Beat the Drum Slowly

Robert Boone's Firth

Description

BEAT THE DRUM SLOWLY is the story of war, parenthetically and unfortunately, it is also unavoidably, the story of man's history. From our earliest days, conflict has been the single most common characteristic of humanity. Man has fought man and men have fought men on every continent, every ocean and every island from the moment one set eyes on the other.

Be this xenophobia or be this a form of insanity is difficult to tell. In any case, the difference is lost amid the bombastic sounds of war. The weapons themselves are of little consequence, be they bare hands, clubs, knives, swords, spears, arrows, muskets, machine guns or atomic bombs. The end remains the same- lives are lost....like a sputtering candle, guttering in the wind, with darkness having the final word.

We can easily enough research each of the thousands of battles between one group on this sad earth and another. Countries have fought countries and people, people, since before we began keeping count. We don't need this book, or any like it, to recount the history of these terrible conflicts.

Beat The Drum Slowly instead delves into the underlying nature and motivations driving human-kind toward war and murder. We look beneath the facile explanations and histories offered by conquerors. (the losers seldom get a say) and attempt to peal away the layers of rationalization, lies and hypocrisy.

The question is- what is it in humanity compelling us to engage in wholesale murder of our fellow man? Of course, it does superficially seem to be a "blood sport" engaged in mostly by men. Perhaps the culprit is testosterone? Women don't seem to be driven to dress up in silly uniforms, parade around to martial music and then run out screaming for blood... do they? From what we have observed, this seems a valid point. Those women who do go in for this kind of thing often have as much hair on their chins as the men they emulate...

Of course, unless every country in the world placed women into every possible governmental position giving the female of the species complete and total power over everything, we will never know. Such is about as unlikely to happen as a vegan 'snarfing' up a bloody steak, the world will have to wait until some time in the future to see how that would work out.

In the real world, men are stronger than women and men are highly competitive and combative. Men fight for power and never willingly give it up. Seeing things in this light, it is completely understandable as to why the world is governed by men.

Men fight for survival, dominance, money, religion, race, patriotism, real estate and revenge. This book examines each of these motivating factors with the purpose being to explain to ourselves and our readers exactly what in holy hell is wrong with us.

If the best way we have devised over thousands of years to settle differences is warfare then it does seem that mankind is doomed. Sooner or later, one side or another will design and field the ultimate weapon and, with our historical inability to foresee the future consequences of our actions, it is entirely likely that we will have finally managed to destroy all human life. Probably, the animals and other creatures of the earth will be rejoice over this.

Is it at all possible that we can learn to settle our differences using our intellect and common sense or are we a doomed species? This is the question we examine and try to answer in this book.

Regardless of the means one uses to bring death, war is by man's hand, whether driven by, religion, murder, etc. To study the countless wars throughout history trying to ascertain a cumulative total of deaths caused by war would take days, weeks or even months. Outside of war, murder and other direct causes of death, we are our own worst enemy. With the ability to annihilate the earth with "the press of a button," man's potential to end the lives of 7 billion people earns us the title as one of the deadliest vessels death uses to carry out its mission. Like Pogo, we have seen the enemy and he is us!

Robert J. Firth
The USA,
February, 2012

Sujets

• Social Psychology
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Psychology

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 21 février 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456608408
• Langue: English

Extrait

Beat the Drum Slowly
 
by
Robert Firth
 
 


Copyright 2012 Robert Firth,
All rights reserved.
 
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
 
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0840-8
 
 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
 


 
What weak, inglorious fools we mortals are
That war must be, or any need of war.
And yet, the better day is coming when
The teachings of the lowly Nazarene
Shall be the rule of nations--as of men;
The sword and bayonet shall be preserved,
By the fair children of a nobler race,
as relics only, of a barbarous past.
ANDREW DOWNING, "The Bluebird"
 


FORWARD
 
By
 
Charles Justin McGill
 
As one who has fought in several wars, I have experienced the horror and futility of war, death and dying. Many wars are necessary and inescapable. No sentient person on earth doubts for a minute that the Nazis and fanatical Japs had to be destroyed. The swarms of Chinese and North Koreans equally needed to be stopped. The sole regret is that they were not completely destroyed, so much human misery have they caused.
 
Of course, the communists in Vietnam were purely evil and America was right to try to stop them. They, in the end, did take over South Vietnam but the victory cost them dearly. There are many of these kinds of wars and conflicts wherein the forces of evil, for that is what they must be called, have forced good men to engage and declare war.
 
The American Civil War also was one wherein the South was determined to retain slavery, which was then and remains a great evil. There were other important issues such as the Southern States leaving the union, which is a civil matter, and not one that directly pits the forces of evil against those of good.
 
In my experience, evil is a tangible force in the world. When good men go to war against evil they are acting morally and justly and, as in the examples above, have no other choice. Of course, no civilization or country on this earth has to or should intrude into every conflict. We are not and should not be our brother’s keeper in such affairs. For a war to be entered into by good and decent people there must exist a clear and imminent danger to those people. The spread of Nazism, Japanese militarism and godless communism did and do pose such dangers.
 
Those governments wherein the people have a voice are seldom aggressors. Wars are most often entered into by countries wherein power is held by a despot, be he a so-called “king” or dictator. In every case, such wars are purely evil with no possibility of excuse. It is the duty then of all good people to resist such attacks and do all in their power to destroy the evil.
 
The sad history of war then is, almost in all cases, a history of good fighting evil. For those whose education and temperament does not permit them to see and know evil I have only one thing to say - keep them out of government at any and all cost.
 
McGill,
Scotland, Feb, 2012
 


PREFACE
 
BEAT THE DRUM SLOWLY
 
BEAT THE DRUM SLOWLY is the story of war, parenthetically and unfortunately, it is also unavoidably, the story of man’s history. From our earliest days, conflict has been the single most common characteristic of humanity. Man has fought man and men have fought men on every continent, every ocean and every island from the moment one set eyes on the other.
 
Be this xenophobia or be this a form of insanity is difficult to tell. In any case, the difference is lost amid the bombastic sounds of war. The weapons themselves are of little consequence, be they bare hands, clubs, knives, swords, spears, arrows, muskets, machine guns or atomic bombs. The end remains the same- lives are lost….like a sputtering candle, guttering in the wind, with darkness having the final word.
 
We can easily enough research each of the thousands of battles between one group on this sad earth and another. Countries have fought countries and people, people, since before we began keeping count. We don’t need this book, or any like it, to recount the history of these terrible conflicts.
 
Beat the Drum Slowly instead delves into the underlying nature and motivations driving humankind toward war and murder. We look beneath the facile explanations and histories offered by conquerors. (The losers seldom get a say) and attempt to peal away the layers of rationalization, lies and hypocrisy.
 
The question is- what is it in humanity compelling us to engage in wholesale murder of our fellow man? Of course, it does superficially seem to be a “blood sport” engaged in mostly by men. Perhaps the culprit is testosterone. Women don’t seem to be driven to dress up in silly uniforms, parade around to martial music and then run out screaming for blood… do they? From what we have observed, this seems a valid point. Those women who do go in for this kind of thing often have as much hair on their chins as the men they emulate…
 
Of course, unless every country in the world placed women into every possible governmental position giving the female of the species complete and total power over everything, we will never know. Such is about as unlikely to happen as a vegan ‘snarfing’ up a bloody steak, the world will have to wait until some time in the future to see how that would work out.
 
In the real world, men are stronger than women and men are highly competitive and combative. Men fight for power and never willingly give it up. Seeing things in this light, it is completely understandable as to why the world is governed by men.
 
Men fight for survival, dominance, money, religion, race, patriotism, real estate and revenge. This book examines each of these motivating factors with the purpose being to explain to ourselves and our readers exactly what in holy hell is wrong with us.
 
If the best way we have devised over thousands of years to settle differences is warfare then it does seem that mankind is doomed. Sooner or later, one side or another will design and field the ultimate weapon and, with our historical inability to foresee the future consequences of our actions, it is entirely likely that we will have finally managed to destroy all human life. Probably, the animals and other creatures of the earth will be rejoicing over this.
 
Is it at all possible that we can learn to settle our differences using our intellect and common sense or are we a doomed species? This is the question we examine and try to answer in this book.
 
Regardless of the means one uses to bring death, war is by man’s hand, whether driven by, religion, murder, etc. To study the countless wars throughout history trying to ascertain a cumulative total of deaths caused by war would take days, weeks or even months. Outside of war, murder and other direct causes of death, we are our own worst enemy. With the ability to annihilate the earth with “the press of a button,” man’s potential to end the lives of 7 billion people earns us the title as one of the deadliest vessels death uses to carry out its mission. Like Pogo, we have seen the enemy and he is us!
 
Robert J. Firth
The USA,
February, 2012
 
CHAPTER 1
 
"It is open to a war resister to judge between the combatants and wish success to the one who has justice on his side. By so judging he is more likely to bring peace between the two than by remaining a mere spectator." Mahatma Ghandi
 
 
WAR - WHAT IT IS - AND IS NOT
 
Any philosophical examination of war will generally center on four general questions: What is war? What causes war? What is the relationship between human nature and war? Can war ever be morally justifiable?
 
Defining what war is requires several determinations examining the entities that begin and engage in war. A person’s definition of war often expresses that person’s broader political philosophy, such as limiting war to a conflict between nations or states. Alternative definitions of war include all forms of death and conflict not just between nations and individuals but, between schools of thought, natural disasters, disease or ideologies. Anything that causes premature and unnatural human death can be defined as war.
 
Mainly, this book will discuss what we will refer to as ‘conventional war.’ The kind of war most of us think of- the grander scale of murder and killing. Answers to the question “What causes war?” largely depend on the philosopher’s views on determinism and free will. If a human’s actions are beyond his or her control, then the cause of war is irrelevant and inescapable. Those who accept this imbecilic and fatalistic point of view can and should stop reading now, we have nothing to say to one another!
 
On the other hand, if war indeed results from human choice, then three general groupings of causation can be identified; biological, cultural, and faulty ( diseased) reasoning. While exploring the root causes of conflict, this book investigates the relationship between human nature and the seeming inevitability of war.
 
Finally, the question remains as to whether war (any war) can ever be morally justified? The ‘Just War’ theory is a useful structure within which a sane and productive discourse on war may be reasonably conducted. In the evolving context of warfare, the moral calculus requires the philosopher to account not only for military personnel and civilians, but also for justifiable targets, strategies, and the use of weapons. One of the best examples of this type of ‘moral dilemma’ was Truman’s decision to incinerate a few hundred thousand obstinate Japanese at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Of course, his decision considerably shortened the war and undoubtedly, saved countless American and Japanese lives but, you can bet he had a terrible time reaching that