[lit-ideas] Re: Gurkha Lurkers
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:16:18 -0800
Lycurgus recognized this natural human tendency to run away from danger and
so created rules for Sparta intended to compensate. If one is on his own,
then his fight as opposed to flight inclination isn't strong, but if he is
with his family or friends his fight inclination is much stronger. If it is
just him, he can run away. What does it matter? But if his running away
would endanger his family or friends, then he stays to fight for them.
This is also natural and so Lycurgus ordered all fighting aged men to live
in community situations so that they would be willing and able to fight for
each other.
If one hoplite drops his shield and runs away then the whole phalanx is
endangered. The Hoplites from other Greek city states might drop theirs
and run away, but not Spartans - at least not before they became corrupted
by luxury - not in their heyday.
Marines haven't lived their whole lives together but they are subjected to a
heavy dosage of the community arrangement of Lycurgus. They become friends
and trust one another. If there is some Marine you don't trust, that is,
that you don't trust his willingness to stand in the Spartan fashion, you
might say you wouldn't want to share a fox hole with him - meaning you
wouldn't trust him to guard your back. Any platoon sergeant worth his salt
would send such a person elsewhere, but it is the responsibility of the
"Boot Camp" regime to weed-out such people.
Now my impression of Civil War training is that they didn't use Lycurgus
ideas, at least not in the North - not on purpose. If a unit joined from
some city or town, perhaps there was a built-in communal element that would
inspire soldiers to stand, but in many cases that wasn't the situation.
Henry Fleming, if memory serves me, was an isolated individual to start with
and initially didn't stand. But when he was befriended, albeit for his
false "red badge" he was drawn into a communal situation and behaved as well
as any Spartan hoplite. [It's been quite a while since I read this short
story. I hope I don't have it wrong.]
The Gurkhas live and train in ideal Lycurgus arrangements. Perhaps the
other "Martial Races," the Scots and Welsh serve short terms and go home,
but the Gurkhas are in the service until they die, are incapacitated or
retire. They are modern Spartans and in a league with the French Foreign
Legion and the Marines. Of course the Marines would win head to head with
the Gurkhas or the French Foreign Legion. Their training might be no
better, I don't know, but they are better equipped and more numerous. But
that would never happen. Sparta held off attacking Athens until the peace
of Nicias was signed because the Athenians had captured 150 Spartan
hoplites. Sparta knew the value of their hoplites and wanted them back. So
do Britain and France know the value of theirs - at least the British and
French who haven't been corrupted by luxury.
Lawrence Helm
San Jacinto
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Yost
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 8:58 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Gurkha Lurkers
Robert [discussing The Red Badge of Courage]: That is, what set of
emotions or reactions moved him, in light of the recent discussion of
honor here.
First thing would be to separate the emotions of Crane's entirely
fictional character from those of the quasi-historical Falstaff, aka
Oldcastle, who pretends to be dead in Henry IV part one, then spuriously
claims to have killed Hotspur.
Crane's hero is not a Falstaff, i.e., not someone altogether lacking honor.
Best,
Eric
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