[lit-ideas] Homo Bellicus
- From: jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 10:33:23 -0500
"JL questions whether I am not too blithely ascribing Western standards to
non-Western (especially Islamic) civilizations, and perhaps I have done that
although I can’t bring anything to mind that fits that description"
Thank you, L. K. Helm, for taking the time in going through my clumsy pc at
Isola Speranza. Indeed a slow thing -- but then recall it´s the riviera and
they do things slow here.
Anyway, your knolwedge of foreign policy so much exceeds mine -- unless I
discount my ken on foreign country I call "America", of which I know a few
things, although of course not as many as Helm does, but then it´s not FOREIGN
to him! Ha -).
I think I was referring to your comparing Bush with Athens and Hussein with the
Spartans. You were saying that you could see how Sparta and Athens were
reasonable in thinking that the war was over, but could not see how Hussein
thought that. My feeling was: "Elementary Dr. Watson; Hussein is no Diomedes,
and the fact that we think he may be even want to be would be vomiting to him.
That´s one reason, my American friends say that Obama could never make it to
the first Gentleman (cf. First Lady) of America -- his second name is Hussein.
Anyway, will elaborate on these things at a later stage.
I´m not sure homo abililis translates homo bellicus. J. L. Borges quotes from a
beautiful poem by William Morris in his ANCIENT GERMANIC LITERATURES. The poem
ends with the word "war", and an examination of the word will show that this is
Anglo-Norman, while ´bellicus´would be the adjective for ´warlike´. The
Anglo-Saxons had their own. Just a penny dropped for further elaboration on the
thesaurus of war vocabulary. And then there´s milites.
Cheers,
JL
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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