In defense of Groundhog Day
so the governor of texas declared february 2 chris kyle day, in honor of the american sniper, new star of the movie "american sniper", who killed more people as an american soldier than perhaps anyone. he did it by considering them animals, subhumans, and by believing strongly that killing them was saving american lives.
i don't want to comment on whether this constitutes blind obedience to a war that may or may not have been unjust, or without purpose, or for a bad purpose. or whether this violates the old "thou shalt not kill" command that has been so easily changed to "thou shalt not kill unless the government tells you to go fight in a certain war" - in other words, whether a person who is inclined to kill as a soldier, or even as a young boy, has any duty to think critically about what he's about to do.
no, what irritates me the most is that they consider groundhog day to be the kind of holiday you can easily pre-empt, as if it doesn't matter, go ahead, it's just groundhog day. groundhog day was already completely overtaken by that one horror movie, which at one time, was it the nineties? anyway, for a while there, "groundhog day" referred to some unspeakable horror that everyone had to go to the moviehouse to see. well, i guess the same can be said for chris kyle, but really, i consider the chris kyle story to be more of an american tragedy, than an american hero story. here's a kid, eighteen, wants to do what's right, joining the marines, or the army or whatever, seems to be the best thing, and he just gets into killing in a big way. and he twists his mind around so he thinks it's not only ok to kill, but actually good.
but here's the kicker - he comes home, and he meets lots of troubled vets, and his approach to that is, let's go out to the firing range and shoot a few, and that'll make you feel better. make you feel better? he's reached the point where shooting targets, or people, or whatever, is his solution for whatever is boiling inside. so he feels that other people must be the same, and just a bit of shooting out on the range will make it better.
it won't make it better. bring back the groundhog!
i don't want to comment on whether this constitutes blind obedience to a war that may or may not have been unjust, or without purpose, or for a bad purpose. or whether this violates the old "thou shalt not kill" command that has been so easily changed to "thou shalt not kill unless the government tells you to go fight in a certain war" - in other words, whether a person who is inclined to kill as a soldier, or even as a young boy, has any duty to think critically about what he's about to do.
no, what irritates me the most is that they consider groundhog day to be the kind of holiday you can easily pre-empt, as if it doesn't matter, go ahead, it's just groundhog day. groundhog day was already completely overtaken by that one horror movie, which at one time, was it the nineties? anyway, for a while there, "groundhog day" referred to some unspeakable horror that everyone had to go to the moviehouse to see. well, i guess the same can be said for chris kyle, but really, i consider the chris kyle story to be more of an american tragedy, than an american hero story. here's a kid, eighteen, wants to do what's right, joining the marines, or the army or whatever, seems to be the best thing, and he just gets into killing in a big way. and he twists his mind around so he thinks it's not only ok to kill, but actually good.
but here's the kicker - he comes home, and he meets lots of troubled vets, and his approach to that is, let's go out to the firing range and shoot a few, and that'll make you feel better. make you feel better? he's reached the point where shooting targets, or people, or whatever, is his solution for whatever is boiling inside. so he feels that other people must be the same, and just a bit of shooting out on the range will make it better.
it won't make it better. bring back the groundhog!
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