War is who we are, who we have always been. War is to men what motherhood is to women. You may not like it, you certainly wouldn't enjoy war..but nevertheless your brain would keep telling you 'this is it'.
I don't like violent lunatics, but there's undeniable glory in defeating such.
Vitalism of that type depicted in Homer is v completely obsolete.
Modern war requires entirely different philosophical/moral approaches.
And war is now way too expensive to be anything but a last resort.
MadMonzer
Temporarily embarrassed liberal elite
No_one 3mo ago
War is to men what motherhood is to women.
The vast majority of soldiers who are able to speak on the issue have said that war is hell. The vast majority of mothers have said the opposite about motherhood.
I think this is partly because modern warfare is a lot less like a fistfight and a lot more like crawling through the landscape for weeks knowing you might die any second. It's also because the anti-war soldiers are very strongly signal-boosted. Everyone has Sassoon and that gas poem shoved down their throat at school, nobody gives you Storm of Steel or George MacDonald Fraser.
A high-ranking officer once told me privately that you have to keep a close lid on soldiers because young men very much enjoy killing things and blowing stuff up and you can lose control of them very easily.
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Notes -
I largely agree.
Points of disagreement: vitalism isn't repellent.
War is who we are, who we have always been. War is to men what motherhood is to women. You may not like it, you certainly wouldn't enjoy war..but nevertheless your brain would keep telling you 'this is it'.
I don't like violent lunatics, but there's undeniable glory in defeating such.
Vitalism of that type depicted in Homer is v completely obsolete.
Modern war requires entirely different philosophical/moral approaches.
And war is now way too expensive to be anything but a last resort.
The vast majority of soldiers who are able to speak on the issue have said that war is hell. The vast majority of mothers have said the opposite about motherhood.
I think this is partly because modern warfare is a lot less like a fistfight and a lot more like crawling through the landscape for weeks knowing you might die any second. It's also because the anti-war soldiers are very strongly signal-boosted. Everyone has Sassoon and that gas poem shoved down their throat at school, nobody gives you Storm of Steel or George MacDonald Fraser.
A high-ranking officer once told me privately that you have to keep a close lid on soldiers because young men very much enjoy killing things and blowing stuff up and you can lose control of them very easily.
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