Response to Looking at War by Susan Sontag

Response to Looking at War by Susan Sontag
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Response to Looking at War by Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag, in the text, looks at the effect of images of devastation on civilians and ordinary people who are not involved in the fighting, and she argues against using images in interpreting war. Sontag points out that photographs can be altered very easily and are very superficial: images of war non-combatants are a species of rhetoric. They form the delusion of consensus, and they also disturb, simplify and reiterate (Sontag, 2002). Although Susan Sontag condemns the utilization of pictures, especially in the media, she also evidently rejects the conservative viewpoint that pictures which are horrifying desensitize. She noted that: flooded with type of pictures that were previously shocking and which aroused indignation, people are losing their capability of reacting (Sontag, 2002). If this is actually spot on, she states that the solution entails limiting the number of horrifying pictures that are shown to members of the public – this answer is not just unethical, but also not practical. In spite of everything, Susan Sontag says that the horrors themselves would not grow less or decrease (Sontag 2002).
Nonetheless, even as Susan Sontag condemns the conservative viewpoint of the media, she also turns against the assertion of the liberal left that the attention of members of the public is guided by the attentions of the media; that is, whenever there are pictures, the warfare turns out to be actual (Sontag, 2002). Sontag partly focuses on the French: she claims that this viewpoint is particularly related to the works of Jean Beaudrillard who stated that pictures, served to simulate realisms and actualities, are all that are in existence at the moment – it appears a...