Gallant Atavism. The Military Ethic in an Age of Nihilism

摘要

Although that title is pompous, it tells you exactly what I plan to tell you. An ethic is a body of moral principles or values governing or distinctive of a group. Almost any group--a collection of ministers or mechanics, a mafia--can, and often does, have an ethic. Here I do not write about ministers or mechanics or mafia but about the military. Ferdinand Foch (1851-1929), the French general, once asked this question of war: 'De quoi s'agit-il' What is it all about. What is its end, its purpose. In a similar vein, the English writer C. S. Lewis (1898:1963) once contended that 'the first qualification for judging any thing...from a corkscrew to a cathedral is to know what it is--what it was intended to do and how it was meant to be used.' What values or morals govern or are distinctive of a professional military group. I think we could trace through rather a large number of such values--a sense of honor and duty, a spirit of patriotism and self-sacrifice, an awareness of tradition, and a feeling of loyalty to seniors and subordinates who similarly share one's treasury of values. But surely that is not enough. Those very same values might be found--one hopes they would be found--in, say, the diplomatic corps or even in our country's executives, legislators, and judges. Something must set the military professional apart--something truly unique and therefore clearly distinguishing.