machievelli
08-16-2007, 02:11 PM
How to understand the Mandalorians:
A Historical respective
This week, I happened to pick up two movies at the same store on the same day. They were the Last Samurai, and the original 300 Spartans. As I was watching the Last Samurai, I suddenly realized how to explain the Mandalorians in terms all of you can understand.
As I have commented before, a lot of writers treat the Mandalorians as soulless butchers at best, and homicidal maniacs at worst. I feel the problem is that those writers tend to try to look at them through the blinders of their own societies. As I have proven many times, I try to judge such societies by their own view of life. To do so I fall back on history, for as Seneca said, ‘If you are unwilling to study history, you are doomed to repeat it’.
We can accept the view that our enemy is automatically evil, or we can strive to understand why this particular twig is bent that way. So I decided to do this, primarily because as someone who understands the warrior realty at one remove, I can see why they think that way.
There are a number of such societies I could have used if I wanted to make this long and boring. I could have used the Plains Indians, or the Mercenaries of Europe. But the societies I used here were where the warrior ethic was the be all and end all.
This does not mean they were perfect. Both the Samurai and the Spartans had their faults. They had their abusers of the power intrinsic to their station, but on the whole, they display best what I am trying to put across.
I have put them in where they are recorded in the history I have read. So first:
SPARTANS
Sparta was only one city-state of Greece, but they are all of what the Greeks exemplify in our history, the ability to win despite odds or enemy. For 400 years the idea that you enemy might be the Spartans was sufficient to convince people to consider running. Until the period a century before the Macedonians, Spartans were the premier warriors of Greece. They taught the entire Greek peninsula how to fight, and while Sparta is merely a small rather boring town now, they proved what man alone could do.
SOCIETY: The Spartan society was broken into two parts; Helots, those who served, and Hoplites, those who fought. Four city states swore allegiance to the Spartans, these people, the Helots, supplied the needs of the Spartan people themselves. But the Spartans paid for that service. From the age of seven, a Spartan boy belonged to the state. From that age to fourteen, they were being trained, and from fourteen until they died, they could be called up at any time. But according to Spartan law, the army cannot march unless led by their king, which is why of all the nations of the world, Sparta is the only one that had two kings; one to lead the army, another to administer the city.
The words spoken by every Spartan mother giving their son his shield says it all. ‘With this or on this’. Come home in victory, or carried in death. It was once said that Sparta had no walls, because their army was that wall. It was also said that one on one they were the best warriors of their age. The Greek name for the Spartans was Lacedomon. The term ‘laconic’ was coined for them. If you see the movie the 300 Spartans, do not judge that people by how eloquent the actors playing Spartans are. When the Persian Ambassador sent to accept the surrender of Sparta came, and was rejected, he said ‘When we sack your city, we will rape all you women!’. The Spartan king answered ‘If’.
All you need to look at to prove this contention is the battle of Thermoplae.
In 480 BCE, the second invasion of Greece by the Persians occurred. Under the King Xerxes, they not only marched through Thessaly, but also built a bridge of ships across the Dardenelles where Istanbul now stands. It was claimed originally that this army numbered over a million men though modern historians assume the number was closer to half that number. But even if you use the lower number, the numbers outweighed every Greek fighting man of every city-state of that nation by ten-to one.
What the Greeks needed desperately was time, time to muster all the men they could, and time to prepare their defenses. If a force could man and stand in the narrow pass at Thermoplae, they could gain that time.
Leonidas, one of the kings of Sparta was at the council of the Greeks, and he promised to march. In his own words, spoken from the spirit of his own people, he told that council ‘The Spartans will fight, whether others follow or not’. With those words he swore on his own honor to lead the fight.
However, his society caused it’s own problems. The Spartans were a fiercely religious people, and to march, the Spartan Army would have been in violation of a religious festival.
Picture the army of the Original State of Israel at the time of Solomon, marching on Yom Kippur, when everyone is supposed to be at home, thinking of all the sins they must atone for.
But Leonidas had sworn his people would march. Rather than violate his oath, Leonidas marched leading only his bodyguard; 300 men. Again, you cannot measure them by mere numbers.
Picture the modern day army. Now picture just 300 men. Not the best at drill, not at keeping their brass polished. But 300 stark warriors better than any other man in the army. This is what Sparta sent.
These men, leading 2700 other Greeks stood in a pass less than 20 meters wide, bounded by a sheer mountain on one side, and a cliff and the sea on the other. But the Spartans were the spear point of that small force.
Their stand did not last long; only a few days. But that period has so much history recorded. When Hydarnes, the premier General of the Persians demanded that the Spartans lay down their arms, Leonidas replied, ‘Come and take them’.
The Spartans lost, but it wasn’t because of Persian valor or one-on-one superiority. You see, the story of Thermoplae is also a story of betrayal. The Spartans were betrayed. A Greek showed the Persians a small pass through the mountains, which allowed them to cut the Spartans off. That man is considered such a traitor that his name is not remembered. He is merely called Ephialtes.
Most of the Greek force escaped, ordered to retreat by Leonidas. But bound by his word, Leonidas and his men refused that option. Leonidas sent one last message. ‘Go tell the Spartans that we stand here obedient to their word’, an insult to the members of the Spartan Council, that had decided not to send the bulk of their troops to support Leonidas. A message that shamed them into sending the troops that later stood as part of a united Greece at Salamis and Platea.
When Leonidas was killed, the 30 or so survivors were offered their lives if they would surrender the body. The reply of the senior survivor Penteus was ‘We stay with our king’.
It would have been interesting what would have happened if the entire Spartan army had marched; or if Ehpialtes had not betrayed them. After only that few days just the rumor that Spartans were among their enemies caused panic among the Persian levies. Half a million men terrified by one thousandth their numbers.
In the pass, there is a monument now. And the Delphic oracle’s prediction, that Leonidas would be the best remembered of all Greeks, is the truth today.
SPARTAN DECLINE;
There were those among the Spartans that assumed that just because they did fight, they were superior in every way. If a Helot began to foment rebellion, these men would not face them on equal terms, rather they would attack them and their families at night acting little better than thugs. Militarily the Spartans began to falter because the weapons of their time did not change fast enough to force more innovation. Soon everyone was as good at war, the Spartans were bled white, and the entire Greek society collapsed from warring among themselves not long later.
SAMURAI
The word Samurai means ‘to serve’ and that was the entire purpose their lives. From birth, the Samurai child was taught by the code of Bushido, the ‘way of the warrior’. The best remembered quote from Bushido is ‘Death is as light as a feather, duty heavier than a mountain’. Duty to your lord, duty to your nation, duty to your emperor.
Japanese history is replete with stories of their sense of honor. The 47 Ronin is such a story, Men who defamed their names for years for only one purpose, to convince the man who had caused their lord’s death that they were worthless. But once they were sure he had been lulled, they attacked his house, killed all of his guards along with their enemy, then committed seppuku on their lord’s grave. The 47 Ronin is told to Japan children to explain what honor means, and how far you might have to go to live up to it.
The problem was that they served a feudal society. Like Feudal Europe, Feudal Japan was beset with a number of nobles who wanted more power and were willing to rationalize why their version of right and proper truth.
As much as the people and the society thought otherwise, the Emperor; descendant of Amaterasu, herself had little or no power. The Daiymos, the nobles controlled the source of all wealth. The Emperor and his court owned houses, land, yet no money. The Emperors sometimes had to sell signatures on documents just to eat. The Seven Years of the 16th Century when the Japanese faced Admiral Yi Soon Shin was ‘authorized’ by such a signature. To run the government, you as the strongest of these thugs would petition the Emperor to give you the authority, whether it was as Kwampaku (Supreme Military dictator, the highest rank you could have if not born Samurai) or as Shogun. As Mejii commented in The Last Samurai; ‘I am the son of the gods when I say what they want’.
THE DECLINE OF THE SAMURAI
In the Early 17th Century the Tokugawa Shogunate was so bothered by the ideas the Europeans were importing that they refused contact with the outside world, closing their doors to the rest of the planet; a state of affairs that lasted two and a half centuries.
The movie the Last Samurai is a dramatization of the actual period that followed. When the US forced Japan to open it’s doors in 1855, then Emperor Mejii fell in love with technology. A number of entrepreneurs leaped on the bandwagon gaining control of the government.
But the average Samurai was not on that vehicle. It wasn’t that they could not accept change, only that they wanted something more gradual, they wanted to go more slowly. But greed now pushed the government. The same kind of greed that forced the ‘pacification’ of the Native Americans here. I don’t remember reading of any actual battles such as the movie showed, but the idea of 400 men standing against cannon, Gatling guns, and breech loading rifles armed only with bows, swords and spears is compelling. Their way of life was dying, and they were not giving up without a fight.
In 1881, the entire social class was abolished
There were times later in history when the Emperor refused to bow to pressure. When the Tojo government delivered the declaration of war in 1941, Emperor Hirohito refused to sign it. When he heard of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, it was also Hirohito that ordered the surrender.
But the attitude and spirit of the Samurai never really went away. The Japanese transplanted the bulk of it onto their armed forces, making the idea of honor secondary to duty and loyalty not to your lord, but to the government and the Emperor. This twisting of the attitude led to the Russo-Japanese war, the invasion of China, and eventually to WWII. As much as we are appalled by the carnage of that war, use the above meter to look at their actions not our own moral compass.
THE MANDALORIANS
My view of the Mandalorians is simple. Look at the groups I have expounded on. Try to model them on those groups, I pray. As Revan did in TSL, give them back their honor.
A Historical respective
This week, I happened to pick up two movies at the same store on the same day. They were the Last Samurai, and the original 300 Spartans. As I was watching the Last Samurai, I suddenly realized how to explain the Mandalorians in terms all of you can understand.
As I have commented before, a lot of writers treat the Mandalorians as soulless butchers at best, and homicidal maniacs at worst. I feel the problem is that those writers tend to try to look at them through the blinders of their own societies. As I have proven many times, I try to judge such societies by their own view of life. To do so I fall back on history, for as Seneca said, ‘If you are unwilling to study history, you are doomed to repeat it’.
We can accept the view that our enemy is automatically evil, or we can strive to understand why this particular twig is bent that way. So I decided to do this, primarily because as someone who understands the warrior realty at one remove, I can see why they think that way.
There are a number of such societies I could have used if I wanted to make this long and boring. I could have used the Plains Indians, or the Mercenaries of Europe. But the societies I used here were where the warrior ethic was the be all and end all.
This does not mean they were perfect. Both the Samurai and the Spartans had their faults. They had their abusers of the power intrinsic to their station, but on the whole, they display best what I am trying to put across.
I have put them in where they are recorded in the history I have read. So first:
SPARTANS
Sparta was only one city-state of Greece, but they are all of what the Greeks exemplify in our history, the ability to win despite odds or enemy. For 400 years the idea that you enemy might be the Spartans was sufficient to convince people to consider running. Until the period a century before the Macedonians, Spartans were the premier warriors of Greece. They taught the entire Greek peninsula how to fight, and while Sparta is merely a small rather boring town now, they proved what man alone could do.
SOCIETY: The Spartan society was broken into two parts; Helots, those who served, and Hoplites, those who fought. Four city states swore allegiance to the Spartans, these people, the Helots, supplied the needs of the Spartan people themselves. But the Spartans paid for that service. From the age of seven, a Spartan boy belonged to the state. From that age to fourteen, they were being trained, and from fourteen until they died, they could be called up at any time. But according to Spartan law, the army cannot march unless led by their king, which is why of all the nations of the world, Sparta is the only one that had two kings; one to lead the army, another to administer the city.
The words spoken by every Spartan mother giving their son his shield says it all. ‘With this or on this’. Come home in victory, or carried in death. It was once said that Sparta had no walls, because their army was that wall. It was also said that one on one they were the best warriors of their age. The Greek name for the Spartans was Lacedomon. The term ‘laconic’ was coined for them. If you see the movie the 300 Spartans, do not judge that people by how eloquent the actors playing Spartans are. When the Persian Ambassador sent to accept the surrender of Sparta came, and was rejected, he said ‘When we sack your city, we will rape all you women!’. The Spartan king answered ‘If’.
All you need to look at to prove this contention is the battle of Thermoplae.
In 480 BCE, the second invasion of Greece by the Persians occurred. Under the King Xerxes, they not only marched through Thessaly, but also built a bridge of ships across the Dardenelles where Istanbul now stands. It was claimed originally that this army numbered over a million men though modern historians assume the number was closer to half that number. But even if you use the lower number, the numbers outweighed every Greek fighting man of every city-state of that nation by ten-to one.
What the Greeks needed desperately was time, time to muster all the men they could, and time to prepare their defenses. If a force could man and stand in the narrow pass at Thermoplae, they could gain that time.
Leonidas, one of the kings of Sparta was at the council of the Greeks, and he promised to march. In his own words, spoken from the spirit of his own people, he told that council ‘The Spartans will fight, whether others follow or not’. With those words he swore on his own honor to lead the fight.
However, his society caused it’s own problems. The Spartans were a fiercely religious people, and to march, the Spartan Army would have been in violation of a religious festival.
Picture the army of the Original State of Israel at the time of Solomon, marching on Yom Kippur, when everyone is supposed to be at home, thinking of all the sins they must atone for.
But Leonidas had sworn his people would march. Rather than violate his oath, Leonidas marched leading only his bodyguard; 300 men. Again, you cannot measure them by mere numbers.
Picture the modern day army. Now picture just 300 men. Not the best at drill, not at keeping their brass polished. But 300 stark warriors better than any other man in the army. This is what Sparta sent.
These men, leading 2700 other Greeks stood in a pass less than 20 meters wide, bounded by a sheer mountain on one side, and a cliff and the sea on the other. But the Spartans were the spear point of that small force.
Their stand did not last long; only a few days. But that period has so much history recorded. When Hydarnes, the premier General of the Persians demanded that the Spartans lay down their arms, Leonidas replied, ‘Come and take them’.
The Spartans lost, but it wasn’t because of Persian valor or one-on-one superiority. You see, the story of Thermoplae is also a story of betrayal. The Spartans were betrayed. A Greek showed the Persians a small pass through the mountains, which allowed them to cut the Spartans off. That man is considered such a traitor that his name is not remembered. He is merely called Ephialtes.
Most of the Greek force escaped, ordered to retreat by Leonidas. But bound by his word, Leonidas and his men refused that option. Leonidas sent one last message. ‘Go tell the Spartans that we stand here obedient to their word’, an insult to the members of the Spartan Council, that had decided not to send the bulk of their troops to support Leonidas. A message that shamed them into sending the troops that later stood as part of a united Greece at Salamis and Platea.
When Leonidas was killed, the 30 or so survivors were offered their lives if they would surrender the body. The reply of the senior survivor Penteus was ‘We stay with our king’.
It would have been interesting what would have happened if the entire Spartan army had marched; or if Ehpialtes had not betrayed them. After only that few days just the rumor that Spartans were among their enemies caused panic among the Persian levies. Half a million men terrified by one thousandth their numbers.
In the pass, there is a monument now. And the Delphic oracle’s prediction, that Leonidas would be the best remembered of all Greeks, is the truth today.
SPARTAN DECLINE;
There were those among the Spartans that assumed that just because they did fight, they were superior in every way. If a Helot began to foment rebellion, these men would not face them on equal terms, rather they would attack them and their families at night acting little better than thugs. Militarily the Spartans began to falter because the weapons of their time did not change fast enough to force more innovation. Soon everyone was as good at war, the Spartans were bled white, and the entire Greek society collapsed from warring among themselves not long later.
SAMURAI
The word Samurai means ‘to serve’ and that was the entire purpose their lives. From birth, the Samurai child was taught by the code of Bushido, the ‘way of the warrior’. The best remembered quote from Bushido is ‘Death is as light as a feather, duty heavier than a mountain’. Duty to your lord, duty to your nation, duty to your emperor.
Japanese history is replete with stories of their sense of honor. The 47 Ronin is such a story, Men who defamed their names for years for only one purpose, to convince the man who had caused their lord’s death that they were worthless. But once they were sure he had been lulled, they attacked his house, killed all of his guards along with their enemy, then committed seppuku on their lord’s grave. The 47 Ronin is told to Japan children to explain what honor means, and how far you might have to go to live up to it.
The problem was that they served a feudal society. Like Feudal Europe, Feudal Japan was beset with a number of nobles who wanted more power and were willing to rationalize why their version of right and proper truth.
As much as the people and the society thought otherwise, the Emperor; descendant of Amaterasu, herself had little or no power. The Daiymos, the nobles controlled the source of all wealth. The Emperor and his court owned houses, land, yet no money. The Emperors sometimes had to sell signatures on documents just to eat. The Seven Years of the 16th Century when the Japanese faced Admiral Yi Soon Shin was ‘authorized’ by such a signature. To run the government, you as the strongest of these thugs would petition the Emperor to give you the authority, whether it was as Kwampaku (Supreme Military dictator, the highest rank you could have if not born Samurai) or as Shogun. As Mejii commented in The Last Samurai; ‘I am the son of the gods when I say what they want’.
THE DECLINE OF THE SAMURAI
In the Early 17th Century the Tokugawa Shogunate was so bothered by the ideas the Europeans were importing that they refused contact with the outside world, closing their doors to the rest of the planet; a state of affairs that lasted two and a half centuries.
The movie the Last Samurai is a dramatization of the actual period that followed. When the US forced Japan to open it’s doors in 1855, then Emperor Mejii fell in love with technology. A number of entrepreneurs leaped on the bandwagon gaining control of the government.
But the average Samurai was not on that vehicle. It wasn’t that they could not accept change, only that they wanted something more gradual, they wanted to go more slowly. But greed now pushed the government. The same kind of greed that forced the ‘pacification’ of the Native Americans here. I don’t remember reading of any actual battles such as the movie showed, but the idea of 400 men standing against cannon, Gatling guns, and breech loading rifles armed only with bows, swords and spears is compelling. Their way of life was dying, and they were not giving up without a fight.
In 1881, the entire social class was abolished
There were times later in history when the Emperor refused to bow to pressure. When the Tojo government delivered the declaration of war in 1941, Emperor Hirohito refused to sign it. When he heard of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, it was also Hirohito that ordered the surrender.
But the attitude and spirit of the Samurai never really went away. The Japanese transplanted the bulk of it onto their armed forces, making the idea of honor secondary to duty and loyalty not to your lord, but to the government and the Emperor. This twisting of the attitude led to the Russo-Japanese war, the invasion of China, and eventually to WWII. As much as we are appalled by the carnage of that war, use the above meter to look at their actions not our own moral compass.
THE MANDALORIANS
My view of the Mandalorians is simple. Look at the groups I have expounded on. Try to model them on those groups, I pray. As Revan did in TSL, give them back their honor.