Some thoughts on numbers
Jul. 22nd, 2007 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumNight before last I went to church, at the Cathedral in Chavez Ravine. Sadly the Dodgers lost.
But that wasn't what I wanted to talk about. As I was eating my Dodger dog, and drinking my Gordon Biersch hefeweizen (which has bannana notes, but there ya' go) I was looking around the stadium.
No, I was thinking of issues of scale.
The official count for the game was 52,000 people, in real terms, it was probably more like 50,000 (season tickets count, so if no one shows up, there will still be a paid attendence in the thousands).
We tend to forget that 50,000 is a lot of people.
There were lots of battles, battles which shaped the course of events (Hasting, Agincourt, Poiters, Pharsalus, Yorktown) had no more than that.
Compared to the massive battles of the US Civil War, World Wars 1, and 2, we tend to lose track of that, to see Armies as masses of faceless figures in khaki. Those who pump the war try to ignore the humanity of the soldiers; to convert them into icons.
Lots of those opposed to the war do the same thing, it's just that the ends are differnt, so the stereotypes are mirrored (the one side sees dupes; poor; or patriotic, slaves to duty, the other sees warriors lusting for glory and certain of victory. The truth is they are people, as varied as the fans at a baseball game. Some came to cheer the Dodgers, some to root for the Mets.
There are 130,000 soldiers in Iraq. 130,000 separate stories, and it's still less than three times the number of people sitting in that small space which is Dodger stadium.
They are responsible for occupying, and pacifying, an area the size of California, with a population of 30 millions.
But that wasn't what I wanted to talk about. As I was eating my Dodger dog, and drinking my Gordon Biersch hefeweizen (which has bannana notes, but there ya' go) I was looking around the stadium.
No, I was thinking of issues of scale.
The official count for the game was 52,000 people, in real terms, it was probably more like 50,000 (season tickets count, so if no one shows up, there will still be a paid attendence in the thousands).
We tend to forget that 50,000 is a lot of people.
There were lots of battles, battles which shaped the course of events (Hasting, Agincourt, Poiters, Pharsalus, Yorktown) had no more than that.
Compared to the massive battles of the US Civil War, World Wars 1, and 2, we tend to lose track of that, to see Armies as masses of faceless figures in khaki. Those who pump the war try to ignore the humanity of the soldiers; to convert them into icons.
Lots of those opposed to the war do the same thing, it's just that the ends are differnt, so the stereotypes are mirrored (the one side sees dupes; poor; or patriotic, slaves to duty, the other sees warriors lusting for glory and certain of victory. The truth is they are people, as varied as the fans at a baseball game. Some came to cheer the Dodgers, some to root for the Mets.
There are 130,000 soldiers in Iraq. 130,000 separate stories, and it's still less than three times the number of people sitting in that small space which is Dodger stadium.
They are responsible for occupying, and pacifying, an area the size of California, with a population of 30 millions.
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no subject
Date: 2007-07-23 03:01 pm (UTC)Yeah, John and I have had tons of trouble explaining our choices and trying to get the folx at church/store/airport/wherever to see soldiers as people. Not figures on top of pedestals or Imperial War Monkeys.
As for being in it out of desperation? Eh...I've met a few, but those have been supremely pleased by their time in the Army and have found that they're more than they were when they started BCT.
I can't/won't/don't watch the news any more. After I got back from Iraq, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, BBC, whatever, put me in screaming incoherent tears because I would get so mad. I still shake with rage when I think about Christianne Amanpour and her election day "coverage" in Iraq.
Gah. I'm going to go pet the dog.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-23 03:34 pm (UTC)I am, despite some lapses, pretty hard to offend. I don't think you (unless you were going out of your way in presentation to be so) are able to offend me with a reasoned opinion.
But it pleases me that you worry about it.
I don't know how many people (for the past fifteen years) have been shocked that I joined the army. Some of them said things which were offensive; mostly because they didn't think about what was implicit in what they said; I don't care much for being told, even in all innocence of intent, that someone thought I was a monster, by virtue of what I must be willing to do because they couldn't imagine a person who wasn't, having my job, but I digress).
Oddly, I got the same thing when I was a reporter (the cognitive dissonance of some people when I joined the army, having been a reporter... ah, the good old days).
People pigeonhole each other.
I don't watch the news anymore either.
I'm going to go dig up more rocks.