Editor in Chief Bill | 30 Mar 2019 2:42 p.m. PST |
George S. Patton once wrote: War is the only place where a man really lives. True or false? |
D A THB | 30 Mar 2019 2:46 p.m. PST |
I would think that a Singer/Rockstar/whatever only lives when he /she is on a stage doing what the enjoy most and getting adulation from a crowd. So I would say False. |
foxweasel | 30 Mar 2019 2:49 p.m. PST |
False, only a very arrogant person could say something like that and mean it. So the 99% of people who haven't been to war haven't lived? Any professional person, spaceman/policeman/sportsman etc, could say the same thing. |
etotheipi | 30 Mar 2019 2:52 p.m. PST |
False. It's not even the only place where a man really dies. |
GildasFacit | 30 Mar 2019 2:53 p.m. PST |
Typical of the man's twisted personality. |
USAFpilot | 30 Mar 2019 2:54 p.m. PST |
Even great people sometimes say dumb things. I wonder about the full context of that quote; where and under what circumstances did he say that, |
Herkybird | 30 Mar 2019 3:02 p.m. PST |
War seems to have been an experience where life was lived intensely, I think that is what he was really saying. Oliver Wendell Holmes, talking on the American Civil war implies as much… 'The generation that carried on the war has been set apart by its experience. Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire.' |
Calico Bill | 30 Mar 2019 3:06 p.m. PST |
I think a race car driver once said that he only felt alive when he was racing. Everything else was just waiting. War, racing, and many other activities can be so intense that for some, nothing else can make them feel so alive. |
15mm and 28mm Fanatik | 30 Mar 2019 3:07 p.m. PST |
False, but I certainly understand why Patton would say that in his limited view of the human condition. His most famous quote is perhaps the following: "Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood." Patton lived and breathed for war and worshipped at its altar. To Patton, a man can achieve no greater purpose in his existence than to prove his worth – and manhood – in this glorious but terrible endeavor. As for feeling more alive in the heat of battle, it's the adrenaline rush that makes it so addictive and peacetime life so boring by comparison. |
KeithRK | 30 Mar 2019 3:34 p.m. PST |
Good old George. Still giving people the vapors after all these years. |
Editor in Chief Bill | 30 Mar 2019 4:37 p.m. PST |
I wonder about the full context of that quote; where and under what circumstances did he say that… Letter to Pershing while in hospital, recuperating after being wounded in WWI. |
Gunfreak | 30 Mar 2019 4:42 p.m. PST |
I don't look to Patton for any deep understandings or even truths. |
79thPA | 30 Mar 2019 5:26 p.m. PST |
I understand what he means. |
robert piepenbrink | 30 Mar 2019 5:34 p.m. PST |
Probably true for Patton. Lots of us think that what is true for us is true for humanity in general. Actually, Patton's view makes more sense to me than the much more common belief these days that everything must be endlessly discussed--as though long drunken or drugged talks in college dormitories were some sort of high point of human existence. |
Wargamer Blue | 30 Mar 2019 5:42 p.m. PST |
From my own life experiences I like Churchill's quote best – "There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at with no result" |
Dynaman8789 | 30 Mar 2019 6:33 p.m. PST |
False – but the number of soldiers who came out of a war and said something similar is well known. Never having been in an extended life threatening situation I have no idea what it is they mean by it. All I can do is guess that you value life more when you know it may be taken away any second. |
Uparmored | 30 Mar 2019 10:54 p.m. PST |
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ZULUPAUL | 31 Mar 2019 2:49 a.m. PST |
False I think that there are many professions where you can truely "live". |
Patrick R | 31 Mar 2019 4:25 a.m. PST |
Is the adrenaline rush the only measure of a person's worth ? I seriously doubt it. What about the person that changes the world in no small matter by any method, be it by inventing new medicine, or better agriculture, broker a peace between warring nations, plant trees every day until a desert blooms, save animals or protect a piece of the world worth preserving … ? |
JimSelzer | 31 Mar 2019 4:56 a.m. PST |
can't say as I have never fought in a war |
Gunfreak | 31 Mar 2019 5:35 a.m. PST |
Patton might have found basejumping also scratched his "really lives' itch. |
mildbill | 31 Mar 2019 6:12 a.m. PST |
In my youth I thought that warfare was the only place where humans gave 100% effort. I have since realized that humans never give 100% effort, which is part of the human condition. |
Ed Mohrmann | 31 Mar 2019 7:02 a.m. PST |
Standing mute. Any comments I might make, on any aspect of this 'discussion,' would see me DH'd. |
Legion 4 | 31 Mar 2019 8:20 a.m. PST |
I would think it would depend on the individual.
I have since realized that humans never give 100% effort, which is part of the human condition. That seems to be most likely true … |
von Schwartz | 31 Mar 2019 10:22 a.m. PST |
All I can do is guess that you value life more when you know it may be taken away any second. Kinda hits the nail right on the head there dontcha think? |
Legion 4 | 01 Apr 2019 7:03 a.m. PST |
And was we know … life can be taken away very quickly and easily. |
All Sir Garnett | 01 Apr 2019 7:28 a.m. PST |
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3AcresAndATau | 01 Apr 2019 12:11 p.m. PST |
False. Although not my favorite thinker, I prefer what John Stuart Mill has to say on the matter: "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse….A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." In a sense, however, I would call every war a theft. Thousands of souls snatched from their families and homes and from good, beautiful, constructive pursuits to be placed on the altar of some villain's ambitions somewhere, whether to block or advance those ambitions being, all too often, an accident of birth. |
von Schwartz | 01 Apr 2019 5:37 p.m. PST |
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse….A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." Great quote, too bad John Lennon never read it. He wrote "Nothing to live or die for" a really sad way to view life. |