Friday, July 29, 2011

Cult of War

An edition in which luck becomes evidence of personal worth.

Shorter Verbatim Ed: I don't want to add to the mountain of material in our culture glorifying war, but [...] Salut, Group Captain Stagg! Salut, giant balls!

Shorter and More Logically Consistent Ed: I don't want to add to the mountain of material in our culture glorifying war, so here is an interesting historical fact that shows one of our most vaunted strategic military actions in our least controversial war to actually be a low-information clusterfuck that its architects (particularly this one guy) are very, very lucky didn't turn out to be an even more death-filled day than it already was. Because war is generally stupid, and its architects are generally working with much less information and certainty than they will ever tell you.

Generally ginandtacos is excellent, but if you don't want to glorify war, then don't glorify it. And particularly don't glorify its architects for luck. If the weather had been bad that night, then we'd look back on Group Captain Stagg as the guy who wasted all the Allied boats/troops when they could have waited until the next full moon, which was preceded by two fair days. That he/the Allies got lucky does not make him a personally amazing guy. His willingness to guess (and risk many, many lives) with low/poor information is not an Astounding Tale of Personal Male Bravery.

I mean, if you want to glorify war, go right ahead, I guess. But then leave out saying you don't want to do so.

0 comments:

Post a Comment