From Tom Brown's School Days, published in 1857 and written by Thomas Hughes:[W]hat would life be without fighting, I should like to know? From the cradle to the grave, fighting, rightly understood, is the business, the real, highest, honestest business of every son of man. Every one who is worth his salt has his enemies, who must be beaten, be they evil thoughts and habits in himself or spiritual wickedness in high places, or Russians, or Border-ruffians, or Bill, Tom, or Harry, who will not let him live his life in quiet till he has thrashed them.
It is no good for Quakers, or any other body of men, to uplift their voices against fighting. Human nature is too strong for them, and they don’t follow their own precepts. Every soul of them is doing his own piece of fighting, somehow and somewhere. The world might be a better world without fighting, for anything I know, but it wouldn’t be our world; and therefore I am dead against crying peace when there is no peace, and isn’t meant to be. I’m as sorry as any man to see folk fighting the wrong people and the wrong things, but I’d a deal sooner see them doing that, than that they should have no fight in them.
5 comments:
The beatdown is especially useful for keeping an uppity woman in her place. All the better if you can beat the fight out of her altogether. It's no man's world without the threat of violence.
You kind of lost the plot there Ellamenno. Did you actually read the post? No, clearly not. You also have not thought too much about fighting or violence, as you seem to think it's all about fists. Women declare war, negotiate treaties, preside over countries, and are pretty good shots as well. My town (Arlington, VA) has a femal sheriff, and I work in a town (Washington, D.C.) where the Chief of Police is a woman. Women sit as judges and my boss is a woman. In a divorce, women hire lawyers and take the kids and half the assets most of the time.
Sorry if I do not salute the "helpless, hopeless woman" paradigm that you are pushing. I do not know any helpless, hopeless women. I know fighters. If you are not one, then I am sorry for you. As the post says, "The Saddest Thing Is No Fight in 'Em."
P
Thought profoking piece for sure. I guess it is too easy to confuse fight with violence & aggresion.
This part though, that I do not agree with "I’m as sorry as any man to see folk fighting the wrong people and the wrong things, but I’d a deal sooner see them doing that, than that they should have no fight in them."
It's too easy to godwin over that one, so I wont. I read this as either the romantizing of enemies or the joy over other peoples drama. But perhaps I am misunderstanding this author here through the mist of time.
This paragraph is a rail against apathy and defeatism.
It's a rail against appeasement.
In the school yard, every teacher tells kids to "ignore" the person that teases and bullies. And the consequence? Schools are miserable places where kids too often live in terror of bathrooms and staircases.
I do not subscribe to that. That way leads to all kinds of pain, and it is the path to ruin.
When my son was 8-years old, I made him take off his shirt and make a muscle in front of the mirror.
He was ripped. Not big, but wirey.
Then I told him why I wanted him to take off his shirt and LOOK at himself. I made him feel proud and powerful of his little 8-year old self.
Then I told him he had a responsibility.
Any time any OTHER kid was being bullied or teased at school, I wanted him to put his arm around that kid and tell the bully that the kid being teased was his friend (and never mind if he did not know the other kid's name) and was that bully now prepared to fight TWO people? Not many takers on that!
And the result: my son learned what it is to be a man (rather than a coward) and he was popular, and was never teased or jumped as a consequence.
My son does not make prey noises.
When you ignore the bully you are making prey noises.
I have learned a few things from dogs and cats.
A cat that will stand and fight is not one that is chased!
Apathy and defeatism is what kills the world.
Let us celebrate the women who stood and fought for the vote.
Let us celebrate John Brown who was willing to die to end slavery.
Let us celebrate Aung San Suu Kyi who was willing to fight -- and go to jail for decades -- for Burmese freedom.
Let us celebrate those who stood up, spoke up and suited up when we needed to fight the Nazis and when we needed to fight the diseases of Polio and Smallpox in the developing world.
Let us fight.
Let us remember those who led strikes in Wales and Pittsburgh and Paris in order get decent wages and working conditions.
We did not get better wages and a weekend by lying down, but by standing up to fight! And yes, that fighting involved blood and baseball bats.
Fight.
And let us not forget Neville Chamberlin -- a man who would go to any lengths to avoid a fight, no matter who else had to die for his political and personal cowardice.
Let us remember those who shuffled quietly into the ovens, and also those who were isolationists here in America.
And yes, let us remember what a total FAILURE the "ignore" the bully advice has been in our schools.
Yes, there are some wrong things to fight for, but someone who is willing to fight is someone who is at least willing to risk something in order to be free, to have a happy life. Lie down and die. Not the American way. And not Mother Nature's either.
Peace? It is man's invention.
Look at the animals in the woods.
The wolf is howling to say "stay away, or I will fight."
The fox is pissing on rocks to mark territory and to say "stay away, or I will fight."
The birds are singing (at least three-quarters of the time) to say "stay away, or I will fight."
These animals fight for food, to mate, for territory.
They fight because that is what all of life is about.
That is what this paragraph is saying.
It is a rail againt defeat and apathy and professional victimization.
P
It takes Spartan Women to raise Spartan Warriors. I'm a school bus driver and every day I transport 35 or so 5 year olds. They fight, man can they fight, but there's always a mother or five that carry their 5 year olds, wipe their noses and cry piteously when someone thumps their babies. I feel sorry for the kids. They will never learn the thrill of victory nor the agony of defeat. Some of my best friends and I started by (kid) fighting. It's how one learns to handle oneself in the crunch. Let the kids scrap, they will know themselves and their place in the pack of mankind better as they grow.
Debi and the 3 TX JRTs
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