Perspective (bias)

So upon reflecting on a play I saw last week (called "Persians"), I was reminded of World War II and so part of this entry will incorporate that, but also will be discussing what people know as "bias" and of course I will probably get off track and talk about who knows what.

Being a student of history, I have needed to come to terms with the word "bias" and force myself to change it to the world "perspective." Why? Because the word bias has a negative connotation forced onto it; however, all things created will have bias, it will reflect the creator. When authors write books they come to the table with their own personal values, ideas, goals, etc. (their perspective on life or whatever). We see this every time we watch the news, read the news, talk to people, even look at the cars they drive or the clothes they wear. Do we all have bias? of course. But it isn't always bad, so I prefer the word perspective (since it prevents possible hostility and supports an open mentality/approach to others' ideas).

Anyway, so in my "education as an application for change" course we discuss many things on a philosophical level and how ideas/things affect schools, education, and life. We will soon discuss war, which is why I went to see this play (it was made mandatory by the professor). Anyway, it presented the aftermath of the Battle of Thermopylae and the grief the Persians must have felt since so many had died. It had the perspective of the Persians and whatever, I'm not interested in the play, but some of the dialogue between what represented "advisors" to Xerxes made me think of WWII, Germany, Hitler, etc. So I looked up some statistics on causalities for each nation.

What I found was pretty interesting since, at least in the states, we are told how important our role was and how we may have aided significantly in ending the war (this is not what I want to talk about, nor formulate an opinion on), but the numbers were rather interesting (I am going off of rough roundings since I do not recall the specifics and do not care to ruin the flow of my rant):

out of the total deaths (near 75 million, I believe) the top 5 nations in terms of deaths was this:

1. Soviet Union with almost 23 million (about 30.5%)
2. China with around 20 million (about 26.5%)
3. Germany with somewhere between 7-8 million (about 10%)
4. Poland with somewhere between 5-6 million (about 8%)
5. Indonesia with around 4 million (about 5%)

totals about 60 million deaths (80%)

After looking at these numbers, I said to myself, "huh. Maybe I should've learned how important the USSR was to stopping the Germans rather than how great the USA is." I mean, sure the USA came in late to "save the day" but honestly if the USSR had not had such fervent resistance against the Nazis. Surely, if it were not for the Proletariat Dictatorship of the "evil communists" the fascists would not have been stopped. This reminds me of that one robot chicken clip (which I will now look for and add the link), it is called lil hitler, and at the end the attitude of the USA is pretty much true. But anyway, without looking at different situations from various angles you miss a lot. Oh and btw the USA lost around 400,000 people.

But yeah...when war is brought to the table I simply say I want no part. I am a pacifist and most certainly refuse to kill another human being. A good movie, albeit old, is a classic Soviet film called, "The Cranes Are Flying."

Anyway, as ironic as it sounds, I gotta go shoot some people on my 360...probably CoD4 campaign. lol. I can still enjoy the fake/romanticized creations of humanity...as long as I do not hold them to be truths. mmmm....video game violence, the best breakfast.

Thanks ahead for any comments or opinions that you're willing to share.



p.s. I, too, think carrots are quite rad.