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  1. This is the famous duality of Quantum Politico-Ethics. The kids and parents are the political equivalent of Schroedinger’s Cats: If they are in a camp that is sealed and there are no photographers there to record whether they are writing on the bombs, we cannot know whether they write on ’em or not. As soon as a single flashbulb pops (or a reporter asks any single question), it changes the conditions in the camp such that no one can know the state before the flashbulb popped (or the reporter asked the question).
    Feel free to replace the scenario with almost any political/ethical dilemma that one can face either in the glare of the media or in the quiet of one’s darkened room. The media can affect people’s actions or not affect people’s actions. A camera might make a normally violent person stop the violence or might make a normally peaceful person violent. It might do neither — in which case how do you know whether violence is the act for the media, or the reality? You can never know what affect — if any — the cameras had on the humans involved — even more so, i think, or kids. And cats.
    I think Schroedinger’s cat is perfectly alive and just taking a nap. But then, I always was an optimist.
    Gotta love physics.

  2. “…why would anyone facilitate such a thing?”
    Stress relief, maybe. Publicity, almost certainly. An act of defiance, definitely. This isn’t the first time this has been done (thinking of the Doolittle raid back in 1942, fast forward to First Gulf War.) Yes, those were military folks writing messages and attaching medals to bombs – but the concept is the same, I guess.
    It is somewhat scary, though. If the USofA and one of its neighbors were in this type of shooting war, would our children be doing the same thing?
    ~EdT.

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