I need a TV-B-Gone for the gym

[jbailey]

Dear CNN,

The US presidential election race between senators McCain and Obama is not a "battleground". Battlegrounds are where people get killed. Using the same words for what passes as democracy in this country as for the military massacres in foreign countries is incredibly sad and disgusting.

That, and it's only vaguely less stupid than Toronto's "War on Fire".

Comments

[jldugger.livejournal.com]

I realize here in the US, war over government is unthinkable, but the purpose of liberal democracy is to change a war of violence into a proxy war of words (and dollars). This is a bit more apparent in developing nations where militias are forming political parties and incumbents are almost expected to not honor electoral outcomes.

[jbailey.livejournal.com]

Right! I think there's a lot to celebrate in the fact that a rise to power *doesn't* involve a body count (Well, the conspiracy theorists will sometimes tell you otherwise, but excepting that...)

Culturally, we should be sad anytime we engage in a war of violence, and should spend time asking ourselves how we could've done better. How can we do that if we're using the same words for so many other activities?

The result is that we're dumbed down into all of these things being equal, and then all of them get lost in the noise.