The Albatross of Anonymity

We fight wars by joystick now.

I can see how War by Joystick (good name for a band) saves lives of the joystickers, protects troops on the ground, acquires video intelligence, et cetera ad infinitum. I get that. Surely, if such a tool were adding a vital layer of protection to my own son or daughter, how could I not add an homage to the joystick in my never-ending litany of gratitude? How could I not? The virtues of Predator drones are well documented.

But.

But.

But. A word of infinite consequence.

Starting from B-52 bombers lobbing bombs down below, miles below, to atomic weapons being detonated in the sky at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, humans (I say "humans" because all wartime opponents engage in the most advanced warfare technology they can) have found ways to distance themselves from the consequences of their combat actions. The emotional detachment of launching armaments by video screen surely must differ from, say, hand-to-hand combat.

What's my point? Change the Geneva Conventions to forbid all but the most primitive forms of battle engagement? Of course not.

But.

One wonders what it does to us, all of us, when we are so removed from the visceral consequences of our actions, when death becomes as realistic, or as fanciful and fantastic, as a video game?

Still. Still it must give us pause.

And stillness is what we need more of.