Facing the Storm
Reflections on war, conscription, and death by those who will have to endure it
Warfare has been the staple of all human societies since the beginning of time. In fact, it is so prevalent that it is said war waited for man before there was man; the ultimate craft awaiting its ultimate practitioner. The truth is, however, that war is a fundamental condition on this planet, regardless of man. All living organisms kill, maim, and conquer each other tirelessly, all in an effort to attain more resources, more space, and more life. It should then come as no surprise that war has once again reared its ugly head, and that it now hangs over Europe like a hammer preparing to strike a nail. Confronted by such conditions a question arises. How is the youth of today supposed to face all this, especially since it was raised on pacifist and egalitarian values, without breaking under the pressure?
Death by the Sword
Firmly ingrained in the public’s consciousness is the devastation and death brought on by war. Such concerns are, obviously, not unfounded and are the first things that come to mind when one mentions war. Nevertheless, seeing the way in which the same public reacts to the prospects of war several things need to be addressed.
Firstly, we must understand that activism, protests, and intellectual discussions that are against remilitarization and war all have an identical, underlying view of life — that it is so valuable that one must live as long as possible, even on one’s knees as though he were a slave. It doesn’t matter if you degrade mentally and physically, if you are confined to a wheelchair or to a bed, if you are unable to add constructively to life itself, as long as you remain “alive”.
Such notions of how one ought to value life should, to a sound mind and spirit, be insultingly degrading and uninteresting. Are we truly so shallow that our biological existence, regardless of the fact that it is no longer fruitful and creative, is enough so that we may be called “alive”? Furthermore, any attempts to justify a long life on medical grounds by saying that scientific advancements had the goal of granting man a long life should be rejected. Only some crucial vaccines and medical procedures have given man a chance at a longer life (by reducing the risk of dying as an infant), while everything else prolongs old age, not youth. Pills, retirement homes, and routine medical check-ups are all aimed at those who are in the twilight of life. The most advanced medical equipment is almost exclusively (except in extreme cases) used on those whose bodies are too degraded to sustain them. Of course, there is the fact that the extensive healthcare systems of the West will practically force you to die in some unknown hospital bed, surrounded by industrial machines and faceless medical workers. All this brings us to an interesting paradox. Death by old age is a form of involuntary death where the individual clings to life, by external equipment if needed, despite his biological timer running out. Death is literally forced to impose the most horrible of diseases so that the person can be dragged from his earthly existence into his destined place. Therefore we should ask those who fear a “premature” death: is the above described life truly worth all that trouble? After all your protesting against violence and death, is this what you have reserved for us?
Secondly, we must point out that an individual should not concern himself too much with his own death. While it is normal and natural for a person to come into contact with death and to contemplate his inescapable mortality, in the end one should continue to be productive, spiritually youthful, creative, daring, and unafraid for as long as it lasts. Do what you think is right and courageously continue to venture deeper into life’s inexhaustible forest. When your day comes, may it be as graceful as possible, without the violent dragging and kicking characteristic of death in old age. There is no point in being forced onto one’s knees and kept there by medical inventions.
Lastly, the two described points must work together to form a whole. It should not be our goal to attempt to convince others that death by artillery fire is better than death by dementia and disease, since that would be quite a bold and difficult-to-defend position. However, it is necessary to dislodge entrenched notions of death and dying in contemporary society so that we can explain to the youth, which may very well find itself under arms, that neither pleasure nor pain should enter as motives when one must do what must be done, whatever that may be. Life possesses the individual, not the other way around, and this is why one shouldn’t concern himself when or how life decides to leave him. Violent deaths, which are often swift, and deaths in hospitals, which often aren’t, are only two sides of the same coin. It isn’t a matter of favoring one or the other, instead one must be aware that it often boils down to the fact that death, in general, isn’t pleasant and that events which lead to it (be they bombardment or bone cancer) are difficult affairs with similar emotional responses, namely that of the instinct for survival. The ultimate enemy of man is fear, which disarms the spirit and shackles it. Defeating fear, not death, is the real task.
Conscription and Militaristic Education
As the drums of war seem to beat ever louder, we can hear more and more voices calling for the reinstatement of military service as well as military industry. If we were to view the situation from a distance, such calls seem a little too late, partly because the democratic structures in place are too slow to implement such things quickly enough, and partly because the collective societal consciousness didn’t have time to prepare and will now largely oppose such measures, making the whole process even slower. One thing which modern democratic societies have failed to understand, especially since the end of the Cold War, is that war doesn’t magically disappear the moment a tangible opponent was defeated. The economic and cultural prosperity of the West during the 90s, as was the case following the First World War, Napoleonic Wars, Thirty Years War and beyond, wasn’t going to last forever, which should have been apparent because such moments are few and far between. The natural state of man is, at best, one of increased tension and rivalry, which can at any time explode.
Concerning conscription we can only view this as a positive development. The regimented and disciplined life can, for the right individual, be a transformative and self-overcoming experience, which cannot be felt among the comforts of cities. Young boys and men will have the opportunity to learn what they are capable of both physically and mentally. They will learn their limits and even go beyond them while the little child that sleeps within, which wishes to remain in comfort, will be subdued and overcome. Most importantly, the individual will be faced with the very real fact that service isn’t just for show but that it represents a real preparation for a real situation, whereupon the person is tasked with facing down serious odds and looking at them clearly. There are few such places for men in the feminine democracies of today, which teach them to be “considerate”, “emotionally open”, and “sensitive”. In other words, men need space to develop their violent, barbaric, and animalistic side and then learn to control it. Such things are impossible in civil society since these masculine, completely natural, traits are seen as “problematic” or “toxic” and therefore must be done away with by spiritual castration. Those that oppose such developments, especially on grounds of peace and non-violence, are mistaken. If war does not come, then those that completed their service will return to civilian life (with valuable new skills and attitudes towards life) and become regular citizens. On the other hand, if war does come and people are forced to take up arms, there will be a general understanding among the male population of what is to be expected and the disciplined and serious ordeals of war will, at least, not be so unfamiliar. Finally, the truth is that young men have no place in the heart of civilization, in the overflowing university halls, on trains and buses, in the communal tribe. Their place in on the periphery, on the frontier, learning from the best, learning about themselves, forced to make quick decisions, forced to experience discomforts, and finding new territories for their society to expand into. Only then, when they are no longer the same boys that left, can they return and be integrated. All this seems so distant today.
On the topic of militaristic education in schools, which some countries have put forth as a possibility, we can only say that it would represent another step in the right direction. Learning one’s way around a weapon, physical combat, and rudimentary formations and coordination can serve to prepare the sensory parts of one’s body. The smell of gunpowder, vibrations of explosions, the felling of being physically hit, and the sensation of dirt on the tongue and on the body will prepare a sizable portion of the population for the real deal, if it ever comes. What we see with the current war in Ukraine and the media’s insistence that Russia’s political leadership should or will be overthrown or that a revolution will commence, is that it is actually a projection of the West’s inability to endure such pressures. It tells us that, if the West ever found itself on the receiving end of a military invasion, the population would buckle, overthrow the establishment, and anarchy would take over the streets. The point of militaristic education, as well as conscription, is to reduce and contain the psychological impact of real war on both the individual and society as a whole. This is done by dispelling fears, misconceptions, and in general man’s fear of the unknown.
Contemporary education, which teaches children that even righteous violence is wrong, isn’t the “progress” it is made out to be but rather a catastrophic failure in civilization building. There is nothing wrong with being accustomed to outer discipline (in the form of a structured order of affairs) and inner discipline (self-overcoming and the imposition of duties), nothing wrong with knowing the feeling of spiritual and physical pressure. By claiming that such things are “wrong” and “evil”, we are not only robbing the youth of valuable experience and skills but also disarming the collective.
The Myth of Romulus and Remus is especially important here. The two brothers, one of whom would go on to found Rome, were suckled by a she-wolf after being abandoned on the shore of the Tiber river by orders of the then-king Amulius of Alba Longa. Since the brothers were the children of Mars, the Roman God of War, it should be apparent why the king had them killed. Furthermore, the notion that they were raised by a wolf isn’t meaningless, rather it portrays the duo as being of wild spirit and of wild blood. It is therefore no surprise that such wild spirits would be instrumental in the founding of a city that would come to dominate the ancient world. However, the children of the Empire were not raised by the wolf and were, consequently, conquered and displaced by the children of the northern forests who were.
The Second Horseman
Finally, we turn to war itself, its overall meaning, and possible constructive effects. It is of the utmost importance that this topic be viewed from a detached, distant perspective, one which is not under the influence of sentimentalities.
Perpetual peace and prosperity (or for that matter any perpetual conditions) are impossible. Anyone who wishes for perpetual conditions and searches for the best political solution that would guarentee such conditions is engaged in the construction of a utopia. Therefore, there is a time and a place for everything. Following this strain of thought we must state that war also has its proper place and its proper time. Societies which have endured long periods of peace have the unfortunate ability of devising certain illusions, chief among them are those of “rights” and “privileges”. “Rights” are a legal concept which is nescessary for the functioning of a complicated society, yet they have no meaning to someone who doesn’t share the same view of life. If he was to gain mastery over you, those rights would be replaced by that which he sees fit. The longer peace lasts, the more a society will drift into a fairy tale world where “rights” are a natural part of the universe rahter than pieces of paper. This phenomenon has been named “cultural exhaustion” by some and it is imperative that outside pressure on a society remain in place so that it never forgets the vulnerability of its founding concepts. Furthermore, outside pressures guarantee that the best stock of a people is raised and that excess fat, so to speak, can’t accumulate. It is unfortunate that, today, the highest offices in the realm are filled with career politicians instead of those who developed leadership skills in high-intensity conditions. These things give war, and generally the idea of societal challenges, meaning. The breeding of a true aristocracy, in the sense that the best are ruling, and the maintaining of a virile, energetic, and lively society that knows what it wants, how to get it, and how to defend what belongs to it. Outside pressures show what really matters, not just in individual lives but also on the grander scale of a social hierarchy. That the whole political organism can only work if each member is properly positioned in the place which belongs to him, because the king who can’t rule, especially in crisis, is far below the peasant who knows how to grow crops.
When it comes to our contemporary times, the thought that European youths will have to fight wars for the interests of Washington isn’t a pretty one. However, the serious ordeals of war can uproot entire world orders, regardless of the interests of some group. If such things were to happen, then an entire array of new possibilities arises in which new creative energies can be released. Ultimately, the interests of the US or Russia will not last forever and it would be unwise to consider the current state of affairs as final.
In closing, there remains the individual and his place in this uncertain future. When all is said and done, nothing can prepare man for the experience of combat and that certainly isn’t the point. What is the point, however, is that difficult conditions, especially if sought out voluntarily, can only have a positive influence on one’s life. Stepping forth, firmly and courageously, should remain a masculine ideal and the honorable thing to do. The right person will give meaning to his struggle and therefore find his place. Concerning war in relation to the individual, it should be clear that there is no point in throwing one’s arms and crying about how horrible it all is — this has and never will stop war from happening. Rather, one is to properly orient himself, face the situation, and remain standing.
The age is mighty and has sounded its horn, it awaits your answer. The only true defeat is shrinking away from its challenges.