Camaraderie

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Do curso por Princeton University

Paradoxes of War

573 classificações

Princeton University

Paradoxes of War

573 classificações

The Paradoxes of War teaches us to understand that war is not only a normal part of human existence, but is arguably one of the most important factors in making us who we are. Through this course, I hope that you will come to appreciate that war is both a natural expression of common human emotions and interactions and a constitutive part of how we cohere as groups. That is, war is paradoxically an expression of our basest animal nature and the exemplar of our most vaunted and valued civilized virtues. You will learn some basic military history and sociology in this course as a lens for the more important purpose of seeing the broader social themes and issues related to war. I want you to both learn about war, but more importantly, use it as way of understanding your everyday social world. So, for example, the discussion of war and gender will serve to start you thinking about how expectations of masculinity are created and our discussion of nationalism will make clear how easy “us-them” dichotomies can be established and (ab)used. I will suggest some readings for you to complement the class and assign some activities through which you will be able to apply the theoretical insights from the course to your observations of everyday life. At the end of the course, you will start to see war everywhere and come to appreciate how much it defines our life. All the features of this course are available for free. It does not offer a certificate upon completion.

Na lição

Making Warriors

Warriors are taught a set of values of which duty and honor are fundamental. These are taught through the imposition of discipline.

Camaraderie3:31

Leadership and Faith5:22

Conheça os instrutores

Miguel A. Centeno
Musgrave Professor of Sociology and Professor of Sociology and International Affairs
Sociology

So what are these military values?

What are these notions that any kind of

military organization has to instill in its soldiers?

We're going to talk about five, and these are very broad, but

I think they give us an idea of what we're talking about.

And I've called them camaraderie, leadership, faith, honor, and courage.

And I think of these as, in a sense,

the commandments of any kind of military organization.

Rules that almost every single organization

across a history that is associated

with the military have followed and have tried to instill in their men.

So let's first talk about camaraderie.

The importance of friendship is critical in uniting soldiers in war.

Sometimes, some have said that this is over-expressed, that this is exaggerated.

I don't think so.

Every single account that we have of war, talks about the special bond.

Talks about this kind, linking that people feel when they're facing these situations.

If you think of most war movies, for example, or any kind of action movie.

Often times, it is really a movie about friendship.

It is really an account of that special friendship that comes from sharing this

incredible danger, this sense of participation, this

sense of being all in one thing.

And wanting, wanting to help this other

person and feeling something special for that person.

Stephen Crane once said that there are mysterious fraternities

that are born out of smoke and danger of death.

That the kinds of friendships that these people might feel, the kinds

of illusions they might have about each other, the kind of ties.

And it's very interesting that war time is often

remembered as a time of the most intense friendships.

That when asked what could they remember about the war, if they choose to

talk about it, they will often talk about the kinds of friends that they had.

The kinds of bonds that they have.

This sense of nobody will ever know you as well

as the person who is faced death along with you.

Interestingly, American soldiers surveyed in 1944 as part of S.L.A. Marshall's

survey reported to obligations to comrades were the most powerful reasons to fight.

I've called this in, in my class here at, at Princeton, the moral code of the buddy.

That is, that what you're fighting for is not the flag, it's not some abstract.

You are fighting, in a sense, for that person who is next to you.

And that kind of bonding is what prevents you from running away.

There is almost a semi-erotic bond between men,

which takes its extreme form, let's say, in

the Theban Sacred Band of 4th century B.C.

Greece, where homosexual lovers fought side by side.

But consider that in battle and in combat is one of the spaces that until very, very

recently, one of the very few spaces that men could ascribe love to each other.

That men could talk about, I love you guy.

and they could use that language without any sense of self consciousness.

We have made this semi-erotic

bond part of the value, of we

teach the, our soldiers to depend

on each other and yes, yes,

very much to love each other.

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