Battle Joy

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JMJ

I was listening to a Cd of John Vennari on Battle Joy (Recapture the Flag: Dedication and Battle Joy - by John Vennari ) and it really captures a key point that Catholics (Traditional and otherwise labelled) need to adopt.

We should see this conflict as a chance to prove our mettle for our King and to earn our unending reward.  As veterans we'll be able to talk about the old battles in which we fought and the honour we gained in fighting for our King!

Attached is a preview of course that, although secular, contains some of the elements of Battle Joy.

P^3

https://www.coursera.org/learn/war/lecture/VDwfk/the-joy-of-battle

Lecture transcript
Another important element in trying to explain how human beings do this, this horrific thing both to each other and then withstand all this kind of pain is that there is something to the idea of the joy of battle. Now for many this might sound obscene. For many they might say. That has never occurred, but we have enough evidence of battle providing its own incentives, battle providing its own sort of emotional return. First, there was the notion of the glory that never dies. Again, Achilles is clearly motivated by this. The sense that what you are doing in this battle will make sure that you live forever, that even if your physical self dies, then your name as a warrior will go on. That your family or your society will remember your contribution. This is certainly true prior to, let's say, the mass armies of the 19th century. But with the mass armies of the 19th and the 20th centuries, can we really expect any single soldier to believe that they will get some kind of individual glory? Nevertheless it still plays a role. It still is important. Perhaps more importantly the retrospective relief of survival. That is that many soldiers report that at the end of the battle was the happiest moments of their lives. This is an extreme form of how good it might feel if pain goes away. Or how good a glass of water feels if one is thirsty. Or how good a chair, might feel if one is very tired. That the relief from battle, and this comes through in many memoirs, in many interviews, that battle is hell. But that relief of having survived, that retrospective realization that one has gone through Hell and has lived makes life ever more precious. This goes along with the intensity of battle. The intensity of combat. It requires an extreme form of concentration. That is very much as in popular psychology this idea of being in the present. Accounts of battle talk about soldiers feeling as never before during a battle aware of that immediate present. Not worried about some past wrongs. Not worried about some future uncertainties. But right there. The same joy that say a mountain climber might get or a rock climber might get, and they report the same thing, that it's the sheer joy of having to concentrate so much in order to survive. Similarly soldiers might have this, that focusing on what exactly you are doing even if what you are doing is horrible, that focusing in a sense can be it's own reward. There's also the reward from a sense of cooperation. We all want to be part of teams. We all want to be part of some kind of collective in which we reaffirm our own identity by the presence. And what could be more cooperative or more requiring more of this. Sense of togetherness, of a tribe, of a group, then participation in battle. Finally, there's the dignity and self-respect that can be gained from participating in battle. In many societies again, what is not really considered a full grown male until one has participated in battle. So there is a whole element of social respect and self respect. I faced this, I have done something that nobody else could do, I have done the impossible. And again, that can provide it's own kind of support. However, we can't count on people feeling this joy, we can't count on this natural instinct, we can't count on this coercion, we can certainly not count on people realizing that they are going to feel this kind of joy when they go into battle. Not considering the horrors that we saw. So what military organizations have to do, if they don't want to use straight coercion is to try to create a mental space, try to create, try to socialize these young men. Try to socialize these normal human beings. These ordinary men into warriors, and what we are going to talk about now is what the set of values are that any military has to instruct and has to instill inside these soldiers. And we're going to talk about how these kind of values compliment some of these issues of glory, and help explain how soldiers can do the impossible