As Sister was leaving last night after our informal Karamu (with gumbo, yeaaah!), I was reunited with my online buds in old habit of venturing to foreign virtual lands and shooting each other in the head. She shook her head and mumbled something about corrupting our children to which the Spousal Unit mumbled agreement. You're a husband, you know how wives do, and you know exactly how to mumble back.
Ever since watching Patton a year or so ago, I've been thinking about that which gets attributed to war rightly or wrongly. I have concluded that war is man's greatest endeavor, it is the mother of all invention, the scrubber and creator of history. War appropriates all moral discourse and destroys all information that it doesn't yield, thus it is the be all and end all of humanity. There is nothing greater we can do to destroy or preserve ourselves than is done in war. We victors or vanquished have only the mind of God from which to rebuild that which we might be again after the battlefield has taken its toll.
So I am reminded of another great man whom I met on a small plane in Vail but neglected to put on my silly list of most famous people met. This broker named Bernstein; he was reading an old history. And I am reminded of the Arnn lectures I am hearing from the Hugh Hewitt archives on Jaffa who says life is too short to read 100 great books, and then proceeds to recommend three. History is the history of war, and why shouldn't it be?
So in my games, I have approached the pitch of battle, and I watch how men call each other names or brothers and how bitterly we fight or how bravely we sacrifice. And though these are only games, they are only games for men. There cannot be any coincidental reason for that. Men are drawn to war as they are to righteousness and renown. In our times of peace, it is our constant reminder of the things we might be called to do were it not for prior victories in our favor.
I'm studying war. Not this one in Iraq because to study that one is to engage too many people who have nothing better to do and no investment in the moral discipline of war itself. They are opportunists seeking currency. I am seeking a more transcendent wisdom, and that cannot be gotten by making political statements, at least not by me given the quality of the discourse I've been able to sustain. No disrespect to my present audience but who among you is Herodotus? I'd rather read him than you and I'd be better served.
You'll hear more of this.
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