[lit-ideas] Greater love hath no man than . . .
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:50:09 -0800
I agree that brainwashing has occurred, but I think it has occurred from a
different standpoint than the one you suggest. Yesterday I quoted
Bernstein to say, ". . . Marxism, Existentialism, Pragmatism, and Analytic
Philosophy . . . it was the common negative stance of contemporary
philosophers that most forcefully struck me."
And now this "common negative stance" is considered the norm and if you hark
back to an earlier less negative time, a time in which positive virtues such
as honor, duty, country were worth dying for, well you are "of the military
types . . . so brainwashed that they only think . . . of things to die for .
. ."
I believe the modern philosophical brainwashers have convinced great numbers
that there is nothing worth dying for. There is nothing in the universe, we
are encouraged to conclude, more important than our own lives; so let us
live them and be happy - which we can't really do because we subscribe to
negative philosophies, but better to be a live dog than a dead lion.
In Anthropology there is something called "survival strategy." Every
species has a different survival strategy. We know, for example that male
baboons were observed to give up their lives for the tribe they were members
of. Two males saw a leopard waiting at a pass, much like the one guarded by
Leonidas, and thus endangering the tribe. For a baboon to attack a leopard
involves the baboon's instant death, and yet two were observed to leap upon
this leopard, and though they were both instantly disemboweled, one of them
managed to sink his fangs in the leopard's jugular. This is a famous case
written about, if memory serves me, by Dart. I have the account some place.
We humans have the same survival strategy - at least it is in our quiver -
or used to be. We honor those like Leonidas who are willing to give up
their lives for the sake of their nations.
I looked up Leonidas and Thermopylae last night in the Eleventh edition of
the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the article gives the general outline and
says historical details are lacking. Clearly, admirers of Leonidas believe
him to exemplify the highest ideals of heroism. But details are lacking,
and I read a modern speculator who thought that Leonidas (assuming he shared
the negative philosophy of the speculator) would have preferred running
away, but simply waited too long.
Yes, it is better to defeat your enemy and not die. Sun Tzu would recommend
that strategy, but there may be instances in any war where if a few give up
their lives, many will be saved. If there are no soldiers willing to do
that in an army, then that army is seriously flawed and in danger of being
defeated by a more resolute enemy.
This ideal of dying for your nation if necessary exists in the West and is
still admired. We still admire genuine heroes, those of us who have not
been brainwashed into sublimating rock-stars and athletes for the real
thing.
The ideal exists in the West's foundations: Greater love hast no man than
that he would lay down his life for a friend.
Lawrence
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 7:55 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Worth Living For
Helm:
"Can we avoid concluding that there is nothing worth fighting for and that
nothing, not country, not honor, not glory, not duty is worth dying for?
Perhaps it is good to read The Sorrows of Young Werther as a teen ager, but
if we survive that suicidal temptation and reache adulthood, perhaps we
would do well to search beyond the confines of negative philosophies and
find something worth dying for - and the spirit to be willing to die for
it."
----
Also, worth living for.
I find some of the military types are so brainwashed that they only think
(slightly outcast types as they are, at least in Sparta) of things to die
for (others to live for).
Speranza's Axiom:
"Anything worth dying for is worth living for"
Cheers,
JL
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