From the Confederacy to Gaza, people love watching other people get blown up.
In 2014, a Danish journalist snapped a photo of Israelis gathering on a hill to eat popcorn, clap, and cheer as Gaza was bombed.
Inhumane? Of course — but not anything new, in Israel or anywhere else. Humans have a long, dark, and fascinating history of gathering to watch the chaos, death, and terrible beauty of war. War tourism was already ancient in the days of Julius Caesar, and is probably as old as the concept of war itself.
It has, of course, changed over time — new technologies, tactics, and standards of morality have influenced what war tourism looks like — but seems as constant in our history as death and taxes.
The appeal of violence and conflict should surprise nobody. There’s a reason we still watch boxing, why we enjoy movie swordfights, and play shooting video games. Famously, the Romans staged “mock” battles in the Colosseum in which captured enemies were forced to fight each other to the death. But why take the risk of going to see a battle in the flesh?
Understandably, many of our earliest mentions of battle spectators come from people who had little choice but to watch, such as those viewing sieges from the city…