-SM Stirling, The Desert And The Blade (New York, 2016), Chapter Thirty-Two, p. 832.
What a failure of imagination! There is no limit to what can be done in a time of peace. But generations were trained for war. We read military fiction but must ensure that it reflects our past, not also our future.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Unfortunately, absent the Second Coming of Christ, I don't think we will ever have permanent peace. So we will always have need for soldiers.
Sean
By a historical irony, bushido -- the Way of the Warrior -- was first fully codified during the Long Peace that the Tokugawa Shoguns imposed on Japan.
That was the longest period of real internal order that the Japanese had ever known, and since Japan was following a policy of strict isolation there was also no war abroad.
Their neighbors were probably glad of it, of course.
A Chinese scholar who observed a Japanese freebooter attack on the Chinese coast in the 1500's described the onslaught as like "a blizzard of dancing butcher knives".
Dear Mr. Stirling,
The Tokugawa Shoguns avoided conflict with their neighbors, esp. China, from the realization that any toleration of either Japanese piracy or attempts at conquest would inevitably, sooner or later, provoke a lethal response. Esp. if China was ruled by a strong and vigorous dynasty. And there could be no absolute guarantee that a Chinese attack or invasion would be defeated. So, the Tokugawa forbade freelance piracy by the Bushido and controlled any temptation for a formal aggressive policy.
Sean
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