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Values, Virtues, and Ways of War. “What we do today is governed at least as much by the habits of mind we formed in the relatively remote past as by what we did and thought yesterday.” Russell Weigley. Evolution of Human Society. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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“What we do today is governed at least as much by the habits of mind we formed in the relatively remote past as by whatwe did and thought yesterday.”
Russell Weigley
BAND TRIBE CHIEFDOM STATE
Size Dozens Hundreds Thousands 50,000+
Decision Making
EgalitarianEgalitarian or
"Big Man"Centralized,
heredityCentralized
Conflict Resolution
Informal Informal Centralized Laws & Judges
Evolution of Human Society
• Understanding military history . . . and the use of military force as political tool . . .
Requires:
Reconciling ancient feelings and motivations
with modern requirements.
“Value(s)”
• “. . . 6. beliefs or standards . . . “
• Corporate standards of conduct adopted by the organization for organizational reasons.
• Enforced by the leadership of the organization.
Virtue(s)• “. . . 2. a specific moral quality regarded as
good . . .”
• A product of an organization or society as a whole; a cultural construct as opposed to an organizational construct.
• Enforced by the members of the organization.
• May be the same qualities as “values.”
• “Patriotism” is a corporate value.– “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
Samuel Johnson
• Don’t confuse “patriotism” with “civic virtue.”
– The ability to subordinate one’s personal good to that of the group (republic).
– ( “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”)
“. . . I would prefer the simple statement that personal honor is the one thing valued more than life itself by the majority of men.”
S.L.A Marshall, Men Against Fire
“The Western Way of War”
• Victor Davis Hanson
“The Greek way of war has developed in us a distaste for what we call the terrorist, guerrilla, or irregular who chooses to wage war differently, and is unwilling to die on the battlefield in order to kill his enemy.”
“The American Way of War”
• Russell Weigley
“The Civil War tended to fix the American image of war from the 1860s into America's rise to world power at the turn of the century, and it also suggested that the complete overthrow of the enemy, the destruction of his military power, is the object of war.”
Summary
• Ancient (archetypical) feelings about organized violence and war affect our modern view of war.
• The American experience has taught us that “victory” requires the annihilation of our enemy.
• These historical facts complicate the use of military power as a tool of state policy.