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Title: On Killing : The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Dave Grossman ISBN: 0-316-33011-6 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.55 (97 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Similarities of Soldiering and Selling
Comment: I read this book and I review it here not because of any particular interest in sanctioned killing, rather because of my interest in institutional means of getting people to do difficult yet important tasks. I train salespeople and other business leaders.
I first heard the author, Dave Grossman, on a radio interview promoting this book. I heard him say that that in the history of combat from Alexander the Great through World War II only about 15% of soldiers in battle were trying to kill the enemy. He's not talking about the long administrative and logistical tail of the army. Only 15-20% of the people with guns or swords in their hands, facing an enemy trying to harm them, were willing to kill that enemy. I know this is hard to believe. I first heard this statistic from a pacifist and I called him a liar. Then I heard it from this author, a former US Army Colonel and military historian, who references the research of the US Army's official W.W.II historian as well as many other scholars.
Once one accepts this fact, two questions immediately present themselves: "Why?" and "What to do about it?" The first question is easy: most humans have a deep and strong taboo against looking a person in the face and destroying them. Many would literally rather die than cross that line. The second question is more complex and hugely interesting.
Clearly, if only 15% of the assets you have expensively brought to face an enemy are performing, your army has a major problem. The US Army raised this traditional firing rate from 15% up to 50% between W.W.II and the Korean conflict and again to better than 95% in Vietnam and Desert Storm. The British similarly increased their firing rate, to devastating effect in the Falklands against Argentines still performing at traditional levels. All modern militaries have since solved the problem. How?
The low firing rates have been cured by the new ways modern militaries train and lead soldiers. This is where my interest as a trainer of business leaders and salespeople is piqued. I have long noted that the biggest problem with most sales people is that they will not do the uncomfortable or unfamiliar things necessary to make more sales faster. It is not a knowledge problem, it is a performance problem. I figured that if the Army could get most ordinary men to pull the trigger, similar methods ought to get most typical salespeople to dial the telephone.
Grossman reports five factors which influence (determine?) the likelihood of a person to kill: Predisposition of Killer, Attractiveness of Target, Distance from Target, Group Absolution, and Demands of Authority
Many of these factors were well understood and widely practiced in the days of 15% firing ratios. This may be how armies got beyond relying on the 2% of the population willing to kill in combat without dramatic prompting or remorse. A huge gap in combat performance remained because, "When people become angry, or frightened, they stop thinking with their forebrain (the mind of a human being) and start thinking with their midbrain (which is indistinguishable from the mind of an animal). They are literally "scared out of their wits." The only thing that has any hope of influencing the midbrain is also the only thing that influences a dog: classical and operant conditioning." [p. xviii] The big change came when the US Army began, perhaps unintentionally, to incorporate the behaviors demonstrated by Pavlov and B. F. Skinner and made training much more realistic, repetitive, and rewarding.
"World War II-era training was conducted on a grassy firing range..., on which the soldier shot at a bull's-eye target. After he fired a series of shots the target was checked, and he was then given feedback that told him where he hit.
"Modern training ... comes as close to simulating actual combat conditions as possible. The soldier stands in a foxhole with full combat equipment, and man-shaped targets pop up briefly in front of him. These are the eliciting stimuli that prompt the target behavior of shooting. If the target is hit, it immediately drops, thus providing immediate feedback. Positive reinforcement is given when these hits are exchanged for marksmanship badges... Traditional marksmanship training has been transformed into a combat simulator." [p. 177]
And the citizen soldier has been transformed into a reliable killing machine: "When I went to boot camp and did individual combat training they said if you walk into an ambush what you want to do is just do a right face - you just turn right or left, whichever way the fire is corning from, and assault. I said, 'Man, that's crazy. I'd never do anything like that. It's stupid.' The first time we came under fire, ... in Laos, we did it automatically. Just like you look at your watch to see what time it is. We done a right face, assaulted the hill -- a fortified position with concrete bunkers emplaced, machine guns, automatic weapons -- and we took it. And we killed - I'd estimate probably thirty-five North Vietnamese soldiers in the assault, and we only lost three killed." [p. 317]
Contrast that with the report of a commander in W.W. II: "Squad leaders and platoon sergeants had to move up and down the firing line kicking men to get them to fire. We felt like we were doing good to get two or three men out of a squad to fire." [p. xiv] Sounds a lot like what I hear from sales managers. Perhaps because salespeople, like soldiers, find they must transgress strong taboos to be successful, for example, intruding on strangers, talking about money, and persisting past, "No," to name only three. The salesperson's taboos are clearly of a lesser import than the soldier's, yet the parallel is strong. Both the soldier and the salesperson suffer when they fail to transcend taboos, even though ignoring them is crucial to success and permission has been granted.
Redesigning a salesperson's training to take advantage of these well demonstrated methods of behavior modification can have a similarly spectacular effect. Another key to enhanced salesperson performance evident from Grossman's work is the value of on-the-job group dynamics. "Numerous studies have concluded that men in combat are usually motivated to fight not by ideology or hate or fear, but by group pressures and processes involving (1) regard for their comrades, (2) respect for their leaders, (3) concern for their own reputation with both, and (4) an urge to contribute to the success of the group." [p. 89] Many sales organizations, by contrast, pit salespeople against each other and minimize the role of sales managers. It is a world of lone wolves, though teamwork and leadership are demonstrated multipliers of effectiveness. How much of a multiplier? Modern armies have faced similarly equipped, by traditionally trained enemies and killed 35 to 50 of their adversaries for each soldier lost. [p. 197] Salespeople trained, organized, and lead on this model can also expect order-of-magnitude improvements.
Rating: 3
Summary: Provocative, though flawed
Comment: Grossman's book can completely change the way you look at war and violence. He provides compelling evidence that most of the soldiers before the 20th century were just going through the motions, and that war has only become a truly savage event since the advent of artillery, machineguns and intensive infantry training.
This book on "killology" (Grossman's term) gave me a lot of food for thought about who is capable of killing, what the experience of killing is like, during and after, and whether the capacity for killing can be changed. It's reassuring that most people are extremely reluctant to kill (at least face to face), but disturbing that the methods for overcoming that reluctance have improved greatly in this century.
He also does a good job explaining why Americans committed atrocities in Viet Nam, and why returning veterans were more psychologically damaged than any other war in American history. (Personally, I have a problem with the argument that Viet Nam vets needed a "heroes' welcome home" to heal their psyches. It's hard to give that kind of reception to soldiers who fought in a conflict you don't consider morally justifiable.)
Grossman ventures way out of his element in the last section of the book, where he tries to explain the increasing incidence of violence in American society. He glosses over issues like poverty, racism, drugs, availability of firearms and other factors contributing to violence, and places the blame on increased violence in the media, claiming it is the only variable that has changed over the past fifty years. Grossman's theory works in the military because the soldier is isolated from all those other factors. Not only does he provide no statistical evidence for this claim, failing to name any of the "over 200 studies" showing a correlation between television watching and violence, Grossman's analysis of video games, TV and movies and their audiences is much too simplistic.
Even his explanation of why the aggravated assault rate has increased almost nonstop over the last fifty years while the murder rate has held relatively steady doesn't quite wash. And if the massive number of criminals in prison is holding down the murder rate, what about all the non-violent offender inmates?
The thesis of "On Killing" is plausible, but it isn't as thoroughly grounded in evidence as it could be. Grossman draws on military statistics and records to make his case, but he sometimes cites anecdotes that sound a little too pat to be true. They read more like the military equivalent of urban legends. Still, Grossman's book will make you think in new ways about violence, war and human nature.
Afterthought: A lot has happened in America since this book came out. I'm curious to know what Grossman would make of Timothy McVeigh, a trained soldier and expert marksman, who once refused orders to kill fleeing Iraqi soldiers during the Gulf War, but then killed 168 American civilians a few years later. He'd probably have some strong thoughts on Columbine as well.
Rating: 5
Summary: Read it for your own peace of mind and for all veterans.
Comment: Lt. Col. Grossman has contributed to the mental health of innumerable peace officers and soldiers by writing this book. As both a decorated veteran and peace officer, I can attest to many of the topics presented inside its pages. I have used much of the material in my training courses and most recently to assist one of my fellow Vietnam Veterans. I cannot recommend it too highly. It is truly a pioneering work in the field.
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Title: Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill : A Call to Action Against TV, Movie and Video Game Violence by Dave Grossman, Gloria Degaetano ISBN: 0609606131 Publisher: Crown Publishers Pub. Date: 01 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Deadly Force Encounters: What C0PS Need to Know to Mentally and Physically Prepare for and Survive a Gunfight by Alexis, Dr. Artwohl, Loren W. Christensen ISBN: 0873649354 Publisher: Paladin Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1997 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: An Intimate History of Killing: Face-to-Face Killing in Twentieth-Century Warfare by Joanna Bourke ISBN: 0465007384 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command by S. L. A. Marshall ISBN: 0806132809 Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Acts of War: Behavior of Men in Battle by Richard Holmes ISBN: 0029148510 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1989 List Price(USD): $20.50 |
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