War and Love

I came across a blog/zine called Linebreaker which “…examines the writers that shape punk and hardcore, and gives them a voice to explain the meanings behind the lyrics we sing along to.”  So here’s a couple interviews I found interesting.

+  Defeater‘s lyricist/singer Derek Paul Archambault discusses war and the influence it had on his writing on their latest EP Lost Ground.

+  Al from Dangers makes a few sober critiques on Love and the romanticizing that goes along with it.

I have not had sexual intercourse in more than two years now.  I’ve made a good habit of entering into relationships I know won’t work out and lamenting their unavoidable demise with what can only be called “gusto.”  What I know about love I have learned mostly from Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski, Winnie Cooper and Kevin Arnold and, ashamedly, Dawson Leery and Joey Potter.  This is, perhaps, the result of paper thin walls and the healthy, multi-cultured libido of my father figure.  I can, for instance, discern with great accuracy the pleasure groans of a Puerta Riquena and Columbiana and, to a lesser extent, the details of the love act (hole, speed, position).  What I must be saying is: a revolving door is no place for a child to play.

There was a detailed plan that I concocted at the age of seventeen.  Whatever parts of me that were capable of marriage were to wed no later than age twenty-four.  The mate was to be the bourgeoning beauty I was already at that time years-deep into.  We would get tattoos instead of rings, elope like alcoholics, and spend the wedding money on a trip up Kilimanjaro.  She was to continue her painting endeavors.  I, my music.  A child was likely, certainly no later than by age twenty-six, and his name (it was to be a he) would under no circumstances be a regurgitation of my own bloodline (see also: aforementioned paper thin walls, cocaine, feelings of abandonment, etc.).  We would buy a house, small, cottage-esque, near enough to the ocean that it would sometimes smell like dead fish, and we would teach our offspring the ways of Black Flag, Dischord Records, and, above all else, John Stuart Mill.  There would be no nanny.  Sex would be often and remarkable.  Meals home-cooked.  Traveling relentless.  Money scarce.  Hearts bursting.

Read the rest HERE.

And to stay within the theme…

+  In Helmet Social Networking: One Influential Ex-Generals’ vision of Future War

Scales isn’t one of those futurists who think technology replaces the human dimensions of war. He’s harnessing technology precisely to address some of soldiering’s most immediate and human dimensions: emotional strain.

“What does a soldier need? ‘I’m lonely,’” Scales says. “As the battlefield expands, the space between soldiers expands geometrically, and primal fear escalates. The need for psychic glue increases an order of magnitude.” Which is why he’d like to have veterans, translators, cultural experts and battle buddies all connected in a social network for war.

“Soldiers don’t break from hunger, thirst or poor leadership. They break from emotional collapse,” he says. To keep that from happening, “maybe someone far away, like [National Security Agency headquarters] Fort Meade, could monitor [troops] for emotional and biological signs — heart rate, galvanic skin response, a tremor in a soldier’s voice — and then aggregate it into a dashboard.”

Scales also believes infantry units should spend years together, instead of “sending out a pickup squad that’s broken up every 18 months.” Like football players, the various members of the unit should have specialized skills that mesh together. And like some pro athletes, those troops should practice group “visioning” — creating mental images of their wartime goals.

“Empathy,” not aggression, should be the new must-have trait of any military leader. And soldiers need to develop a respect and an affinity for foreign cultures. Scales believes current U.S. ambassador to Kabul Karl Eikenberry best personifies this comfort, which is why he calls it the “Eikenberry gene.”