Object: I chose to examine the concept of war and terror and if it is really possible to fight in order to restore peace. The main focus of my project lay in the idea that war will only spawn more hatred, and so creating a war with the objective of bringing peace to a society is an impossibility. In conjunction with this I attempted to look at the reasons why people agree to war, and the freedom of British citizens when they agree to join the Army. Territory: When I originally decided upon a territory I chose the ‘War on Terror’, namely the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Upon further investigation it became clear to me that these were two separate wars with different focuses and motivations, and so I shifted the focus of my project solely to the war in Iraq, and the reasons for and against this war. I also looked at the concept of the British Army and the reasons behind why soldiers are deployed to fight in what was not a British fight to begin with. The Philosophy behind my project: Gadamer and Death: One of the concepts that became most clear to me was that of the idea of the repression of death. Gadamer notes that society’s perception of death had changed, and I examined if this affected the decision of those joining the Army. Kant, Freedom and Duty: I also looked at the idea of whether the innate sense of duty that we possess, according to Kant, affects the decisions we make in everyday life, such as joining the Army. I also discussed how much freedom we actually have, when, if you join the Army, you have to sign up for a minimum period of time, and you can be forcibly deployed to fight in wars you might not believe in.
Tag: military
I will be investigating the anti-globalisation movement in America known as the Patriots, looking more specifically at their aggressive militia groups. These libertarians seek to build communities that are not governed by the ‘corrupt Federal Government’, communities which promote the Constitution’s Second Amendment right to bear arms so that one day they may fight the “Jewish gangsters’ New World Order” and it’s United Nations’ police force. In response to this I will be look at Derrida’s idea of ‘Community’, of ‘Hospitality’ and ‘Democracy’. Idea’s which revolve around a respect for the ‘Other,’ not aggression and hate. In addition to this I will look towards Žižek’s notion of racism as fantasy, as a respect for the ‘Other.’ For Žižek the state is the only buffer between a conflict of fantasies and must be in place to stop an all out war from happening between different ‘ethnic others.’