Sebastian Junger Quotes - Page 2

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• Society can give its young men almost any job and they'll figure how to do it. They'll suffer for it and die for it and watch their friends die for it, but in the end, it will get done. That only means that society should be careful about what it asks for. ... Soldiers themselves are reluctant to evaluate the costs of war, but someone must. That evaluation, ongoing and unadulterated by politics, may be the one thing a country absolutely owes the soldiers who defend its borders.

  Sebastian Junger

  Country, Jobs, War

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• People who do really dangerous tasks can't afford to sit around and discuss the merits of what they're doing.

  Sebastian Junger

  People, Tasks, Merit

  "Oscar Nominee Sebastian Junger Speaks About His Year in Deadliest Place on Earth". Interview With Joshua Kors, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 18, 2011.

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• Soldiers join the military to serve their country, but when bullets are flying, it's hard to fight for an abstract notion like patriotism. They're fighting for the people standing next to them, and it doesn't matter who's a Republican or a Democrat, or who's black or white or Christian or Muslim or gay or straight. If Congress and all Americans could manage to ignore those differences, we would have a perfect country, but somehow we cannot rise to that level of nobility.

  Sebastian Junger

  Christian, Country, Military

  Source: www.oprah.com

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• There's no reason to do anything twice, and certainly no reason to do something that almost killed you.

  Sebastian Junger

  Reason, No Reason

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• I would never want to pass a law limiting freedom of speech, but that doesn't mean we have to condone statements that undermine basic national unity and respect. Imagine being asked to defend a country where some citizens say the man in the White House isn't their president. Or a major presidential contender accuses the commander in chief of not even being a U.S. citizen. Those kinds of statements erode trust in our democracy, and it's up to both parties to publicly reject them. We have to restore confidence that we are a nation that loves and believes in itself.

  Sebastian Junger

  Country, Party, Believe

  Source: www.oprah.com

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• How do men act on a sinking ship? Do they hold each other? Do they pass around the whisky? Do they cry?

  Sebastian Junger

  Men, Ships, Cry

  Sebastian Junger (2010). “The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea”, p.9, HarperCollins UK

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• It's fun to have money, but the more money I get, the less interesting it becomes. If you don't have very much, you have to think about it. If you are starving, you become interested in food. If you are struggling to pay the bills, money becomes tragically important.

  Sebastian Junger

  Fun, Struggle, Thinking

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• If hardship brought out the worst in people, the human race wouldn't have survived. Right after 9/11, for instance, the murder rate actually went down in New York City. In World War II during the Blitz, the civilians of London were bombed almost every night for six months, but psychiatric admissions declined.

  Sebastian Junger

  War, Night, People

  Source: www.oprah.com

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• A grenade launcher will easily take out a tank; a Molotov cocktail placed in its air intake will destroy one as well.

  Sebastian Junger

  Air, Molotov Cocktail, Tanks

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• There is some evidence that average wave heights are slowly rising, and that freak waves of eighty or ninety feet are becoming more common. Wave heights off the coast of England have risen an average of 25 percent over the past couple of decades, which converts to a twenty-foot increase in the highest waves over the next half century. One cause may be the tightening of environmental laws, which has reduced the amount of oil flushed into the oceans by oil tankers.

  Sebastian Junger

  Couple, Ocean, Past

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• Firemen don't talk about whether a burning warehouse is worth saving.

  Sebastian Junger

  Burning, Saving, Fireman

  "Oscar Nominee Sebastian Junger Speaks About His Year in Deadliest Place on Earth". Interview With Joshua Kors, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 18, 2011.

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• I don't think people would climb mountains or jump off bridges with parachutes or kayak Class V rapids if those things didn't offer the brief and horrible illusion of imminent death. They would just be complicated, time-consuming endeavors that we'd steer well clear of because they got in the way of real life.

  Sebastian Junger

  Real, Thinking, Bridges

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• I was surprised how open and unguarded the military was. I expected more scrutiny, more supervision from command.

  Sebastian Junger

  Military, Scrutiny, Supervision

  "Oscar Nominee Sebastian Junger Speaks About His Year in Deadliest Place on Earth". Interview With Joshua Kors, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 18, 2011.

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• War affected my family a lot, and I was quite curious about it. I first went off to war in the early 90's as a journalist, partly out of curiosity and partly because I needed a career. War reporting has been very glamorous and exciting, and everything else that young men like.

  Sebastian Junger

  War, Men, Careers

  "Director Sebastian Junger Talks RESTREPO Follow-Up KORENGAL, Helping People Understand the Realistic Effects of War, and More". Interview with Sheila Roberts, collider.com. June 14, 2014.

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• All journalists hope that their work will inspire a broader conversation. I think that's just what journalism is.

  Sebastian Junger

  Thinking, Inspire, Journalism

  "Director Sebastian Junger Talks RESTREPO Follow-Up KORENGAL, Helping People Understand the Realistic Effects of War, and More". Interview with Sheila Roberts, collider.com. June 14, 2014.

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• I think human society for tens of thousands of years has sent young men out in small groups to do things that are necessary but very dangerous. And they've always gotten killed doing it. And they've always turned it into a matter of honor and a way of gaining acceptance back into society if they survived.

  Sebastian Junger

  Acceptance, Men, Thinking

  "A Few Good Men". Interview with Adam Weinstein, www.motherjones.com. September/October 2010.

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• Of the primary emotions, fear is the one that bears most directly on survival. Children show fear. Adults try not to, maybe because it's shameful, or, in some circumstances, dangerous. The fear response is automatic, though, and your body runs through its reflexes whether you want it to or not.

  Sebastian Junger

  Running, Children, Survival

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• I’ve stopped war reporting. I realized that I’d answered all of my questions about war and about myself.

  Sebastian Junger

  War, I Realized

  "Sebastian Junger on the Value and Cost of War Reporting and Making a Film About His Late ‘Restrepo’ Co-Director Tim Hetherington". Interview with Alison Willmore, www.indiewire.com. April 16, 2013.

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• I have been working since I was 20, and I'm 38. I actually once averaged out what I had made over my professional life. I think I could have made that much as a waiter or an insurance salesman. You know, I spent so many years in my 20's making $10,000 a year.

  Sebastian Junger

  Thinking, Years, Made

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• The army consists of the first infantry division and eight million replacements.

  Sebastian Junger

  Army, Eight, Infantry Division

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• My reporting in Africa wouldn't be political per se, but it's certainly the point of my reporting - and of a lot of other reporters I know: Human suffering is bad, and if reporting stories about it brings it to light and someone does something, that's part of the point of journalism. And it's a thin line between that and activism, and you have to be careful about that.

  Sebastian Junger

  Political, Suffering, Journalism

  "A Few Good Men". Interview With Adam Weinstein, www.motherjones.com. September/October 2010.

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• I hope I get married one day.

  Sebastian Junger

  One Day, Married

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• The attacks of 9/11 came out of Afghanistan. It was a failed state, a rogue nation. That's why al Qaeda was there in the first place.

  Sebastian Junger

  Als, Rogues, Firsts

  "Journalist Sebastian Junger". "Tavis Smiley", www.pbs.org. June 10, 2011.

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• Who wants a life of ease? And who wants a life in the office that you hate, and who wants to play golf?

  Sebastian Junger

  Hate, Golf, Play

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• I had grown up during Vietnam. I had no connections to the U.S. military, and I had a pretty cynical default opinion about the U.S. military.

  Sebastian Junger

  Military, Cynical, Connections

  "A Few Good Men". Interview with Adam Weinstein, www.motherjones.com. September/October 2010.

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