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The Emotional Dynamics of Social Pugnacity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 September 2022
Close-range killings in war are usually associated with two contrasting images. The more prevalent view depicts excessive violence as common, widespread, and easy to do. Popular films and TV programmes are saturated with the images of war where killing is the norm and an almost routine, everyday practice. For example, the recently featured and extremely popular Game of Thrones is full of such imagery where individuals show no moral qualms when getting involved in mass killings, torture, rape, and violent abuse. Moreover, such acts are encouraged and celebrated with the memorable lines such as ‘Stick ’em with the pointy end’ or ‘There is only one god and his name is Death’. In direct contrast, the other common portrayal of war focuses on the traumatic experiences of soldiers who are unwilling to fight and when forced to take part in violent events where they kill other human beings, they express regret, remorse, and guilt. A plethora of critical war films and novels from All Quiet on the Western Front to The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, and The Hurt Locker emphasise the sheer brutality of war and its deep traumatic impact on ordinary soldiers. In these narratives the act of killing is an extremely difficult experience which leaves lasting psychological damage on those who take part in it. As one protagonist in the film Saving Private Ryan states: ‘I just know that every man I kill the further away from home I feel’ (Hagelin 2008: 112). In this chapter my aim is to offer a sociological analysis of these phenomena with a focus on the role emotions play in the individual and social responses to killing in war. The chapter draws on the interviews conducted among the ex-combatants who fought in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (1991–5).1 The first part of the chapter critically reviews the existing research on killing in war and articulates an alternative approach to understanding the emotional dynamics of killing in the context of social pugnacity. The second part explores different aspects of violent collective action on the battlefields through in-depth analysis of the interviews with the ex-combatants. The final part brings the theoretical arguments and the results of the empirical research together.
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