At 04:17 PM 2004-05-14 +1000, Rodd Clarkson wrote:
On Fri, 2004-05-14 at 14:40 +1000, Ellis, Peter wrote:
> Lt Col David Grossman, a Green Beret and US army psychologist, testified to > an inquiry into one of America's too frequent high school massacres, that > desensitising, conditioning and role modeling were what the Army used to > overcome soldiers' natural inhibition to killing.
I was once told about an article the talked about a soldiers willingness to take another persons life. During the Boar War army officials discovered that something like 80% of the soldiers were loading their rifle, but never pulling the trigger. They were stunned by how their soldiers had packed the gunpowder and shot, one load on top of another, until the barrel was filled. What they realized was that the soldiers were going through the motions, but when it came to killing someone, most of them just couldn't do it, even with their own lives on the line.
The article then went on to talk about how the army are proud that, after using techniques similar to the "desensitizing, conditioning and role modeling" Lt Col David Grossman talks about, they now had an army where about 80% would actually kill someone. (The figures are rough, but they are about right, sadly I couldn't find the article at short notice.)
There was a talk by Lt Col Grossman on Background Briefing on ABC Radio National in 1999. The programme was titled "
Killology".
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s23921.htm
The Real Audio has been removed form the site.
Among other references, the page includes a link to his consultancy:
http://www.killology.com/
Worthwile are the pages on preventing school violence.
Julian.
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