In Chapter NINE, Flecker's "Golden Road to Samarkand" is referenced once again. (See here.)
In TEN, a familiar poem is quoted and I can answer its question:
"...how can man die better
"Than facing fearful odds..."?
He can die better of old age after a long, productive, peaceful life.
The Romans and Roosevelt wanted their citizens to believe that:
"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."
Wilfred Owen called this sentiment an "...old Lie..."
7 comments:
Paul:
“In the Fyres of Struggle let us bake New Men, who Will Notte heed the Old Lies.”
— Suffer-Not-Injustice “Old Stoneface” Vimes, as quoted by Sir Terry Pratchett. The lie Vimes opposed was the notion that kings and other aristocrats are rightfully above the laws which apply to common folk, and should not be brought to justice for crimes which evidently included an inappropriate sort of “liking” for children.
I'm also reminded of a bit of Robert E. Howard's verse:
“Gleaming shell of an outworn lie; fable of Right divine—”
Kaor, Paul and DAVID!
Paul: And I disagree with Wilfred Owen's condemnation of that famous line from Horace. Sometimes it is not always possible to die after a long, productive life. At times it will be necessary to accept dying for one's country. I would only hope such a ultimate sacrifice would not be wasted by the often bungling leaders of one's country.
David: I'm not sure I can agree with what you seem to mean by the bits you cited from Pratchett and Howard. The theory, or myth, of divine right of kings is not properly from the Middle Ages. Rather, it belongs more with Europe's era of absolute monarchies, from the 1500's to the 1700's. Before then the legitimizing myth was belief in the divine right of the ruling dynasties in various countries. And such a belief did not mean it was believed the King could do no wrong or was not obliged to respect the laws and customs of his people. Nor did it preclude the rise of variously named legislative bodies in many countries.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that Theodore Roosevelt demonstrated personally that he believed every word of what he said about sacrificing one's self for the nation.
He could have stayed as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the Spanish-American War, as he was a man in his 30's with a very sick wife and many small children, doing valuable administrative work (which substantially prepared the Navy for the coming conflict).
Almost all his friends advised him to do so.
Instead he moved heaven and earth and pulled every string he could to get the Rough Riders mobilized and trained and sent to Cuba with he himself sharing all their hardships and risks and leading from the front -- and he even declined the command of the regiment which he was offered, on the grounds that a professional (Leonard Wood, a distinguished soldier who was also a close friend) was needed instead.
He was in constant peril of his life from disease and enemy bullets; he did get malaria, which plagued him all his life afterwards, and he had a pair of glasses shot off his face as he rode out in front of his men in the attack on San Juan Heights -- which means he was about 25mm from a fatal wound.
Casualties were very heavy in that attack, around 20%, and everyone who saw him do it expected him to die. He probably did himself, but it was necessary, he saw that it was (Roosevelt turned out to be a very talented natural soldier plus learning the technical side quickly), and he probably expected to die himself.
And when, after the battle, official incompetence endangered the health of his men he scuppered his chance of a Medal of Honor by agreeing to be the one who went to the papers about it, though he wanted that medal very badly and deserved it (and was given it posthumously, by the way.)
Not coincidentally, the former Rough Riders were unanimously devoted to him afterwards.
In WW1, all his sons tried hard to get into action, avoiding safe billets in the rear which they could easily have gotten, and TR helped them(*), though he said at the time that he and his wife didn't expect them all to return and he was deeply devoted to them and feared for them constantly. All four were wounded, two seriously, and one was killed (Quentin, the youngest) just before the Armistice in 1918.
One of his sons, is namesake Ted Jr., was the only officer of general's rank to go ashore with the first wave in 1944 on D-Day in Normandy; he'd campaigned long and hard to get permission to do so, which was only granted reluctantly.
His actions there -- the landing was comprehensively bungled by the high command, including putting that first wave ashore 2 miles from where it was supposed to be -- probably saved the landing at Utah Beach and certainly saved thousands of lives; he got the Medal of Honor for it. At 56 he was the oldest man in the first wave -- and his son, Quentin, went ashore on Omaha Beach the same day.
You can't say that the Roosevelts didn't practice what they preached, or that they didn't lead by example.
(*) TR tried very hard to get into action in WW1 himself, but Woodrow Wilson wouldn't let him -- in fact, Wilson probably put conscription in place at once after the US entered the war in 1917 just to prevent TR from going to France at the head of a division of volunteers he'd been raising.
Wilson was a bad man -- full of spite and resentment and envy.
I am learning how little I know.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
As I've said before, there is much to admire in TR personally, if not all of his political ideas. Or the consequences of those ideas.
And I did look up TR's namesake, Gen. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. There were amply good grounds for why so many in the gov't were not willing to have him doing active service in WW II. Because he suffered from heart disease!
TR, Jr. probably saved the Anglo/American Normandy landings from being defeated and repulsed. The Germans had thought the Anglo/Americans would attack further south, in the Cherborge peninsula, and had arranged their forces accordingly. If TR, Jr. had not so quickly sorted out the mess caused by the bungling at the Normandy beaches, the Germans would probably have had the time needed to rush powerful reinforcements to the actual battle theater that might have been sufficient to defeat the U Day attacks. With very baneful consequences!
So this was one time a sick man was right to obstinately insist on serving!
Ad astra! Sean
Oops! I meant D Day landings! Not "U Day."
Sean
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