Drone operators are called brave for risking their psychic rather than physical lives

Evidence

By shifting what is sacrificed from the physical plane to the mental, such a redefinition would make it possible to restore to drone operators their lost share of heroism. Purely psychic heroism is a tendentious invention of a new kind of military bravery or virtue. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 366 (#expands, via linked claim)

On the surface, of course, what he is saying is that it is morally necessary to accept the principle of one’s own exposure to risk in order to be able to kill in warfare. But, in truth, his palimpsest of citation is very well chosen, for how is it possible to justify homicide in a noncombat situation? For those seeking to justify such activities, there is only one place to turn: doctrines on political assassination. That is the lesson Walzer provides as a reader of Camus. On the surface, Walzer certainly does appear to make a clear misinterpretation, for he twists the nihilist maxim in order to turn it into the moral motto of classic warfare: “One cannot kill unless one is prepared to die.” However, at an underlying level, he is making another point: the agents of “war without risks” are in reality like assassins who use bombs to kill their targets; unlike idealistic terrorists, they have chosen to be ready to kill only if they are certain that themselves will not die. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 509 (#expands, via linked claim)

In English one uses the expression “unmanned aerial vehicle” to refer to a crewless plane. But one of the troubles with unmanned aerial vehicles is literally the peril of becoming “un-manned” in every sense of the term, including “emasculated.” That also is why those Air Force officers initially put up such resistance to the general adoption of the drones. Obviously the drones threatened their own employment, their professional qualifications, and their institutional position, but the threat was also to their own virility, which was largely associated with the taking of risks. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 354 (#responds-to, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Risk-free drone operators morally resemble assassins, not soldiers — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 509; The redefinition of bravery as psychic risk is an invented military virtue — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 366; Pilot resistance to drones inscribed a threat to masculine virility through risk-taking. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 354 (+1 more)

Related

• Pilot resistance to drones inscribed a threat to masculine virility through risk-taking. (similarity 0.90)
• The redefinition of bravery as psychic risk is an invented military virtue (similarity 0.88)
• Risk-free drone operators morally resemble assassins, not soldiers (similarity 0.88)
• Air Force pilots resisted drones partly because unmanning threatened their virility. (similarity 0.86)
• Drone warfare adopts assassination ethics while refusing assassination’s self-sacrifice (similarity 0.86)
• Drones are morally justified by preventing one’s own casualties (similarity 0.83)
• Eliminating reciprocal exposure to violence makes drones look like cowardly weapons. (similarity 0.82)
• Drones create a moral hazard that shifts risk onto others. (similarity 0.81)
• The drone exemplifies the moral hazard of acting without bearing costs (similarity 0.81)
• Drone psychopathology lies in produced compartmentalization, not operator trauma (similarity 0.81)
• Media emphasis on drone pilot trauma legitimizes them as classic soldiers (similarity 0.81)
• Drone morality inverts ethics to make unendangered killing good (similarity 0.81)
• Drones’ necroethics embody a nationalism of self-preservation (similarity 0.81)
• Drone design produces a strong moral buffering effect on operators (similarity 0.80)
• The drone reconciles liberal security statehood with unrestricted waging of war. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• The redefinition of bravery as psychic risk is an invented military virtue #expands (0.60) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 366
• Risk-free drone operators morally resemble assassins, not soldiers #expands (0.50) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 509
• Pilot resistance to drones inscribed a threat to masculine virility through risk-taking. #responds-to (0.45) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 354