Forwarded from Waino Mellas
Apollo of Hyperborea
— ROME
“From the world’s weight or its caress
At times your voice has broken
And still you’d sing nonetheless
And still you have spoken
With your life blood you have written
At farthest forest shrine
By great fires you were smitten
By this union divine
In libations on mountain peaks
At the roots of our holy trees
In words between friends
You’d find that which commends
Her bravery (her bravery)
Her holiness (her holiness)
A rebirth yet to come (a rebirth yet to come)
For these sanctuaries
And sentry calls, ‘Who goes there?’
Lay well your hooks, cast your nets with care
You won’t lose yourself in symbols this time
And we'll earn the jealousy of lesser men
In the silence of paths less trodden and then
When it all comes to fall
Will know how to rise again
There's a price to be paid for seeing beyond
But our world awaits us to give it form
Now standing on the brink of ruin
Make your aim true and make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
And sentry calls, ‘Who goes there?’
Lay well your hooks, cast your nets with care
You won’t lose yourself in symbols this time
And sentry calls, ‘Who goes there?’
Lay well your hooks, cast your nets with care
You won’t lose yourself in symbols this time
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new”
— ROME
“From the world’s weight or its caress
At times your voice has broken
And still you’d sing nonetheless
And still you have spoken
With your life blood you have written
At farthest forest shrine
By great fires you were smitten
By this union divine
In libations on mountain peaks
At the roots of our holy trees
In words between friends
You’d find that which commends
Her bravery (her bravery)
Her holiness (her holiness)
A rebirth yet to come (a rebirth yet to come)
For these sanctuaries
And sentry calls, ‘Who goes there?’
Lay well your hooks, cast your nets with care
You won’t lose yourself in symbols this time
And we'll earn the jealousy of lesser men
In the silence of paths less trodden and then
When it all comes to fall
Will know how to rise again
There's a price to be paid for seeing beyond
But our world awaits us to give it form
Now standing on the brink of ruin
Make your aim true and make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
And sentry calls, ‘Who goes there?’
Lay well your hooks, cast your nets with care
You won’t lose yourself in symbols this time
And sentry calls, ‘Who goes there?’
Lay well your hooks, cast your nets with care
You won’t lose yourself in symbols this time
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new
May your aim be true – to make it new”
"In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass. Bodies disappear. But spirits linger."
— Joshua Chamberlain
— Joshua Chamberlain
Forwarded from DVX Publishing Co.
SOLDIERS!
Maxims of War by Emperor Napoleon I is now available for purchase!
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Maxims of War by Emperor Napoleon I is now available for purchase!
Buy it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1957583185
Check us out here:
DVXPublishingCompany.com
"The poor man, lean and sunburnt, may find himself posted in battle beside one who, thanks to his wealth and indoor life, is panting under his burden of fat and showing every mark of distress. 'Such men,' he will think, 'are rich because we are cowards'; and when he and his friends meet in private, the word will go round: 'These men are no good: they are at our mercy.’"
— Plato, Republic
— Plato, Republic
“The deep flood of time will roll over us; some few great men will raise their heads above it...”
— Seneca
— Seneca
Six Principles of Strategic Theory:
The study of ways, ends and means: Strategic theory is concerned with the ways in which available means can be employed to reach a desired end. As Michael Howard put it, strategy is the ‘use of available resources to gain any objective’.[xiv] Here the term resources (the ‘means’), refers not just to the material elements of power (e.g., economic strength, the numbers of soldiers and weapons, technological prowess, etc) but to the many intangible elements that might impose themselves on a decision maker such as the degree of popular enthusiasm for a cause and the extent to which popular will is prepared to support particular courses of action to achieve or defend certain goals and values.
Interdependent decision making: This is the assumption that decision making is influenced to some degree or another by the existence of a wilful adversary, or adversaries, or other actors more generally, who are also engaged in a determined pursuit of their own values and interests, which may be antagonistic to your own. This assumption means that decision-making cannot be measured against any fixed standard of efficacy, but in the light of the responses that your actions can be expected to elicit from an adversary. Effective decision making, therefore, is dependent on the consideration of the choices and actions of others with whom you might be in contention.
Unitary actors: Strategic theorists concern themselves with ‘unitary’ actors, be they states, sub-state entities, or any other social grouping. Even though all social actors are comprised of individuals and other collectives (for example, armed forces, civil service bureaucracies, social classes, etc.), strategic theory assumes that the decision to act is an expression of a singular collective will. Therefore, strategic theory is primarily interested in examining the choices available to such actors and evaluating the composition of their decision-making, tracing the line of thought any social actor seeks to follow in pursuit of its stated objectives with its chosen means.
Understanding value systems: Evaluating decision making requires the attempt to comprehend a social actor’s value system – that is, how it sees the world, how it thinks about its own motivations and preferences. Strategic theory is, in this respect, interested in how actors construct their interests in the light of their ‘values’, informed as these are likely to be by all manner of contingent historical and social forces. Strategic theorists are therefore concerned with how value systems shape the understanding of national objectives (in the case of a state), and choices and the means that they subsequently employ to achieve them.
Rationality: Strategic theory assumes the actor is behaving rationally, according to its own value system, namely, that it is behaving in a manner consistent with the attainment of its desired ends. This is not, please note, the imposition of rational-actor modelling. Nor does it presume that the actor functions with perfect efficiency or that its decisions will automatically lead to a successful outcome. It does, though, assume that the actor’s decisions are made after some kind of cost-benefit analysis that makes sense to the actor concerned in a way that results in a choice of action designed to optimise the attainment of a desired end in accordance with its own value system.
The study of ways, ends and means: Strategic theory is concerned with the ways in which available means can be employed to reach a desired end. As Michael Howard put it, strategy is the ‘use of available resources to gain any objective’.[xiv] Here the term resources (the ‘means’), refers not just to the material elements of power (e.g., economic strength, the numbers of soldiers and weapons, technological prowess, etc) but to the many intangible elements that might impose themselves on a decision maker such as the degree of popular enthusiasm for a cause and the extent to which popular will is prepared to support particular courses of action to achieve or defend certain goals and values.
Interdependent decision making: This is the assumption that decision making is influenced to some degree or another by the existence of a wilful adversary, or adversaries, or other actors more generally, who are also engaged in a determined pursuit of their own values and interests, which may be antagonistic to your own. This assumption means that decision-making cannot be measured against any fixed standard of efficacy, but in the light of the responses that your actions can be expected to elicit from an adversary. Effective decision making, therefore, is dependent on the consideration of the choices and actions of others with whom you might be in contention.
Unitary actors: Strategic theorists concern themselves with ‘unitary’ actors, be they states, sub-state entities, or any other social grouping. Even though all social actors are comprised of individuals and other collectives (for example, armed forces, civil service bureaucracies, social classes, etc.), strategic theory assumes that the decision to act is an expression of a singular collective will. Therefore, strategic theory is primarily interested in examining the choices available to such actors and evaluating the composition of their decision-making, tracing the line of thought any social actor seeks to follow in pursuit of its stated objectives with its chosen means.
Understanding value systems: Evaluating decision making requires the attempt to comprehend a social actor’s value system – that is, how it sees the world, how it thinks about its own motivations and preferences. Strategic theory is, in this respect, interested in how actors construct their interests in the light of their ‘values’, informed as these are likely to be by all manner of contingent historical and social forces. Strategic theorists are therefore concerned with how value systems shape the understanding of national objectives (in the case of a state), and choices and the means that they subsequently employ to achieve them.
Rationality: Strategic theory assumes the actor is behaving rationally, according to its own value system, namely, that it is behaving in a manner consistent with the attainment of its desired ends. This is not, please note, the imposition of rational-actor modelling. Nor does it presume that the actor functions with perfect efficiency or that its decisions will automatically lead to a successful outcome. It does, though, assume that the actor’s decisions are made after some kind of cost-benefit analysis that makes sense to the actor concerned in a way that results in a choice of action designed to optimise the attainment of a desired end in accordance with its own value system.
Moral neutrality: To avoid distorting ethnocentric evaluations, that is, judging others by your own values, strategic theory is disinterested in the moral validity of an actor’s ends, ways, and means. Evaluation of the effectiveness of an actor’s decision making is confined principally to how well the chosen means are used to attain stated ends. This applies to all ways and means, including the use of violent methods, which are viewed solely in instrumental terms. This assumption is a necessary requirement to ensure that insight is gained dispassionately, and to avoid conflating the attempt to describe and understand social action with normative judgements that inevitably undermine any attempt to provide objective analysis.
Discipline is absolute. There is no quasi-discipline. There is no time off. Discipline is a way of thinking, and more important, discipline is a way of behaving. It is about actions, not words.
JOCKO
JOCKO
"Living and caring for themselves in a Spartan environment, confronting the natural elements, and experiencing the discomfort of being hungry, thirsty, and tired are as essential in preparing for combat duty as any skills training."
— MCDP 1-3: Tactics
— MCDP 1-3: Tactics
"The flower par excellence is the cherry blossom; the man par excellence is the samurai."
— Mishima, 'The Way of the Samurai'
— Mishima, 'The Way of the Samurai'
Aristotle (Politics) explains how mass immigration, lack of virtue, and differences between the rural and urban populations can all lead to revolution.
“The Monroe Doctrine is not merely a political principle, but the concrete order of a large space.”
— Carl Schmitt, Völkerrechtliche Großraumordnung
— Carl Schmitt, Völkerrechtliche Großraumordnung