Of Warriors and Machines
Photographer: Antonio Denti
Exhibit Title: Of Warriors and Machines
Location: Italy
On board a nuclear aircraft carrier somewhere in the Mediterranean (2022).
A Reflection on Aggression, on the Sea. In Days of Tension.
Aggression is a vital impulse of all living beings. But aggression - in nature - has its system of checks and balances. Example: when a wolf in a fight offers his throat to the adversary this will immediately, instinctively trigger the stop of the attack. The beaten wolf will leave, defeated but alive. In humans, the equivalent of instinct, is mercy, honor codes and humanity… they allow attackers to stop short of unnecessary destruction. But then gun powder was invented. The physical distance between the fighters became huge, and so the distance between the action and its effects. Technology and machines, tragically, have disconnected the actor from his actions. With machines, humans have lost touch and control of their aggression. The consequences of this are potentially immensely tragic.
Aggression is a vital impulse of all living beings. The Latin origin of the word, not “to go against” but “to go towards”, throws light on why a degree of it and the ability to use it when necessary are needed by living individuals and communities to go through life effectively. But aggression - in nature - has its system of checks and balances. Example: when a wolf in a fight offers his throat to the adversary this will immediately, instinctively trigger the stop of the attack. The beaten wolf will leave, defeated but alive. In humans, the equivalent of instinct, is mercy, honor codes and humanity… they allow attackers to stop short of unnecessary destruction. But then gun powder was invented. The physical distance between the fighters became huge, and so the distance between the action and its effects. This made balances and checks of aggression in humans ineffective. Technology and machines have gone, since, all the way in exasperating this distance. To the point that now by pressing a button humans can kill immense numbers of fellow humans, wipe out cities miles and miles away from where they are. Technology and machines, tragically, have disconnected the actor from his actions. With machines, humans have lost touch and control of their aggression. The consequences of this are potentially immensely tragic.In the brief time I spent on the aircraft carrier, ''the world's finest warship'', the work of genial ethologist Konrad Lorenz came to my mind often. Among many mind-blowing revelations he caught observing the behaviour of animals there was this: only animals capable of great aggression, like some tropical fish, or geese, or wolves and lions, are also capable of something that could be called love. They - as opposed to non-aggressive animals like sardines or sheep - are capable of durable affection and sacrifice, of mourning and enjoy the contact with that one individual. There comes the hope for humans.
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I was on board the US aircraft carrier as part of an organized media opportunity. So, I could shot only when it was green-lighted by the escorting navy press people. This is common in all military facilities. I could shoot everything, when taken on the flying deck. It can be useful to add that the carrier was in the Mediterranean to take part in scheduled military exercises with NATO allies, so it wasn't involved in real operations. Even if the general atmosphere, since the exercises had been scheduled, had surely changed due to Russia-NATO tensions around Ukraine.
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