‘More killing won’t bring back lost lives’: Tal Mitnick, 18, on going to prison instead of joining IDF

submitted by Drewski from theguardian.com

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[–]hfxB0oyA 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (13 children)

Respect to this guy.

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (12 children)

If everyone thought like this guy, there would be no more war. Maybe someday there will be a global mainstream anti-war culture. The people have to learn to reject pro-war mindsets event though the media trains us to embrace it.

[–]hfxB0oyA 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (11 children)

Agreed. I'm hoping that the collapse of the establishment media will continue long enough to allow people to re-access their critical thinking skills. At the very least it should seem obvious that volunteering to be shot is not a great personal goal, even if the odds are low.

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (10 children)

Agreed, the problem is becoming so bad due to AI and cultural decay that I think there is a new counter-cultural consensus developing of "let's not be this bad, at least" which will push people toward seeking wisdom.

Civilization seems to wax and wane like this throughout history, but the internet adds a new twist on the old cycle.

[–]hfxB0oyA 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

I've been wondering lately if this will lead to a renewed interest in 'traditional' technologies. Not neo-luddite so much as an increased interest in the theatre of the mind, using actual printed books that can't be revised on a server to re-expose us to ideas that might take some time to digest and consider. As I get older, I find myself feeling less interested in keeping up with the latest, malleable news cycle and more interested in understanding what I truly believe and what is ephemeral to my thought cycle. I'm feeling like a book - any book - is going to help me contemplate this better than all the feeds in the world.

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

I agree, I think there will be some sort of post-internet movement. I think TV is to the boomers as internet is to the current generations. Future generations will see that it's a propaganda machine from the get-go, but will also have missed the prime days when it was actually full of useful information. It's probably a cycle every new communication medium goes through as it ages, including radio. It is invented, it becomes useful and informative, then it becomes full of big money and idiots, then it is used up as a medium and then people learn to ignore it as the next medium is invented and becomes the new hot thing.

I guess at some point we will run out of new mediums being invented though, and I have to wonder what will happen then. The internet, in a way, seems like the final communication medium because it can transmit any type of information nearly instantly across the globe.

[–]hfxB0oyA 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

The pervasive internet has been interesting to watch because I think the last 7 to 10 years saw us witnessing a global psychological adolescence with western countries affected the most. It seems to me that we are now seeing a sea change where a lot of us, regardless of age, are getting tired of having blue hair and creating chaotic, gatekeeping identity rules for their own sake.

Hopefully what we're seeing now is the emergence of a connected adulthood where the giddiness and black-and-white nature of the idealistic 'social justice' phase of societal development gets tempered by a realization that we aren't going to be able to force everybody into marching in lockstep with our chosen moral code. Alongside that I hope is reemerging a maturity that acknowledges the need to get along with our neighbours, even if they don't subscribe to the same creed as we do, and to realize that the mettle that makes up an individual is far more important on a day-to-day level than the brand they wear on their sleeve.

I don't think the core of this adolescent period was necessarily a bad thing, though it did result in a mountain of damaging and bad faith actions by individuals. If we can get beyond that phase and realize that we have more in common than we do differences, maybe the coming adult phase will allow us to make more tempered personal decisions that might help our fellow man without expecting everyone to jump on our bandwagon for the likes. If that happens, then just maybe we will see the emergence of more Tal Mitnicks in the world.

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Well said. I feel as though society, in the US at least, was in a good place with this in the 90s. And now it's gone to someplace strange that is an over-shoot of the previous corrections. I think it will balance out eventually, but the internet is also giving humanity an ugly look at itself in the mirror in a completely new way, and we collectively are still figuring out how to deal with this.

[–]hfxB0oyA 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

Hopefully we can get to a better state of society with as little Robespierre as possible on the way there.

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Agreed. I hope in a decade or two we're on a better track, and I hope in 200 years people look at this era and see it as uncivilized as how we look at the 1800s compared to the present day. With the broad availability of so much information, I have to hope it's just a matter of time until wise behavior becomes organized in to lasting global cultural movements.