Children as War Tools

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orthx036
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Children as War Tools

Postby orthx036 » Mon Dec 13, 2010 5:25 pm

While reading Ender’s Game, I couldn’t help but think about the television series Fringe. Fringe has an extremely complicated plot but a main part of it is these scientists that gathered children and did many tests on them and experiments to see if they might be good “soldiers” for the future war that is coming up between two different alternative universes. The children in Ender’s Game are basically treated the same way- as test subjects to see if they will be good soldiers later. I’m sure this concept of training children to be soldiers has been brought up in other novels and films and stories as well. In America, we don’t consciously train children to be soldiers, but in other countries there are many children soldiers. Do you see some training like this existing in the future? When war is so complex that we start teaching children to be fighters right from the bat and the children have no choice in the matter? Would eventually there be a child rebellion and a civil war? What do you think?

JohnLocke
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Postby JohnLocke » Tue Dec 14, 2010 11:50 am

The idea of children partaking in matters of war is a very sensitive subject indeed. This is a "what-if" situation that no one can know the answer to, but I believe that sooner or later adults will have to submit to the fact that children are our future and should be included in important situations(like war). Do I think that future leaders will look to young adults for opinions in war(of course), but I think that it will be centuries before childrens ideas and opinions on the matter will actually be taken into consideration. I dont believe that children will affect the outcome of any important battles for centuries to come.
"It was what I was born for, isn't it? If I don't go, why am I alive?"

Jeff kramer
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Postby Jeff kramer » Tue Dec 21, 2010 7:33 pm

I do think this sort of training goes on in the united states.

Not on the level that it does in enders game but if you look at all of the military schools and boarding schools we have it is hard to say these children are not being groomed for something. when we have "standardized tests" and national results for said tests - the children who score well are flagged and noticed just like ender and his siblings were by the government. even though they are not soldiers in america it is hard to say they do not go through early leadership and discipline training.

I think to say that there would be a child rebellion is far fetched to say the least. the resources along with the overall maturity level of children at a young age ( not talking about child prodigies just regular children) will never be at the capacity of a civil war or child rebellion on a large scale effort.

John i totally agree with you that we must admit that children are the future and i think at a large level we do that. i also agree that we will not take into consideration in large part the role of children in battles. but i do like the role that innocence played in the teachings to the child soldiers in the novel.

good thoughts


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