I believe that tension between two parties is inevitable, but war is an illogical and unnecessary step. It is a mistake that we have been repeating since the dawn of humanity. Even though we have quite an extensive record of our history, we still manage to fall into that hole again and again. This is the most ironic part about learning history, because even after doing so, we are still stuck in time, where we continue to repeat our mistakes. It is a secret that only Billy Pilgrim has managed to discover.

I agree with Sontag’s opinion that we are desensitized to war. We see it too often in movies and television. People have become so good at faking it, that when we see the real thing, we simply aren’t fazed by it.

Billy Pilgrim was indifferent to the inevitability of war. Being unstuck in time is like when you realize and understand your history. Since you know your past, you become less likely to repeat mistakes. You might still not know the future, but you can at least predict it and have a choice in what path you take. You can go the way of destruction and more power, or you can choose a life in which you are content with what you have.

I believe that tension between two parties is inevitable, but war is an illogical and unnecessary step. It is a mistake that we have been repeating since the dawn of humanity. Even though we have quite an extensive record of our history, we still manage to fall into that hole again and again. This is the most ironic part about learning history, because even after doing so, we are still stuck in time, where we continue to repeat our mistakes. It is a secret that only Billy Pilgrim has managed to discover.

I agree with Sontag’s opinion that we are desensitized to war. We see it too often in movies and television. People have become so good at faking it, that when we see the real thing, we simply aren’t fazed by it.

Billy Pilgrim was indifferent to the inevitability of war. Being unstuck in time is like when you realize and understand your history. Since you know your past, you are less likely to repeat mistakes. You might still not know the future, but you can at least predict it and have a choice in what path you take. You can go the way of destruction and more power, or you can choose a life in which you are content with what you have.

Images do desensitize us to the realities of war, and thats why Vonnegut’s writing is so amazing. We can see a hundred thousand people die on a screen or before our very eyes, but what effects us most is those real moments we’re not so sensitized to, like the condemnation of the man in the novel to be executed (I can’t remember the character’s name). It’s living irony.

I don’t think that war is inevitable, but that people are so easily lead astray from the one truth we developed pretty early on and were able to agree with: Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. I think if we’d be Reasonable with a capital R and try to get along, maybe one day even love one another without condition.

We as a culture really don’t have anyone to look up to. I feel completely lost most of the time. As a race I think we have a natural taste for destruction because its the easiest and most direct way of getting rid of whatever is frustrating us at the time. We have a brain but we’re not encouraged to use it for creative and productive ends.

Its in this age when we can destroy human civilization with the ease of pressing a few buttons that we find real living irony. Our survival mechanisms can’t be soley violent anymore; survival of the fittest is become survival of the most reasonable.

Americans are bred to fight, basically since day one. We’re brought up on stories of Cowboys killing Native Americans, Columbus taming the New World, and how our own ancestors spred Democracy to people by killing them, but how it was doing the victims a favor. We’re brought up by fathers who were brought up by fathers who were brought up by fathers to always dominate, get their way, no matter what. To be arrogant and childish. I think that’s the real problem, men are brought up to grow into children.

I don’t think the people in power have much to gain from a rational population, they’ll make more money if they keep us stupid. And so they do it.

Are we chained to this destiny? No, nothing’s certain, nothing’s ever certain. But it would take a lot of work to convince everyone that there are better things to do than kill each other.

In relation to the photographs and pictures, the photographs staged by Jeff Wall strike me so much deeper than the artwork by Goya. This is because the people in Wall’s photograph look so much more realistic. They are actual people, who simply looked like they were wounded as a result of battle. In Goya’s photographs, the people almost look like cartoons. They are black and white, and their facial features do not strike me as representative of actual people, and therefore I do not connect them to actual events. In the same way, I struggle to identify with Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse Five because I see him as a character, not as an actual person. His struggles do not really strike me, but rather the exaggerated inattention paid to the severity of war by the novel’s characters. “So it goes” does accurately sum up how people, including myself, look at war. However, the journey that Billy Pilgrim takes is too twisted and strange for me to really identify with him and move me as a reader.

Now talking about this is relation to Slaughterhouse Five, I now see that Vonnegut completely understands how this concept, where literature and media doesn’t affect the people, but rather only the actual event happening to them. This is why Vonnegut writes that war is impossible to understand by anybody, not even aliens. Vonnegut tries to portray his personal experiences in the war to try and help us understand through his satirical writing, but he tries to show the reader what he actually felt while he was at Dresden, not just what he saw.

When I took a look at the pictures by Goya and Jeff Wall, the pictures made by Jeff Wall just seem to be just like the media has shown us, very detailed and violent, adding the aspect of desensitizing. While Goya’s pictures just seem to be faded and hard to understand, showing how war really is. War just manages to pass us all by really unless we’ve actually been in a war ourselves; we pay no mind to those who have fought in it and served for our country. Goya’s pictures show exactly that, that how war and those who fought in it, fade away in time, just like the pictures.

After listening to the interview of Susan Sontag I found that my opinion hasn’t changed. America has been desensitized to war since the end of Vietnam. This is due to the large amount of war films, news articles, photos, and even war video games that have been produced since then. As for the pictures I found that they had profound effect on me. Goya’s were much better then Wall’s even though they were drawn. The one that had a particularly strong effect was the one with the woman standing on the pile of bodies lighting the cannon fuse. It shows how war, especially when it effects us directly, can make anyone take another human’s life. Even though Jeff Wall’s photo wasn’t as good as Goya’s it was still very grusome and powerful in it’s own way. Although when I was looking at it I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was a big joke. I know it was staged but the the soldier with his guts spilling out riding the other soldier like a horse gave me a hint of satire. However, if a person saw this picture they would be horrified, but because it doesn’t directly affect them that feeling of horror would disapear after a few second and the person would continue with what they were doing. As Billy Pilgrim would say “and so it goes” as would the American public with thier lives even if we lost a thousand soldiers a day in Iraq

I think that America is desensitized to war, mainly because it is so common day now. Video games are sold left and right where you can blow heads and legs off opponents and the graphics are only getting more and more realistic. Teenage boys are attracted to these video games for the violence, the action, the drama. They get used to the idea of “killing” a human being. War and killing is so mundane in this country now that the American people cannot be anything but desensitized. While the pictures upset me, they did not in any way allow me to feel what the victims were feeling, and as I was glancing through, I didn’t even try to put myself in their shoes.

Because of this desensitization, war has become inevitable. No one realizes how horrible the experiences can truly be; therefore no one tries to stop it from happening. It is seen as an everyday, common necessity – along the same lines as brushing your teeth or taking a shower, with a little more pain involved. War has become a job for America, something that has to be done. So we have disconnected ourselves from the reality of what war actually is and does in order to continue doing our job the best that we can. The problem with this is that it results in a vicious circle of war that we can never truly escape from.

The first was one of a woman standing on no less than ten dead bodies to light the fuse of a cannon. To me, the picture symbolized humanity’s attitude towards war. They are willing to ignore the carnage as long as glory can be gained. The woman didn’t care that she was standing on human corpses; she cared only to light the cannon. Humans will always light that cannon, no matter how many bodies must be piled up to reach the fuse.

The second was a man holding his wife, cringing, as another man is about to stab him in the back with a knife. This drawing reveals what happens when one kills another person. One is not just gaining glory, he is taking the other man away from his wife and children, and anyone else who knew him. He is no longer just a casualty of war; his life, his desires, his dreams, his passions are all erased with a single movement no different than hitting the side of television set when the picture becomes fuzzy.

The last was a man impaled on a tree branch that extended into his rectum and out of his shoulder. I couldn’t help but think of how many times that probably happened, and what unlucky person pulled the mutilated corpse off of the branch. This drawing, more than the others, left a bad taste in my mouth; but not because of its graphic nature: the realism through which Goya presents it is what made me cringe.

The Jeff Wall images were gruesome, but I think Goya’s medium is what makes his superior. I couldn’t help thinking: is this what war really is? Then I remembered an epigram I read in a place that escapes my memory: never underestimate the cruelty of the human race.

I see war is a necessary evil, needed to create order in a chaotic world. It’s sad, but without war nothing could be centralized- government and the economy would stand still. I think humans glorify war because it is the primary means through which they advance technologically; and when history is examined this couldn’t be more true. An obvious example is the atom bomb- humans discovered nuclear fission, and a very efficient way to kill a lot of people. The irony is undeniable: the technology brought the Allies victory in WWII, but completely destroyed two cities and started the Cold War. It seems advancement will not lead to humanity’s salvation; it will lead to their destruction.

On a side not I thought of “The War Prayer” By: Mark Twain. Google it. It’s worth reading.