Our Town: The art of war and the science of killing

Dr Tom Ferraro
The military teaches young men many things

The art of war and the science of killing

(Photo with caption “The military teaches young men many things.”)

A few years ago I got to meet Gary Player, the mighty South African who was given the name The Black Knight due to his penchant for wearing black clothes. Gary was 80 years old at the time but had the look, the energy and the waistline of a 40-year-old.

And just in case you are not up on big sports names, Gary Player is the Hall of Fame golfer who was part of The Big Three, which included Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and himself. He was Tiger Woods before Tiger Woods was Tiger Woods. He was the guy who started the fitness, training and nutrition movements in golf and shaped his body into perfection with isometrics.

I was part of a media contingent at a golf outing at Manhattan Woods, a course Player had designed and I was given exactly 4 minutes of face time with him. The one question I wanted to ask him was this. “Why is it that so many South Africans seem to be so good under pressure? Gary Player, Retief Goosen, Ernie Els, Branden Grace, Charl Schwartzel and Trevor Immelman all seem to have the same type of backbone and temperament. You are all calm under pressure. So what is it about growing up in South Africa that gives you all this kind of fortitude and grace under pressure?”

Without a moment’s hesitation Player said: “That’s an easy one. I think the fact that South Africa has a draft which enlists all young men and sends them to the army for two years has a good impact on them all.”

So the real question is exactly how a military draft influences a young person’s development. Boot camp lasts about six months or so and includes basic combat training and advanced individual training. Combat training conjures up images of guns, screaming drill sergeants and hand-to-hand combat training. The real power of this process has to do with Army Core Values, which includes loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage. These values are introduced in a classroom setting but are established and reinforced with strict daily schedules, early to bed and early to rise schedules which insure eight hours of sleep, fitness training, running, nutritional control, and an emphasis on group responsibility.

The oft referred slogan “leave no man behind” comes out of this basic training in group support. The result is a mature and strong human being who attends to detail, becomes a team player and leads a life of balance with work intermingled with rest and play. In other words you get guys like Gary Player, Retief Goosen, Branden Grace, Charl Schwartzel and Trevor Immelman.

Another man who served military duty was the Austrian medical student Sigmund Freud and his experience impacted the theories of psychoanalysis that he would create a few years later. As a child Freud had a deep interest in war and its machinery and when he was drafted, this experience led to his theories of psychoanalysis. His theories are filled with military metaphors and connotations. His central theory is that as we age the ego becomes weaker and weaker and can no longer manage the conflicts or “the civil war within,” as the super ego (our conscience) attempts to defeat our id (our animal instincts.)

And just like an army at war, when a patient gets weak, they begin to feel symptoms like depression or anxiety. They seek out and find a therapist and an “alliance” is formed between analyst and the patient’s ego in order to establish a treaty of sorts to resolve with civil war raging within. Resistance and defense are other terms of war and Freud used them to describe how the patient will always resist the cure and defend their pathology, the homeland from whence they embrace and the land which they know best.

War is endemic to human life during virtually every era of mankind and the statistics are staggering. In 264 BC the Punic Wars between the Roman Empire and the Carthaginians resulted in 1.8 million dead. The Jewish Roman Wars of 66 AD led to 2 million dead. The Napoleonic Wars of 1803 resulted in 7 million dead. World War 1 produced 40 million dead and World War II killed 85 million. I could go on, but you do get the picture.

For man, war is clearly one of his favorite pastimes and so he has also learned how to strategize, to spy, to deceive, to plan, to defeat and to kill. The ancient text “The Art of War” by the Sun Tzu clan of China was written in 500 BC and is still being used today by corporations and sports franchises. In fact, Bill Belichick, football’s greatest coach, says “The Art of War” is his favorite book.

It is a strange and curious thing that mankind loves to kill his fellow man and to steal his goods and his home. But having said that, it ought to be no surprise that mankind has also learned how to do this thing very, very well. Thus you see texts like “The Art of War,” the theory of psychoanalysis and military training itself, which instills many admirable traits, including loyalty, duty, discipline, integrity and courage. The art of making lemonade from lemons.

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