On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society
On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society
Author: Dave Grossman
Desc: The good news is that most soldiers are loath to kill. But armies have developed sophisticated ways of overcoming this instinctive aversion. And contemporary civilian society particularly the media replicates the army's conditioning techniques and according to Lt. Col. Dave Grossman's thesis is responsible for our rising rate of murder among the young. Upon its initial publication On Killing was hailed as a landmark study of the techniques the military uses to overcome the powerful reluctance to kill of how killing affects soldiers and of the societal implications of escalating violence. Now Grossman has updated this classic work to include information on 21st-century military conflicts recent trends in crime suicide bombings school shootings and more. The result is a work certain to be relevant and important for decades to come.