Relative values of lives

[sam h]

Reading the thread about Pat Tillman's death, I saw much debate about the importance of the sacrifice he had made and the relative values of lives of American serviceman. That sort of discussion, and the general media treatment of American casualities overseas, really begs another set of questions.

What is the worth of a non-American life? Why is it that people express these gut churning emotions when a handful of Americans die in combat yet seem to hardly blink an eye with more news of the "oh, incidentally another 34 Iraqis died yesterday" variety? Why is it that when the media discusses in weighty tones the "cost" of the Vietnam war it always quotes a figure of roughly 50,000 American lives lost, yet rarely notes that estimates of Vietnamese (and Cambodian and Laotian) casualties, civilian and military, generally run over the one million mark?

I find myself disturbingly falling into this thinking as well, so I'm not trying to point fingers or assert some kind of moral superiority. I just think its important to realize and think about the fact that the lives of non-Americans are assigned relatively little significance or value in a lot of discourse about foreign policy. This, of course, is no doubt true for many countries. But its especially important for us to think about, as the hegemonic world power.

If we really want people in the Arab world to trust us, maybe we should start by assigning equal value to their lives. I don't see it happening, however, as what seems to keep so many people going is this notion of American Exceptionalism, that we are a special people with a special mission, and therefore, implicitly, that our lives are more meaningful and more valuable than others.

[Zeno]

Life has no meaning.

[jdl22]

A couple of things. Firstly, I agree with your main point. I actually considered making a similar post having read that thread.

One thing is that other countries do the same. If you are in Spain for example and you watch the news they will point out the number of Spanish people that died in a plane crash occurring in a foreign country just as is done here.

I think it comes down to being able to identify with the victim(s). I had similar questions about September 11. There are hundreds of millions of dollars available to the families of the victims. While this clearly is a good thing, I wondered why these people get this money when a guy I know from high school got nothing but social security when his father, the major bread winner in the family, was murdered. Seems unlikely that the loss of his father is any easier than that of someone whose father worked in the trade center, and certainly not enough to warrant receiving nothing in the first case and having their entire college paid for in the second. Again, before anybody gets the wrong idea, I thing the money available to these victims is a good thing. I donated to one of these funds myself.

After thinking about it I decided that the main difference is that we can identify with the September 11 victims. While we can't really imagine what they went through, we too were scared and had that awful feeling in the pits of our stomachs. We were able to feel for them. When my friend from high schools father died it was isolated and of course nobody heard about it. Certainly very few if any strangers questioned their own mortality even if they did hear of his murder. The only people that can really identify with him are people that know him very well or people that have suffered a similar fate.

[HDPM]

I think this is it. People identify with a group. Most Americans know Americans. They don't know any Iraqis. And they don't really care. Not because they are absolutely uncaring, but because they feel no connection to the other person; have no experience that leads them to care about Iraqis in any but an intellectual way. This is normal and I think people in all countries are guilty of it. But if we can get people thinking more broadly, we will all be better off. The day people feel a connection to other people because they are people, or at least increasingly feel that way, is the day we will have fewer wars. I think a lot of religions say people ought to feel this way, but they have had relatively little success conveying the message.

[elwoodblues]

This has always bothered me. Similarly, I am bothered by those who are "pro-life" but also in favor of the death penalty.

[IrishHand]

[ QUOTE ]
The day people feel a connection to other people because they are people, or at least increasingly feel that way, is the day we will have fewer wars.

[/ QUOTE ]

Best quote I've read in a long time.

[adios]

Basically I agree but there are some things to consider IMO. One is that often Middle East countries don't share Western values in that they don't seem to place as high a value on life for one thing. Witness Iran and Saudi Arabia. Secondly fanatical muslims that participate in and advocate suicide terrorism (admittedly a minority of Arabs) don't share Western values nor do they place a high value on life.

[adios]

[ QUOTE ]
Similarly, I am bothered by those who are "pro-life" but also in favor of the death penalty.

[/ QUOTE ]

It seem like "pro choice" and anti death penalty might be bothersome to you as well for the same reason.

[elwoodblues]

Whether they put a high value on life is irrelevant to whether I do.

[Gamblor]

L'Enfer, c'est les autres.