It is hard sometimes for people to remember that war is not a game. After all, most people in our contemporary society are most aware of a personal understanding of war from games. Whether one is an armchair general with a fondness for reading military histories and conducting battles in one’s own head, or someone who plays realistic first person shooters about World War II, or historical simulation games of one kind or another, for many of us, we have little experience with the ways of war as people. Or at least, that is what we tend to believe, for the warring and fighting we are most likely to see and experience is spiritual warfare, political and cultural conflict, and the warfare between husbands and wives that tears about families and leads to children being seen merely as pawns in the struggle of their parents or as terrain to be fought over, and not as people whose thoughts and well-being are often highest in mind. It is not without accident that it was my family’s deep division that led me to first study the Civil War, and to understand the trauma of nations as being the same sort of matter, on a larger scale, as the trauma that cuts into individual lives, a lesson I have never forgotten.
When one thinks of those who view war the most like a game, one thinks of people who dress in finery and whose focus is merely tactical, merely in terms of action, and not in terms of any larger grand strategy. The Southern cavaliers like J.E.B. Stuart spring to mind, with their flamboyant uniforms, their dashing horsemanship, their love of raids and cockfighting, their extreme sensitivity to criticism, and their delicate sense of honor [1]. Such a sort of people exist in our own contemporary world, and one has to deal with them, as they are the sort of people whose fierceness and hot-bloodedness draw upon them the wrath of impossible forces, and whose prickly sense of honor leaves them unable to coolly and methodically determine the best way of dealing with life’s absurdity and difficulties. Just as the chevaliers of the South thought that they could take on ten times their number of Yankee opponents, the failure in matters of diplomacy, grand strategy, or logistics often prove fatal for those who create too many enemies to deal with effectively, with often tragic results for themselves and others.
As might be easily understood, the Bible takes a dim view on those who are trapped by the fatal lure of the caper. 1st John 2 contains some harsh words for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life that so easily ensnare us. Jesus Christ had some pointed words for his immediate sovereign, Herod Antipas, when he spoke about the need for cool and methodical understanding of logistics and capabilities when it came to building towers and leading inferior numbers of troops, which were both areas where Herod Antipas failed dramatically [3], and the story of Samson is one that demonstrates that those who have a fatal lure for the forbidden tend to find that even their own strength and craftiness cannot rescue them from the ill-effects of their folly [4]. No, the Bible is written from the point of view of prudential wisdom as well as inflexible idealism, requiring that someone pursue unalloyed holiness with both high degrees of honor as well as shrewd wisdom and methodical courage. Such behavior will be noticed, but it is not done out of a vainglorious desire for attention, but is taken as the best way to effectively deal with the troubles of life that we are called to overcome.
How are we to overcome such problems? For one, we have to examine ourselves closely to know what sort of situations exist where our willpower and determination are at their weakest, and what sort of lures exist that most easily ensnare our attentions and affections, where we can most reliably be led into trouble and difficulty. We also have to examine our strengths, so that we may know in what areas we most carelessly rely on native talents and abilities and not on discipline and focused awareness. The city of Sardis, for example, was known at least twice in history for carelessly relying on its natural site, so that armies marched up undefended routes and captured the city, the same thing that happened to the city of Quebec during the French and Indian War. When the work of self-examination has been done, we must then seek outside help from God and man, so that we not only are accountable to God and to ourselves, but so that we have other people who are able to watch our back and provide encouragement and the wisdom of counsel. If we are engaged in war, whether we have volunteered for it whether war has been made on us despite our desires to live at peace, we must learn to do so wisely and victoriously. War is too serious and too destructive of a business to be fought for pleasure or sport; if one is to engage in struggle, one should fight in earnest, and make others pay for their aggression, and rue the day they mistakenly saw weakness in the velvet glove that lies over the steel gauntlet of the reluctant but remorseless warriors we happen to be.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/10/22/book-review-honor-and-slavery/
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/02/16/no-sacred-honor/
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/too-delicate-a-sense-of-honor/
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/10/18/death-before-dishonor/
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/the-price-of-equality-and-honor/
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/weep-weep-grey-bird-weep/
[2] See, for example:
[3] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/samson-proverbs-25-and-honey/
Edge Induced Cohesion 