XBradTC

By

XBradTC

·

Sebastian Junger Knows Why Young Men Go to War — War Is Boring — Medium

Sebastian Junger is a rare filmmaker. His trio of documentaries about soldiers fighting in Afghanistan neither praise nor demonize America’s troops. Unlike most popular war films, he doesn’t turn soldiers into superheroes. The Oscar-nominated Restrepo is about the job. Korengal is about the men. The Last Patrol is about those men trying to come home.…

Sebastian Junger is a rare filmmaker. His trio of documentaries about soldiers fighting in Afghanistan neither praise nor demonize America’s troops. Unlike most popular war films, he doesn’t turn soldiers into superheroes.

The Oscar-nominated Restrepo is about the job. Korengal is about the men. The Last Patrol is about those men trying to come home. In a long and discursive interview, we talked with Junger about warped perceptions of the troops, why he went to war and modern conceptions of manhood.

Junger argues that Americans are enamored with war, even when they say they don’t believe in it. He also thinks young men in the west no longer have a sense of what it means to be a man—and some of them go to war to find out.

via Sebastian Junger Knows Why Young Men Go to War — War Is Boring — Medium.

An interesting look at Junger and his thoughts on manhood, society, war, and coming of age.

Tags:

  1. SFC Dunlap 173d RVN

    In his book “The Perfect Storm” one chapter goes into the specific dynamics that happen when a ship sinks. Though I’m not oriented to the sea I found the chapter quite amazing. Mr Junger seems to have nailed damning praise (not faint), rather well. I have long since believed that manhood in the U.S. has become less defined through my decades of life. Time is the great revealer of these changes and how they sort themselves out and what country of ours becomes the result. I’m not hopeful. I believe thousands and thousands of years of man’s aggression unto itself will deny the anthropogists, evolutionary psychologists, and biologists much more than an educated best guess. Just my opinion.

    Like

Leave a comment