[lit-ideas] The Brain-Washer
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:06:53 EST
L. K. Helm writes:
"Greater love hast no man than
that he would lay down his life for a friend."
--- Right, but we should consider Speranza's Axiom more seriously:
I wrote:
Anything worth living for is worth dying for.
However, the reverse is not true: everything worth dying for is worth living
for.
I don't want to be too sophistical about this, and brainwashing need not be
a terribly bad thing.
Leonidas was possibly _brain-washed_, and what's more, he was possibly very
superstitious, and abiding by the oracle that did say that one Spartan king
_had_ to die for the country to prosper. The Greeks were _very_ superstitious.
The point Helm makes about 'friend' is interesting, because one criticism
that military historians make of the Thermopylai is that it was a gang of gays,
or homosexuals -- the 'male bonding' etc. Which would be double
brain-washing.
So when Helm speaks of a friend we have to be careful what one means.
To me, and to Aristotle, 'friend' is a _very_ personal thing, and has
nothing to do with one's nation, which seems to be the case that was with the
Thermopylai -- "Spartans" against Persians" -- "Thebans" joining "Spartans"
etc. I
don't think it's the sense of 'friend' we want to.
The sense of friend I want is the sense that W. H. Auden expresses in his
War Requiem, in that horribly pathetic sequence where a Hun is talking to a
Tommy Atkins -- a friendship that could have been but it ain't. Or, in Borges's
poem, "Jose Lopez and John Ward", about the Falklands Affair -- a friendship
that was nipped in the bud because Thatcher thought so.
Glory, valor, etc -- are nice to _die_ for -- but it's more difficult to
think of them as constant trends in one's life that will constitute one's
happiness. My happiness may consists in me _sailing_, or playing golf or
cricket --
but hardly on being _brave_.
This is more like an incidental episode, when necessity calls, or duty ca
lls. The Greeks were underpriviledged because they were _constantly_ at war,
so
the warrior ideal was a necessity. And note that unless you're really into
Greek 'studies', it's the boring Athenian perspective that prevails -- culture
in the time of peace -- rather than the Spartan military values, which have
passed down as 'archaic', even barbarian.
It's not as a philosopher I'm talking when I realise that Philosophy could
never have even _start_ or _be born_ in Sparta.
Some military types are brainwashed because the rule of 'due obedience' is
something civilians don't have to go through. If it were a matter of mere
morality, the concept of 'due obedience' would be empty. I think perhaps 150 of
the 300 were acting out of 'due obedience' which would require a means-end
analysis for their actions -- perhaps they were acting like they did on fear of
the punishment for desertion or cowardice.
There's also some brainwashing in the military types that they think they
must _ALWAYS_ be out defending (and sacrificing their lives for their
'anonymous'? friends). They can't enjoy a film, they can't enjoy a golf match,
they
can't enjoy a sail -- they ALWAYS have to be thinking of their duties -- and
that makes them boring.
Sometimes a friend is one you just like to play poker with!
But feel free to brain-wash.
I'm more interested in brain-drainage. Why is it that Buenos Aires or Santa
Maria dellos Buenos Aires never COUNTS as a place of academic prestige but
for, say, Latin Americanists who will have a sabbatical in the land of Borges?
Why is it that the British Council offers scholarships -- like this stupid
Prince of Wales scholarships -- for the best of the Argentines -- or any other
'out-of-the-circuit' place -- to have to undergo a process of 're-education'
in, say, the environs of Foucault's dirty saunas?
Brain washing at least is clean.
Geary probably knows what's Greek for 'brain washer'.
Cheers,
JL
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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