(no subject)

[eirias]

We saw The Fog of War tonight, a documentary about, well, ostensibly it's about war but I really think it's a character study of Robert McNamara. It was a good movie, but uncomfortable. I left the theater with the feeling that McNamara died with a lot on his conscience, a lot of things he was only half owning up to. He said some interesting things. But his face made my own conscience feel itchy.

It's not so much that I think McNamara was a terrible person, or more of one than anybody else. I think that nobody would be graceful in a situation where doing their job meant being an accessory (at least) to hundreds of thousands of deaths by fire and bombs and poison. What I take from that is that we probably shouldn't give people the power to kill hundreds of thousands of other people by fire and bombs and poison. I know, I know, a long list of "shoulds" that starts with flossing and doesn't make it out the gate. What can you do, you know.

Comments

[drspiff.livejournal.com]

Great movie. It's one of my favorites. I had to watch it again immediately after the first time I saw it.

An evolutionary advantage we have is that we have all the ability to learn from the mistakes of someone else. I think that was what McNamara was thinking when he participated in this film. Basically he knew he was damned but wanted to tell his story in a way that might help us collectively avoid going down that road again.