[lit-ideas] War Games
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas" <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:09:48 -0800
[See JL's note below] JL,
I read a book about the Gurkhas ages ago, before the Flaklands war, and in
it the Gurkhas were presented in a favorable light. When the British were
off fighting everyone and conquering the world so that the sun would never
set on it, they encountered many responsive ways of fighting. They didn't
like the Afghanis at all because they had a habit of cutting of the
testicles of dead enemies and stuffing them in their mouths. But the
Gurkhas, according to this historian I read, were just like the British.
They were 'good sports" about war. They were happy to declare time outs for
tea or whatever the Gurkhas drank and they honored longer time outs so the
dead could be removed from the field. Thus, the British recruiting
Sergeants, who were always on the lookout for good troops inasmuch as the
British didn't have enough native Britishers to do the work of empire,
offered the Gurkhas, after their little battle was over, a deal: Good
wages, equipment, plenty of leave time to visit the folks at home and all
they had to do was fight for the British wherever the British said. It
worked out well for both sides.
Wikipedia: "the Gurkhas were designated by British officials as a "Martial
Race <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_Race> ". "Martial Race" was a
designation created by officials of British India
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_India> to describe "races" (peoples)
that were thought to be naturally warlike and aggressive
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggressive> in battle
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle> , and to possess qualities like
courage <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courage> , loyalty
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyalty> , self sufficiency
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_sufficiency> , physical strength
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_strength> , resilience
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resilience> , orderliness
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order> , hard working, fighting tenacity
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tenacity&action=edit> and
military strategy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_strategy> . The
British recruited heavily from these Martial Races for service in the
colonial army <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_army> .[1]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorkha> "
The British originally created the term "Martial Races" to describe the
Scottish Highlanders. They theorized that certain "races" were more warlike
than others. I don't know which other peoples are on their list besides the
Scots and the Gurkhas.
My earlier comments had to do with nations. That is, nations don't go to
war for fun. There are individuals who think fighting is fun. I was
stationed with one in Korea who was one/quarter Blackfoot and every time he
got a snoot full he wanted to fight. Unfortunately he wasn't very good at
it. I rescued him from countless beatings and he never objected to that.
So while he wanted to get into these fights, he didn't want to get beaten to
a bloody pulp and friends observed that Wild Bill Salois didn't start any
fights when I wasn't around.
But more seriously, nations, and before them tribes have known that they
have a much better chance of winning an encounter with an enemy if their
young men know how to fight well (whether or not they possessed all the
qualities the British desired from a Martial Race). How do you get your
young men trained and prepared. Early on it was discovered that games were
good preparation. All of the early "games" were readily translatable into
military skills and young men who were good at one or more of these "games"
were also likely to be good at the military equivalent. I have never heard
the counter suggestion that these games were merely for sport. If you could
throw a javelin better than anyone else and your hoplite phalanx needed
someone to throw a spear at an opposing hoplite leader who was exposing
himself rather foolishly, who is your leader going to choose to throw that
spear? Why you, of course.
Games and training have become so ingrained and sublimated over the years
that the ordinary sports fan would be astounded at the ancient connection to
war. Surely not, he would say. But what does an American Football game,
for example, remind you of so much as two Greek phalanxes contending with
each other. They have no spears or swords but they have heavy modern armor
and helmets and they thrust against each other in the manner of the ancient
Greek hoplites.
One might observe, truly, that we have no modern use for hoplites, but in
theory if one is proficient and courageous in American football, those
skills would lend themselves to other forms of combat.
As to war gaming, consider first the simulator. When I was in aerospace and
we sold a bunch of airplanes to someone, we usually sold them a simulator as
well. A transport plane, or any modern plane for that matter, is very
expensive. If you represent your nation and have purchased these planes,
you don't want your pilots to learn how to fly them by trial and error. So
you buy a simulator and let your pilots practice in that. You can see how
well they do and not let them get into an actual plane until they have
demonstrated that they can do well in this "toy cockpit."
Something even more expensive than an airplane is an army. You do not want
your generals learning how to fight wars "on the job." So in America and
presumably elsewhere, future military leaders are sent to "war college" and
learn among other things "war gaming." Whether they enjoy this training is
unknown to me, but I would imagine that those who become very good at it
would enjoy it. Some of the best stay on and teach, I understand.
I gather there are at least two levels of war-gaming (but probably many
levels in between the two I mention). The lower level would be for your
young lieutenants to learn the basics about leading their platoons into
battle. A higher level would be for generals to war-game major wars.
What did Wittgenstein intend with his word games. Were they strictly for
fun or were they primarily educational tools?
Lawrence Helm
San Jacinto
From: jlsperanza@xxxxxxx [mailto:jlsperanza@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 6:39 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx; teemu17@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: The Melleiren and the Iran: A Spartan Dialogue
Dear L. K. and List,
Please read the below when you have the time. Apparently my posts to
lit-ideas are taking their time to be distributed. So if you find any below
of interest to comment, feel free to do so onlist. I thought the chronology
of a Spartan male is cute.
I'm reading Finley and he is so rude. He says, Since 600 BC, there's no
native Spartan worth mentioning. After that date, they felt they had nothing
to say (to foreigners).
On the other hand I was doing some research on the Hercules Club. I belong
to the Poseidon Club in Buenos Aires, which has an excellent swimming pool
and where you can feel the riverside breeze. I thought the Hercules Club
would be similar. However, the entry for the OED refers to 'club' as in Golf
club, not as in Dr. Johnson 'clubbable clubs'. Anyway.
GURKHAS, they wanna have fun.
Our military historian, L. K. Helm, and royal marine (royal in the sense of
excellent) browses his swimming- or rather boot-camp library (he leads an
elitist documentation centre for the study of This and That -- Bellic:
"I've been reading about nations going to war. So far I haven't found a
single one which wanted to go to war because it seemed fun. The Spartan's
were warlike in ability but they were very slow to go to war. They backed
out of several crucial battles for religious reasons. When they did fight,
they fought well, but they never started a war because they thought it was
going to be fun."
One such nation may be the Gurkhas. Many well-born Argentines, including
quite a few Anglo-Argentines, were mercilessly killed by these barbarian
human midgets. I cannot recall the dialect, but what they said was along the
lines:
GURKHA 1: Bley baa Scotch and rum go go go uphill reysar argie bloody
GURKHA 2: HA! Teach lesson ya ya uphill go kill bley Buddah
GURKHA 1: Ready! Wanna some poppers?
GURKHA 2: Nay, thanks. Budha Alah and Jesus Christ, Fucklands Fuckers
Argies.
---- so they went up the hill. Reports from Argentine soldiers -- terrified
as they were -- indicate that they were (the Gurkhas) were laughing all the
way, as if they thought it was fun. (And perhaps it was for them). Also,
they were killing each other on the way up the hill, and strongly under the
influence of whatever led them to find war a cheerful adventure not to be
had in the land where they belong (not the Fucklands, precisely).
Anyway, but back to the Spartans. We have nowadays many so-called WAR-GAMES.
How can Helm explain those unless it's the silly ludic element that mothers
impose on those 'useless things' (as Spartans called children before
war-age). There are so many of them. "Playing soldiers" is common among boys
(or 'kids' as Americans animalize them). Knowing kids, they may well kill
each other if were not for some 'rules' that adults impose on the games.
So, I suppose the same would apply to Spartans. I was doing some research on
age-groups. I came to the following conclusion
SPARTA
pais meleikistes iran aner
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
pais ephebos aner
ATHENS
So there was no correlation between their categorisation of
'rite-of-passage' male things. In any case, suppose we have a meleikistes
talking to an iran:
MELE. Wanna have some fun?
IRAN. What d'you mean?
MELE Some drilling. It's dry and nice, and feel like running naked
on the fields.
IRAN. Sounds good to me. Call your 'brothers'.
MELE Why?
IRAN If we are going to drill, we might just as well do it in
groups -- elite groups --
and save time in case of war.
MELE. Oh, you and your war. Our neighbours (perioikoides) are dum,
and so are
the halots. Can't you just gymnastics without THINKING
about war?
IRAN. You don't know. You are hardly an 'aner'. Indeed, you are
not. You're not
even an iran. You should bless Sparta that you are not a
pais anymore!
MELE. Still. I like to exercise (_ascesis_) for the fun of it. See
how I move my right
foot to the left, and now my left foot to the right.
IRAN. Why don't you move your left foot to your arse. Your flexible
enough!
MELE. Who's them out there beyond the rocks?
IRAN I told you! Enemies. Argi-bloody-ves!
MELE. Let's call the andres!
IRAN. Indeed. Let's call the Andres. Leonidas is in Sardinia though.
He is settling
a Spartan colony there.
MELE. By the sperm of Herackles! What are we going to do?
IRAN. Keep playing your silly games. The Argives may take you for a
pais and
save your life. As for me...
MELE. As for you -- what? You're not thinking of leaving are you?
IRAN. No, but I do have a train to catch.
Etc.
J. L. Speranza
Bordighera -- Land of the Ligure
From Murray, p. 8o. "Attic Greek would have four sharp divisions: pais,
ephebos, aner, geron. In Sparta the divisions are still sharper and more
numerous centring in the great initiation ceremonies of the Iranes, or
full-grown youths. These initiation ceremonies are called Teletai,
'completions': they mark the great 'rite of transition' from the immature,
charming, but useless thing which we call a boy to the teleios aner, the
full member of the tribe as fighter. See Woodward B. S. A. xiv, 83.
Nikagoras won four (successive?) victories as mikkikhixomenos, porpais, pais
and melleiren, i.e. from his tenth to fifteenth year.He would then at 14 or
15 become an iran. Plut Lyc. 17 gives the age of an iran as 20. This agrees
with the age of an ephebos at Athens as "15-20", "14-21", "about 16"; see
authorities in Stephanus, s.v. ephebos. Such variations in the date of
'puberty ceremonies are common'. The whole subject of Greek initiation
ceremonies calls pressingly for more investigation. For one instance, it is
clear that a great number of rites which were formerly explained as remnants
of human sacrifice are simply ceremonies of initiation (see Rise of the
Greek Epic, Appendix on Hymn. Dem, and W. R. Halliday, C. R. xxv, 8.
Nillson's valualbe article has appared since the above was written,
Grundlage des spartanischen leben, in Klio xii 1902.
Other related posts:
