konsler@ascat.harvard.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------