Jan Mieszkowski suggests there’s little to be gained by watching conflicts unfold in real time:
As movie and television-news producers have lamented for the past decade, people aren’t particularly enthralled by battlefield scenes – at least not for very long. Modern militarism, billed as the greatest show on earth, consistently fails to live up to our expectations. Audiences are beset by indifference and even boredom, quickly moving on to the next story.
No matter how carefully we scrutinize the battlefield, it never has enough to tell us about what makes war right or wrong, avoidable or inevitable. Far from offering insights into the mysteries of history and politics, these spectacles give us a sense that we are further away than ever from understanding their causes, their implications, and their consequences. Combat makes for a disappointing program – we approach it with great expectations, prepared to encounter essential truths of human existence, but we leave empty-handed. Whatever controversy may arise from the scenes of Israelis eating popcorn as they watch the bombing of Gaza, the most striking fact is just how unenlightening the show is likely to have been.
(Photo: Israeli residents, mostly from the southern Israeli city of Sderot, sit on a hill overlooking the Gaza Strip, on July 12, 2014, to watch the fighting between the Israeli army and Palestinian militants. Sderot has suffered rocket attacks from Gaza for years. By Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images)
The Dish 