Warrior Philosophers

Greetings once again, my fellow spirits.

I saw a post on a social media's site just a moment ago that cited a quote from Thucydides that goes thusly:

"The society that separats its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."


The propriety of it prompted the following response.

It is agreeable. The classic notion of the warrior philosopher denotes the ultimate warrior. Why? Because the intimation that he is a philosopher implies he thinks for himself and in the cultural context in which I assume it was made, I must further assume it also carried the implication of being a moral and courageous man. Those are the men we need in uniform, so to speak; men who will say "no!" to orders immoral.  We need as many of these as possible, the ideal proportion being 100%.

Police, for example, are not such men. They almost universally obey blindly.  On the few occasions we read about a cop bucking the status quo, bad things happen thereafter to he who showed such temerity.  The "system" does not tolerate those who rock the boat.  It has a long memory, and is not at all forgiving.

If somewhere a charismatic "leader" rose, and in the wake of his hand-waving tirades a fever spiked in his subjects such that all people of X-persuasion were to be separated and somehow made eighth-class properties of the "crown", you had better bet that there would be someone enforcing the edict with single-minded and likely vicious devotion, police being the candidates topping the list.  Barring them, there are always others willing to answer the call.

It doesn't matter who the target group might be - perhaps we could return to old reliables such as blacks and Jews. More likely these days, it would be white males. Someone, I guaRONtee, would blindly accede to whatever orders were issued. Round `em up! And if the orders ultimately crowned in "kill them all", there would always be those willing to press that gore-laden labor. History has demonstrated the willingness of men to engage in acts of mass murder, given the right incentive.

This is not likely possible with a body of warrior philosophers because they would not only understand the gross impropriety of such orders - the very criminality - but would have the courage and motivation to refuse them and, if necessary, air out and neutralize the sources.

That is what humanity needs. We don't need charismatic "leaders". We don't need leaders at all, save that every man be the leader of his own life. We need men courageous and loving enough of themselves and their fellows to do the occasionally ugly work required to maintain the state of freedom not only for themselves, but for all men.

Rottenness is a fact of humanity. There will always will be men who fail to abide by the principles of Proper Human Relations, whatever the reasons. Such men need to be excised from the company of their fellows, whether by killing them or through exile and forced containment, if the freedom of men is to be protected in perpetuity. It is ugly work - no decent man wants to do such things to another. He takes no whit of pleasure in it, yet may still derive an appropriate sense of satisfaction in having justly and with correct basis protected the fundamental rights of all men, for in neutralizing one transgressor's acts of trespass, he saves all others, for the doom of the humanity begins with the first failure to protect. This is part of the price of being a Freeman.

Observe how we fully as have failed at this, allowing vicious tyrants of all stripe to commit their atrocities without sufficient answer. Because we are moral cowards, unwilling to engage in the repugnant business of maintaining the proper order between all men, which is to say the state of mutually respectful freedom, insanity and tragedy ride roughshod across the face of the globe, the conditions they set having become the rule rather than the exception.

We shrink from enlightened self-interest because of our natural distaste for that which is clearly distasteful.  Such disinclination says good things of us, but our failure to command over it where necessary indicts us with far greater rebuke.  There are those times where the repellent act proves necessary if we are to preserve our birthright freedoms and not devolve into the chaos we now find in nearly every corner, nook, and cranny of the world.

You have failed and I, shamefully, have done no better.

Courage is not enough. Intellect fit for the task of being a Freeman, a protector and guardian of all humanity from the predations of transgressors upon the common rights of all people, is an absolute necessity, as well as the smarts that come with training.  Absent the right knowledge, how can any man know what to do in a given situation? Without knowledge, children drink poison in their innocence and good men allow themselves and others to be abused and ruined by thoses who may do so with intentions fair or foul.

Freedom proper, equal, and respectful to, and of all men, demands everything of the individual. It is hard work that requires devotion, charity, love, trust, vigilance, grace, and courage. It demands all that men can give, and then a smidge more. That is why we run from it; it is simply too much work for the Meaner - the average man - who rathers the false convenience, economy, and comfort of idle entropy, usually in the form of going along to get along.  Sadder still, we pick and choose the elements of our individual visions of "freedom", that which I call "Pretty Slavery", and stencil "freedom" upon its forehead.  

Look what it has gotten us. We live in Hell, the gut-wrenching tragedy of it being not only that none of it is necessary, but trebly so, given the grace and love and beauty of spirit of which we are capable and so often demonstrate in other ways. Choosing horror over love for no other reason than we are too lazy or fearful to lift a finger to choose otherwise reveals our most terrible flaws.

I do not know the proper solution for all this, the measures that might serve to correct our doleful state, but the cultivation Warrior Philosophers must, in my opinion, be part of it.  It is not clear that such an endeavor may be realized in any manner beyond the theoretical in numbers sufficient to address this deep breech of nature.

In principle, the path forward is clear and simple.  In practice, it is the same, and yet statistical reality of mens' minds nevertheless reveals the low likelihood of such solutions' potentials for successful attainment.  Our minds build our reality and we appear bent on clinging to the evils which, having become so familiar to us, have become comfortable regardless of the horrors they bring.

Please forgive the dark mood of the subject, but I believe it needs to be aired in the slim hope that it will set people to thinking.

Thank you for your time and attention, and as always please accept my best wishes.