The subject came up numerous times in other threads in the past week, so I thought I would start one on the subject specifically.

I don't know how many of you in the US watch NOW with Bill Moyers, but I usually watch it weekly. One recent fascinating program had a philosopher on it named Susan Neiman, who has attempted to write a history of the evolution of human concepts of evil. For those who might be interested, the link is here:

http://www.pbs.org/now/society/evil.html

Last week, they had an Indian woman on who spoke about the effects of militarism falling predominantly on the world's women in developing countries.

The anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, the stories coming out of Iraq and the West Bank and Gaza, India and Pakistan, the list is almost endless it seems, yet honest discussions of militarism and it's culture of violence, even as it occurs or in the wake of it, are still rare in US society, because the only public face put on our military is a heroic one.

I'll be coming back to this thread later, but I'd be interested to hear if people have any books or articles to recommend that critique the US military's culture of violence, and how it influences a societal culture of violence.

Michael Moore tried making such linkages with 'Bowling for Columbine' but didn't succeed very well at it.

I look forward to reading people's opinions, and I will say up front, I would hope this thread doesn't get talken over by the Mudcat military veterans who seem to be getting increasingly bellicose in their attempts to shout down conversations on topics that are critique the military.