Body Quote by Serge Daney
“According to U.S. strategy, if you never see the other, his destruction will be more acceptableso that when Iraqi soldiers surrendered, sooner than expected, it was as if they emerged from a dream, a flash-back, a lost epoch--an epoch when the enemy still had a body and was still "like us.”
About This Quote
Source Article: The Spectacle of War, Serge Daney, 1990
War dehumanizes enemies, making them seem alien; yet when they appear similar, it challenges our moral distance.
In simple terms: Seeing enemies as human disrupts war logic.
Key Takeaway
Recognize shared humanity.
Themes
ethics
war
dehumanization
Mood
somber
reflective
Type
philosophical
political
When to use this quote
- military training
- peace negotiations
- media reporting
- human rights advocacy
Key Concepts
enemy perception
moral ambiguity
Questions to Reflect On
- How does seeing the enemy as human affect conflict?
- Can empathy coexist with defense?
A Different Perspective
Combat training often reinforces enemy othering.
![“I've used the Phoenix Centrifuge to replicate what the body's going to go through on the flight up. I've also done some gravity tests with ZERO-G [a charter-flight service in Arlington, Va., that uses modified Boeing 727s to simulate weightlessness], which went great.” quote by Richard Branson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/aa1/richard-branson-256_adventure_i-ve-used-the-phoenix-centrifuge-to-repl_903.jpg)
