I warn, not a word about tactics or strategical play here. No fodder for
the brawn-only warrior.
Now, my thinking Warriors, those who favor Codes of Bushido, the “Cowboy
Code,” the ethics of Warrior societies the world over [“Mabitsiar’u Puha” in my
case], this is the deep-thinking, soul-searching Warrior I address.
The Warrior who sees all aspects of life as a laboratory of applied focus
on the betterment of the self. The unity of forging into one blade the physical,
the cognitive, and the all-encompassing world of honor.
Let us make a case for reading choices [fiction or non-fiction], viewing choices,
etc. being the modern self-chosen “tribe” of influencers.
Pre-Modern world we existed in smaller bands whether nomadic or a village
in stasis where we had an actual tribe. These small bands seldom exceeded more
than 200 people in a lifetime of experience. [The Dunbar Number places that
number at around 150.]
Within our associations, not all were peachy of course, just like now we
had ranges of behavior, temperament, and ability, but that which was worthy of
being emulated was well-known and easily recognizable.
These small populations contributed to making codes of conduct and standards
of emulation easier. We had fewer fragmentary influences and this quicker association
of the desired abilities/behaviors was the order of the day.
Think of today’s elite military cadre or those with extended frontline military
experience. These small but intense societies often forge bonds and habits
tighter than those that can be formed in casual but even longer-term associations.
Behaviors that persevere.
Think of the contrast of those who spent 90 days alongside one another at
an FOB in Afghanistan and those of co-workers you share a break room with daily
for 3 years. Likely the smaller but intense tribe is the stronger of the two,
no matter how much you like all the folks staring at their phones around the microwave
in the breakroom.
With the advent of technology and easy mobility the human animal has far
exceeded the Dunbar Number in possible associations. With social media tech we
can literally connect with anyone else in the world who has an Internet
connection.
On one hand, this is manna, on the other the diverse and diffuse associations
coupled with the human propensity to “keep it small” [The Dunbar Number again] we may know far more than our past tribal ancestors, but we may also
likely be less deeply connected despite the surfeit of digital connection.
Also, being less deeply connected means we are likely to lack spring-water
pure exemplars that we personally know for the formation of our own honor societies.
More Connection—Diffused and Varied Influence
This is not to say that we do not have honorable people in our own lives.
I merely state that we may be so diffused and digressive in our habits that the
honor/integrity influences do not adhere as strictly, strongly, perseveringly
as they may were we to swim more deeply and more often in those waters with the
actual exemplars and like cadre.
This is likely why many report feelings of being adrift or a bit
unmoored.
This is a bit perplexing in a world of connectivity that more report feeling
lonely where infinite connection is possible.
Without the possibility of regressing to
former “social load,” and embracing pie-in-the-sky “back to nature” movements,
what is one to do?
With no clear-cut tribe or emulatory icons seemingly available, the next
best thing seems to be choosing our own exemplars from the vast icons of the
past.
These exemplars can be real or fictional.
We can literally, choose from literature, exemplars we would gladly
follow were they not fictional.
We may not be able to go on an extended voyage with an actual exemplar but…
Within a novel we spend extended time with characters who are running a laboratory
of experiments before our eyes. Showing us possible behaviors. Displaying lessons
and conduct we wish to imitate, emulate, or aspire to.
We also see pitfalls that we may learn to avoid in our own lives. Behaviors
that repel on a visceral level. Via negativa instruction.
This theory of “literature as human laboratory” sees deep reading as recreational
in the true meaning of the word. We seek to recreate our own worlds, our
own make-up via the fictional tribe with whom we have chosen to spend time
with.
The Self-Chosen Hazards of Recreational Literature
If we deem what we do with our “downtime” as formative, whether we intend
it to be or not, then we must embrace the fact that our choices likely will
inform our world view and in some cases our behavior. [Qanon anyone?]
If we desire a tribe of influencing betters, we may seek that tribe
without in the actual world, and inside the interior of our skulls by choosing laboratory
experiments that suit our aims.
Literary scholar, F.L. Lucas on the subject.
“Much our criticism, obsessed with pleasure-values and blind to
influence-values, seems to me frivolously irresponsible towards the vital
effects of books in making their readers saner or sillier, more balanced or
more unbalanced, more civilized or more barbarian.”
If you see any merit in the influence of the “recreational” aspect of our
choices, we are wise to ask ourselves with each book we crack, each show we
binge, each link we click is this making me saner or sillier?
More balanced or more unbalanced?
More civilized or more barbarian?
And for those who think that our recreational choices have little to no
effect on our own cognitive interiors or behavioral displays, I offer this anecdote
of an unnamed homicide detective who related that one of the first things he
liked to do was look at what books were on a victim’s or suspect’s nightstand.
“I want to see what someone reads when they don’t have to. Gives me a
handle on them.”
If the world could peek at our nightstands, our Kindles, our browsing histories,
what tale would it tell of our characters?
And for those who have serious doubts about the influences of recreational
sources I ask a couple of hypotheticals.
Your grown child is set to marry someone of whom you’ve not made up your
mind. You are visiting them for diner. On their nightstand would you rather perhaps
see an old Michael Crichton novel, a book of Kantian ethics, maybe a Bible?
Or..
A well-thumbed copy of Mein Kampf, a biography of Ted Bundy, and a suspect
book of bondage confessions?
Admittedly, these are not deal-breakers. My library is chockful of suspect
titles. I have a tattered pamphlet on breaking necks by an Old West hangman, several
unpublished memoirs of turn of the last century mob enforcers and sundry nefarious
things.
Now, some of you know me for my day job and are not surprised at those
shelf-items, and assume, “Ah, it’s research.” But if you didn’t know me,
and found no leavening volumes like Plutarch and an entire run of Seneca also
on those shelves, would you not have a value judgment?
So, saner or sillier?
Balanced or more unbalanced?
Civilized or more barbarian?
I close here. The post-script is merely a handful of quotes I excerpted
from some of my more recent recreational reading. A few dribs and drabs from
the imaginary tribe-members I chose to spend time with and learn from recently.
POST-SCRIPT
“Perfect sangfroid.
Exceptional address. Etiquette, Seward had once told Jamison, was all that
mattered. Ideologies waxed and waned, religions developed and eroded, political
parties rose and fell from power. Only courtesy remained one of the few things
valued by all civilized men.”- All
Through the Night by Connie Brockway
“His mother had
once told him that though he’d find many kinds of people in the world, each
could be sorted into those who help and those who hurt. ‘I don’t tell you this
to make you suspicious of others,’ she said, ‘but so you might steel yourself
against hurt. The hurt others inflict on you, but also the hurt you might
inflict on others. You must always be the one who helps.’”—rode Thomas
Fox Averill
“One lesson which I
have learned in my roaming life, my friends, is never to call anything a
misfortune until you have seen the end of it. Is not every hour a fresh point
of view?” The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard by Arthur Conan Doyle
“When a brave man
has done his utmost, and has failed, he shows his breeding by the manner in
which he accepts his defeat.” Ibid
“The guts
to beat down every obstacle in the way, not ever counting the cost, so’s to
have some of the damn little happiness and peace granted to man in the span of
his days. You think that doesn’t take courage? Most of us drift because that’s
easiest....If a little of what’s happy comes our way we’ll take it, but we
won’t work for it. Most of us don’t know what we want to make us happy; that’s
part of the reason we sit tight, hoping whatever it is will show. And selfish.
Strange partners, maybe, but there they are, courage and selfishness. I like
people who know what they want, right off. I like you, but you don’t know what
you want any more, do you?” A
Time in the Sun Jane Barry
How good
it seemed to all of us to be out thus in the freedom of the night and the
sea—not least to the great noble-headed hound sitting up on his haunches, keen
and watchful by the steersman's side. What a strange waste of a life so short
to be sleeping there on the land, when one might be out and away on such
business as ours!- Pieces of Eight Richard Le Gallienne
“Son, it’s no good
to go back where you already been. It ain’t the same. Other people own it, and
it ain’t yours no more.”—James Lee Burke Two for Texas
“Others think much
less about us than we believe or fear, because they are almost always thinking
about themselves.“—Gabrielle Burton, Impatient With Desire
Words may be but a mask upon our thoughts; deeds are ever the
expression of them.”-Rafael Sabatini, Captain Blood
Adversity had taught him to prize benefits
however slight and to confront perils however overwhelming.”-Ibid
A way
would present itself. He was watching, and would miss no chance. "And if
no chance should offer?" she asked him. "Why then I will make
one," he answered, lightly almost. "I have been making them all my
life, and it would be odd if I should have lost the trick of it on my life's
most important occasion."-Ibid
“For every bastard
that runs out on you in a fix, there’s three good men who won’t.”-Steve
Frazee He Rode Alone
May we choose our
tribes well.
All the best, Amigos!
[Excerpted from The Frontier Stoic by Yours Truly.]
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