Adversary Proceedings Summary and Analysis

'What we can call gross dichotomizing is a persisting imaginative habit of modern times, traceable, it would seem, to the actualities of the Great War. 'We' are all here on this side; 'the enemy' is over there. 'We' are individuals with names and personal identities; 'he' is a mere collective entity. We are visible; he is invisible. We are normal; he is grotesque. Our appurtenances are natural; his, bizarre. He is not as good as we are" (Chap. 3, p. 75). Life in the trenches is rough on humans. When it is prolonged, it has various psychological, social, and political implications. For example, they knew the Germans were there, but weeks might pass without them seeing any. The soldiers become polarized in their thinking. The enemy is different than they are; they don't think in the same way. The time spent...