because the alternative is worse...
Posted on 12/27/2020 6:32:59 PM PST by Rummyfan
Michael Walsh‘s survey of historical Last Stands: Why Men Fight When All Is Lost is not about dying, as the title might suggest, but about why people chose to live out their last moments in a certain way. The book covers famous episodes from antiquity to the early Cold War.
1. The Battle of Thermopylae (480 B.C.)
2. Cannae (216 B.C.) and the Teutoburg Forest (9 A.D.)
3. Masada (73/74 A.D.) and Warsaw (1943)
4. The Battle of Roncevaux Pass and La Chanson de Roland (778/1115)
5. The Battle of Hastings (1066)
6. The Last Stand of the Swiss Guard (1527)
7. The Siege of Szigetvár (1566)
8. The Alamo (1836) and Camarón (1863)
9. Grant at Shiloh (1862)
10. Custer at the Little Bighorn (1876)
11. Rorke’s Drift (1879) and Khartoum (1885)
12. The Battle of Pavlov’s House: Stalingrad, 1942
13. The Chosin Reservoir, 1950
In each case, the question is ‘why’?
For all of human history individual death has been a given and in the past, by contrast with the present when society has hidden it from view except in entertainment, extinction stood at the front and center in people’s lives. The existential problem was how to live as yourself until the very last possible moment. In a world where everyone had to go, the difficulty was how to go out in style. Walsh quotes the hero of the epic poem the “Siege of Sziget” before he leads his men in a forlorn last charge against the Turks...
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Ping.
Just got the book. On chapter 3 after a very long into. I am starting to enjoy it. The intelligence level is way above my head, though. Many English words throughout which I have never heard before.
Plus, the earlier battles discuss persons and places I never heard of. Putting the two together, it makes for not comprehending what the writer is trying to convey. I am sure the later battles I will pick up on and be glad I bought the book.
Part of it is most men would rather fight to the death when capture comes with torture and eventual death anyway, also loyalty plays a part.
But Joe Biden is fighting to the last breath because of all the money China gave him, not because of what this article says.
because the alternative is worse...
“If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”
Winston Churchill
Downloading to the Kindle. I think I know how I'll be spending the evening.
Death is better than defeat and torture to death?
It’s about how many can I take out before they get me! Kind of like the Alamo.. 200 men against The Mexican army of between 1600-6000 men.. The Mexican army lost between 600-1600 men over 13 days..
Bookmark. Thanks for posting.
Each has the right to choose, Travis drew a line in the sand. We fight now or perish on our knees. We might die on our feet or surely die on our knees. Our Constitution and heritage points out the truth. We are here I think.
there’s no fall back position, there’s no rally point, there’s no LZ... we’re on our own. P144:1
#1 on that list should be the undenied death of an obscure carpenter from Nazareth in 33 a.d.
He died claiming to be equal with God Himself. Even His enemies acknowledge this claim.
One the most important points Walsh makes in the introduction is that this willingness to die with honor rather than surrender is a distinctly male quality that is extremely rare in women. It centers on the male biological role to defend their wives and children against the historic plunderers of ancient and barbaric civilizations.
His descriptions of the savagery of ancient battles is particularly grim. Many Roman soldiers died by their own hand when surrounded at Cannae by Hannibal’s mercenary army and some even buried their heads in the ground to suffocate themselves. When the Romans finally overran the Massada fortress they did not find a single living person. Jews are prohibited from committing suicide so they drew lots to decide how to kill each other. To this day the Jewish Mossad take an oath to honor the memory of this defense of Judaism.
That was such an important battle that it even inspired a hit song, I Can Dream, Cannae
Yes we are. We’ll end up dying of a bureaucratic machine though, not swords and spears?
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