The War on stuff

[Sir Saladin]

This is something that has been bothering me for years and I don't know if it is just in the U.S. where I live but the words battle and war are used for everything and it is making me angry. Nobody is researching a cure for cancer they are warring against it, nobody dies from an illness anymore they die battlling it. How in the Hell does a seventy year old man go into battle against pneumonia? How do you war against diseases do you shrink yourself down and enter someones bloodstream with a tiny machinegun? It is stupid. Does anyone agree with me or am a just a voice crying out in the wilderness? The Department of War is not called that and gambling is called gaming so I am suffocating under tons of bull****.

 

[Ilex]

You wage war against diseases by shooting the hosts. The host themselves are necessary collaterral damage, may they rest in pieces. o7

 

[morgoth2005]

It's a metaphorical war

 

[Sir Saladin]

Why use war as a metaphor all the time is my point, If someone is dying and in constant pain should I give him or her an M-16 or some morphine? I would like to let the poor bastard/***** get some relief from pain rather then say hey welcome to the pain marines time to groan like you mean it and lets KILL! that pesky chicken pox.

 

[morgoth2005]

Well, one generally wants to kill the bacteria or neutralise the virii... war is just a metaphor - it's like to say you are fighting the disease, because it wants to kill you, and you're resisting...

 

[Sir Saladin]

It is a bad metaphor, Ilex proposes extermination of weak infected types but if someone I liked had tuberculoses I wouldn't pull out a knife or gun (that globe trotting defense lawyer that was in the news lately should be shot though as a warning). War and battle is about killing men not trying to help them. The war on drugs, is this the thousand year war? As long as humans have existed they like to use drugs so why a war? It only makes gangsters rich and wastes tax dollars. Some people will be junkies and it can't be helped.

 

[Worbah]

IIRC, China declared a war against earthquakes in the seventies.

 

[13 Spider Bloody Chain]

About two years ago, the city I live in decided to declare a war on potholes. Yes, potholes. The mayor even formed a "Pothole Posse".

 

[Guan_Chung]

The mayor even formed a "Pothole Posse".

Anyone else find that absolutely hysterical?

 

[13 Spider Bloody Chain]

I certainly did when I first heard it on my radio.

 

[Archonsod]

I constantly get pissed off by the abuse of my mother tongue. Cancer being labelled a disease in the first place is usually enough for me to connect my fist to the idiots jaw.

It's funny how much basic engineering philosophy and old fashioned education has in common - if it don't work, hit it. If it still doesn't work, hit it harder...

 

[Merentha]

It is an interesting commentary on how we (meaning the United States) view the world.

 

[CrazyEyes]

It's an extremely annoying sensationalist metaphor that's used to scare people and make them watch the news more often, IMO.

 

[calandale]

It's just so that the feds can invade.

 

[mrcrotch]

The mayor even formed a "Pothole Posse".

Anyone else find that absolutely hysterical?

Yeh. I laughed for about 2 minutes flat out.