peterr@utcsrgv.UUCP (Peter Rowley) (10/03/83)
Starting tonight (Sun., Oct 2, 9pm) and proceeding weekly for 7 weeks in all,
the Cdn Broadcasting Corp. will be showing a National Film Board series on
war which looks at its evolution and social/psychological basis, including
a discussion of whether we can live with war in the nuclear age. This is not
a pop history series by any means; the host, who co-wrote the series, delivers
the narrative in a precise manner, concentrating on facts and trends rather
than the reflections of a Sagan or Toffler. The first episode showed the
relatively recent entry of civilians as primary targets (given as the 1915
bombing of a U.K. town by a German airship-- though civilians had been involved
before by having their towns "in the wrong place") and traced the technical
development of weapons of war. The view of soldier-as-bullet (ie. expendable)
was presented and argued for effectively, with discussion of the necessary
social conditioning required for men to allow themselves to be treated that
way.
It's hard to tell what the rest of the series will be like, as it will be
moving into fuzzier areas such as the psychology of war, but it holds promise.
For those Americans not able to receive the CBC signal, the series, called
"War", might be available directly from the NFB; I know there are some
distribution offices ("propaganda centres"!) in the US, one of which is in
Washington DC.
p. rowley, U. Toronto utcsrgv!peterr