5 ms·

Wellington used to say that the presence of Napoleon on a battlefield was worth forty thousand men. Partly due to Napoleon's tactical skill I'm sure, but I thi

Wellington used to say that the presence of Napoleon on a battlefield was worth forty thousand men. Partly due to Napoleon's tactical skill I'm sure, but I think this also speaks to Napoleon's unusual ability to motivate men. They didn't want to disappoint Napoleon so they were more willing to throw their own lives away. I think the defection of the Fifth Infantry Regiment at Grenoble probably corroborates this. There, they had the opportunity to shoot Napoleon dead and slaughter his rag tag forces but instead they chose to join him.

crazy_horse 5y ago
It speaks to the power of belief in something. Napoleon represented something bigger than a person, he was French nationalism. I think a similar story (this is in Ken Burn's doc, told by Shelby Foote) is when the Union forces at Fredericksburg took the city and then sent wave after wave of soldiers at the Confederate held hills with a wall at the base of them. I don't recall how many waves it was (10+), but it's difficult to imagine being in the sixth or seventh wave, watch man after man before you walk into a "wall of lead" and decide to do it anyway. How many people today have that kind of conviction? We can't get people to wear masks.
- fladrif 5y ago
  Oh but interestingly isn't that a kind of conviction itself? They've been fed some kind of idea of 'freedom' that they now strongly adhere to until death (I assume a lot of anti-mask are also anti-vaccine and are now the ones dying in the hospitals). If you look at American politics over the past 5 years, trump has almost become another napoleon in how fervent the support he has, and how the idea of 'freedom' has held.
  - glofish 5y ago
    Excellent point, arguably NOT wearing a mask takes a lot more conviction than wearing it. if you believe wearing a mask benefits you then there is no need for "conviction", it is just a belief and the person is trying to maximize their own benefit
    - ngcc_hk 5y ago
      Or others. Especially the heavy load to hosiptal system if one get sicks. There are two forces in live - self preservation and passion for others. Left and right coexist in one. That is the fundamental issue in life.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- Clubber 5y ago
  >We can't get people to wear masks. It's because we have weak, ineffective, self serving leadership, and have since probably LBJ. People fight and die for a cause, what in the US is worth fighting and dying for for the average Joe? Constant surveillance, harassment by the state police, corrupt politicians, corrupt justice system, income inequality, shit healthcare, shit schools, shit housing, shit food, shit safety net, regressive taxes, massive debt given to the rich, bailouts for banks, foreclosures for the people, eroded civil rights, eroded constitutional rights? You have the American dream, then you have the American reality. I mean we reap what we've sewn for the last 40+ years. If we really had a serious existential military threat, where we had to reinstate the draft, I'm not sure how strong our response would be because of all this. Who wants to die for Amazon.com or Walmart or AT&T's profit? I mean the American way of life, as it stands today, how would you feel if you had to send your conscripted sons and daughters to die to protect it?
  - bruceb 5y ago
    US has plenty of problems, is still better than many countries. Ask all the people who move here, they generally will be a lot more optimistic about the US.
    - Clubber 5y ago
      >Ask all the people who move here, they generally will be a lot more optimistic about the US. Here's the top 10 countries of origin for immigration to the US in 2018 (before COVID). We can assume people who immigrate to the US do it for a better life than the country they came from. Notice there aren't any "developed" countries in this list. Care to guess what that says about the US? Mexico - 161,858, Cuba - 76,486, China - 65,214, India - 59,821, Dominican Republic - 57,413, Philippines - 47,238, Vietnam - 33,834, El Salvador - 28,326, Haiti - 21,360, Jamaica - 20,347 https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/us-immigration-by-country https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/us-immigr...
      - Ancapistani 5y ago
        > Notice there aren't any "developed" countries in this list. Care to guess what that says about the US? Well, it says that there aren’t many “developed” countries where emigrants can walk to the US.

crazy_horse 5y ago

It speaks to the power of belief in something. Napoleon represented something bigger than a person, he was French nationalism. I think a similar story (this is in Ken Burn's doc, told by Shelby Foote) is when the Union forces at Fredericksburg took the city and then sent wave after wave of soldiers at the Confederate held hills with a wall at the base of them. I don't recall how many waves it was (10+), but it's difficult to imagine being in the sixth or seventh wave, watch man after man before you walk into a "wall of lead" and decide to do it anyway. How many people today have that kind of conviction? We can't get people to wear masks.

fladrif 5y ago
Oh but interestingly isn't that a kind of conviction itself? They've been fed some kind of idea of 'freedom' that they now strongly adhere to until death (I assume a lot of anti-mask are also anti-vaccine and are now the ones dying in the hospitals). If you look at American politics over the past 5 years, trump has almost become another napoleon in how fervent the support he has, and how the idea of 'freedom' has held.
- glofish 5y ago
  Excellent point, arguably NOT wearing a mask takes a lot more conviction than wearing it. if you believe wearing a mask benefits you then there is no need for "conviction", it is just a belief and the person is trying to maximize their own benefit
  - ngcc_hk 5y ago
    Or others. Especially the heavy load to hosiptal system if one get sicks. There are two forces in live - self preservation and passion for others. Left and right coexist in one. That is the fundamental issue in life.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
Clubber 5y ago
>We can't get people to wear masks. It's because we have weak, ineffective, self serving leadership, and have since probably LBJ. People fight and die for a cause, what in the US is worth fighting and dying for for the average Joe? Constant surveillance, harassment by the state police, corrupt politicians, corrupt justice system, income inequality, shit healthcare, shit schools, shit housing, shit food, shit safety net, regressive taxes, massive debt given to the rich, bailouts for banks, foreclosures for the people, eroded civil rights, eroded constitutional rights? You have the American dream, then you have the American reality. I mean we reap what we've sewn for the last 40+ years. If we really had a serious existential military threat, where we had to reinstate the draft, I'm not sure how strong our response would be because of all this. Who wants to die for Amazon.com or Walmart or AT&T's profit? I mean the American way of life, as it stands today, how would you feel if you had to send your conscripted sons and daughters to die to protect it?
- bruceb 5y ago
  US has plenty of problems, is still better than many countries. Ask all the people who move here, they generally will be a lot more optimistic about the US.
  - Clubber 5y ago
    >Ask all the people who move here, they generally will be a lot more optimistic about the US. Here's the top 10 countries of origin for immigration to the US in 2018 (before COVID). We can assume people who immigrate to the US do it for a better life than the country they came from. Notice there aren't any "developed" countries in this list. Care to guess what that says about the US? Mexico - 161,858, Cuba - 76,486, China - 65,214, India - 59,821, Dominican Republic - 57,413, Philippines - 47,238, Vietnam - 33,834, El Salvador - 28,326, Haiti - 21,360, Jamaica - 20,347 https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/us-immigration-by-country https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/us-immigr...
    - Ancapistani 5y ago
      > Notice there aren't any "developed" countries in this list. Care to guess what that says about the US? Well, it says that there aren’t many “developed” countries where emigrants can walk to the US.