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> While there is sure to be a certain amount of variance between the kinds of people who are considered brave because of this, I think it is an archetype as Car

> While there is sure to be a certain amount of variance between the kinds of people who are considered brave because of this, I think it is an archetype as Carl Jung talks about (he called it the Hero archetype of which the warrior is a subset) that applies throughout cultures and type of warfare. I do wonder how much this is due to the modern culture of the military where a there is a lot of hero worship for ancient cultures and in particular a shared connection of warriorhood. The US Military and their rather queasy, often ahistorical love for Spartans for example. Basically the idea that you could say sit a Spartan, Samurai and a modern Soldier down over beers and they'd be able to bond over a shared view of warriorhood feels questionable as a true statement. Even if it's useful for developing an ethos as a belief.

barry-cotter 6y ago
> Basically the idea that you could say sit a Spartan, Samurai and a modern Soldier down over beers and they'd be able to bond over a shared view of warriorhood feels questionable as a true statement. Why? Small group warfare is a behaviour we see in chimps. Ambush, massacre, occasionally something reasonably close to a pitched battle. Industrial warfare, the meat grinder of pitched battle attrition continuing for months, years, would be alien but precious little else would be. Drill, discipline, officers, enlisted, endless waiting punctuated by terror, killing like you’ve trained to do, rout. There’s a lot to bond over. There would be an enormous amount different too but if T.E. Lawrence, an English gentleman, was able to connect with Bedouin I don’t see any great difficulty with a samurai, spartiate and US infantryman.
- meheleventyone 6y ago
  Right but did Lawrence connect with the Bedouin because of innate warriors kinship or something else? We can't just assume the former. For the rest I'd recommend reading the article because it addresses this directly.
- adamjb 6y ago
  Lawrence was able to connect with Bedouin because he had ludicrously large piles of gold
Mauricebranagh 6y ago
It ignores the fact that most of soldiering and warrioring time was not spent actually fighting. I bet that say an Egyptian chariot officer might have quite a bit of commonality of experience with say "The Chieftain" A modern day Armour Officer who does YouTube videos on tanks Ah Cpl Jenkins has crashed his chariot / Humvee and killed the village headman's prize goat ... Beat ... Again!
- meheleventyone 6y ago
  If not fighting counts as being a warrior then the whole idea collapses as that’s what the vast majority of people spend their time not doing. See below for example where information warfare gets derided as an unwarriorly pursuit despite being part of the military. It's the fighting bit that matters and why it's romanticized into self-help.

barry-cotter 6y ago

> Basically the idea that you could say sit a Spartan, Samurai and a modern Soldier down over beers and they'd be able to bond over a shared view of warriorhood feels questionable as a true statement. Why? Small group warfare is a behaviour we see in chimps. Ambush, massacre, occasionally something reasonably close to a pitched battle. Industrial warfare, the meat grinder of pitched battle attrition continuing for months, years, would be alien but precious little else would be. Drill, discipline, officers, enlisted, endless waiting punctuated by terror, killing like you’ve trained to do, rout. There’s a lot to bond over. There would be an enormous amount different too but if T.E. Lawrence, an English gentleman, was able to connect with Bedouin I don’t see any great difficulty with a samurai, spartiate and US infantryman.

meheleventyone 6y ago
Right but did Lawrence connect with the Bedouin because of innate warriors kinship or something else? We can't just assume the former. For the rest I'd recommend reading the article because it addresses this directly.
adamjb 6y ago
Lawrence was able to connect with Bedouin because he had ludicrously large piles of gold

Mauricebranagh 6y ago

It ignores the fact that most of soldiering and warrioring time was not spent actually fighting. I bet that say an Egyptian chariot officer might have quite a bit of commonality of experience with say "The Chieftain" A modern day Armour Officer who does YouTube videos on tanks Ah Cpl Jenkins has crashed his chariot / Humvee and killed the village headman's prize goat ... Beat ... Again!

meheleventyone 6y ago
If not fighting counts as being a warrior then the whole idea collapses as that’s what the vast majority of people spend their time not doing. See below for example where information warfare gets derided as an unwarriorly pursuit despite being part of the military. It's the fighting bit that matters and why it's romanticized into self-help.