Posted by
Matt Keller on Thursday, February 15, 2007 12:28:47 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVFF98kNg8QIt
hasn't been more than probably 5 or 6 years since the internet started
to mature. With the birth pains of the start-up dot com bubble
"placenta" bursting, the modern internet was born. With that birth came
such drastic and revolutionary change that our world can never really
be the same.
What do I mean by this? How has the world changed
so? It has changed in the way we see it. Ten years ago the internet was
relatively new. Dial-up was still somewhat the norm. People used the
internet for shopping, email, chat rooms, and pornography. People still
do. But look at what else we do now. Look at how we observe things from
places we will never see. People we will (probably) never meet in
person.
The above embedded video is the record holder of video
views on YouTube. It is of a six year old daughter, singing a song
about her brother who is serving in Iraq. The entire world has the
ability to see this. Every single person who has access to the
internet. Sit back and think about that for a moment. Think about the
other things we can see, that we can know about.
An old hermit
living in the wilds of the Yukon can, with a generator and a satillite
dish (and satillite internet subscription) become the world's greatest
philosopher with an epiphany and a blogpost. A religious leader can
address his followers. A madman can sow hatred. A terrorist can behead
an innocent and show the world.
Look at the Iraq war and how
its' infinately changed America. Not in the amount of American deaths
but in the sheer brutal humanity of it. By humanity I mean we see quite
simply the nature of war. This is a nature that has happened for
centuries. The only difference is that the men and women whom we train
and ask to do the service of war are not the only ones experiencing it.
Not anymore.
Some ask if this is a bad thing, while others
can simply state this is wonderful and that the exposure will cause war
to become obsolete because people will realize its horrors. This is
partly true. Humanity on the whole cannot handle war. It is why we are
not having full civilization on civilization battles. It takes a select
man or woman to fight. to be able to fight and it takes training on top
of that innate ability.
The true strengths of this new world
is the fact that it allows us to see the men and women serving us in
the best way possible. The inner romanticism of what soldiers do for
our country is dead, replaced by an actual seeing of what they do. The
good that they do, the evil that they face and the hardships that they
endure.
It is through this new media that we truely see the
sacrifice made by those who give their lives, limbs and souls for our
cause. This scares some, gives them guilt, causes them to lash out. To
others it gives resigned silence not knowing how to react. As for me, I
grieve in immense gratitude. Jesus said that there is no greater love
than to sacrifice your life for your brother. It is nowhere else more
true than in this case, and it is nowhere else more true than in this
new world in which we live.