tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167350.post6065047244430500987..comments2023-10-31T05:37:45.410-07:00Comments on Hungry Hyaena: Other Peoples' Lives: The SundurbansHungry Hyaenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06354349850246750046noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167350.post-36034718755381099262009-07-23T14:30:42.610-07:002009-07-23T14:30:42.610-07:00Peter:
Thanks for the follow-up. It clarifies you...<b>Peter:</b><br />Thanks for the follow-up. It clarifies your point for me. I agree; it's near impossible or impossible to "see it for what it really is" unless you're "stuck in."<br /><br />All the best.Hungry Hyaenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06354349850246750046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167350.post-59431581623564690192009-07-23T12:35:13.711-07:002009-07-23T12:35:13.711-07:00I would class war journalists as quite unlike the ...I would class war journalists as quite unlike the 'average joe'. They are massively motivated, do-whatever-it-takes types. <br /><br />Their decision to report war scenes are based on exposure to other difficult circumstances, and I believe most of them try to get as much of any relevant training soldiers get, which may help them deal with the situation.<br /><br />And then they do not actually participate in the fighting itself.<br /><br />I do agree with you about <i>potential</i> to adapt to situation, when exposed to them. Trouble is that the level of adaptability is a variable, and the only way I understand that variable can be quantified is to test it against similar circumstances. (A coders joke: the only way to learn recursive functions is to learn recursive functions.)<br /><br />And the realizations that follow from adaption are not accessible unless preceded by the experience.<br /><br />All of which is why I feel that I can read, and picture the situation without being able to convince myself that I see it for what it really is.Peter Cowlingnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167350.post-75035634236164737452009-07-23T05:24:58.447-07:002009-07-23T05:24:58.447-07:00Peter:
I appreciate your point, but am not convinc...<b>Peter:</b><br />I appreciate your point, but am not convinced. Generally, I'd <i>like</i> to agree with you; I do feel that "nurturing" (as opposed to "naturing" ;)) and acculturation shape us in profound ways. But are these forms hard and fast?<br /><br />Accounts of war journalists like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hedges" rel="nofollow">Chris Hedges</a> suggest that the human mind and, indeed, body, is adaptable to extreme circumstances. Shock - biological shock, that is - makes that adaptation more easy, by draining us of the questioning whilst in the moment. The awful downside, of course, is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posttraumatic_stress_disorder" rel="nofollow">PTSD</a> (posttraumatic stress disorder), the relentless moral hand-wringing and chemical imbalance that surfaces after the fact.<br /><br />War is one (very difficult, very bad) thing; distant lives and customs are another. I have the impression, perhaps wrong, that these can be adapted to with relative ease, over time. The tourist's horror at the prawn trolling woman is, in two years, replaced by a wave and smile. Five years in, if this one-time tourist is a woman, she may be trolling herself.<br /><br />Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. It is also, perhaps, the mother of adaptation.Hungry Hyaenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06354349850246750046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167350.post-52557331794217813772009-07-23T04:20:53.488-07:002009-07-23T04:20:53.488-07:00I find it impossible to put myself in the position...I find it impossible to put myself in the position of the Sundurbans, in the same way that I cannot imagine going to fighting in the first world war, or with a sword in the middle ages. <br /><br />It may seem a strange observation, but I think hardly any of us who live in the North America or Europe, would do anything than go into some form of deep shock should we be presented wiht a sword and told to get stuck in. So, we might imagine that we would step up, but I would bet we physically and mentally could not do so.<br /><br />So, I think its too easy to labour under the impression not just that we could survive in an environment like the Sundurbans (not just for a day or two, and not as a tourist), but that we might come to get an accurate picture of what it takes to do so.<br /><br />Clearly that belief does not mean it makes no sense to try and understand what we might...Peter Cowlinghttp://www.loveart-gallery.comnoreply@blogger.com