S
Sniffles
Guest
"It is well that war is so terrible -- lest we should grow too fond of it."
--Robert E. Lee
I think this is a valid point in this issue, cause there is actually a certain aesthetic appeal to war - we saw that in WWI when huge crowds cheered joyfully at the outbreak of war, seeing it as some kind of adventerous break from their mundane lives. Ernst Jünger talks about this on the first pages of his wartime memoirs Storm of Steel:
This probably sums up best what people often mean when they speak of the "beauty" of war. It's a yearning very deep within human nature, and in fairness there is a certain legitimacy to that yearning. The question become how does one channel that yearning to more constructive ends. That is why codes of honour - such as Chivalry and Bushido - play such a prominent role in this context, cause it seeks to do just that. And one prominent feature of such codes does include a certain desire to avoid violence unless absolutely necessary. Sun Tzu noted that the best victory is one that's achieved without fighting. The founder of Akido(a martial art practiced by many militaries), Morihei Ueshiba, was a dedicated pacifist for much of his life. He remarked:
"The Way of the Warrior has been misunderstood. It is not a means to kill and destroy others. Those who seek to compete and better one another are making a terrible mistake. To smash, injure, or destroy is the worst thing a human being can do. The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent such slaughter - it is the Art of Peace, the power of love."
So a proper understanding of war, even of its positive aspects, includes a certain revulsion against its horrible nature. This goes against both the childish glorification of war as purely postive but also the sentimenal rejection of war as purely negative.
--Robert E. Lee
I think this is a valid point in this issue, cause there is actually a certain aesthetic appeal to war - we saw that in WWI when huge crowds cheered joyfully at the outbreak of war, seeing it as some kind of adventerous break from their mundane lives. Ernst Jünger talks about this on the first pages of his wartime memoirs Storm of Steel:
Grown up in an era of security, we shared a yearning for danger, for the experience of the extraordinary. We were enraptured by war. We had set out in a rain of flowers, in a drunken atmosphere of blood and roses. Surely the war had to supply us with what we wanted; the great, the overwhelming, the hallowed experience. We thought of it as manly, as action, a merry duelling party on flowered, blood-bedewed meadows. 'No finer death in all the world than...' Anything to participate, not to have to stay at home!
This probably sums up best what people often mean when they speak of the "beauty" of war. It's a yearning very deep within human nature, and in fairness there is a certain legitimacy to that yearning. The question become how does one channel that yearning to more constructive ends. That is why codes of honour - such as Chivalry and Bushido - play such a prominent role in this context, cause it seeks to do just that. And one prominent feature of such codes does include a certain desire to avoid violence unless absolutely necessary. Sun Tzu noted that the best victory is one that's achieved without fighting. The founder of Akido(a martial art practiced by many militaries), Morihei Ueshiba, was a dedicated pacifist for much of his life. He remarked:
"The Way of the Warrior has been misunderstood. It is not a means to kill and destroy others. Those who seek to compete and better one another are making a terrible mistake. To smash, injure, or destroy is the worst thing a human being can do. The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent such slaughter - it is the Art of Peace, the power of love."
So a proper understanding of war, even of its positive aspects, includes a certain revulsion against its horrible nature. This goes against both the childish glorification of war as purely postive but also the sentimenal rejection of war as purely negative.