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Your gunpowder and large formations metaphor doesn't hold. People aren't idiots, on the whole. Do a little more military history research.
by xapata 3y ago
Your gunpowder and large formations metaphor doesn't hold. People aren't idiots, on the whole. Do a little more military history research.
- ClumsyPilot 3y agoParticular people can be utter cretins, they've crashed the world economy in 2008 and nearly caused global nicl3ar war by sheer stupidity: > the Russian nuclear sub B-59, which had been running submerged for days, was cornered by 11 US destroyers and the aircraft carrier USS Randolph. The US ships began dropping depth charges around the sub. Officers aboard had every reason to believe that their American counterparts were trying to sink them. Cut off from outside contact, buffeted by depth charges, the most obvious conclusion for the officers of B-59 was that global war had already begun. The submarine was armed with 10-kiloton nuclear torpedos and its officers had permission from their superiors to launch it without confirmation from Moscow. Two out of three serior officers onboard agreed to launch, but unanimous vote was required.
- xapata 3y agoI did say, "on the whole." I was specifically thinking of the idea that large formations being idiocy after the invention of gunpowder. Brett Devereaux's 4-part series "The Universal Warrior" had an excellent discussion of why a unit of soldiers might fight in large formation. https://acoup.blog/2021/02/12/collections-the-universal-warrior-part-iib-a-soldiers-lot/ https://acoup.blog/2021/02/12/collections-the-universal-warr... He's verbose, but thoroughly enjoyable.