MACHINA

by Sebastian Marshall

  The relative importance and emphasis of each of these three paths upwards oscillates between time and place – though, thankfully, there are some universally applicable lessons here. The exact mix you’ll select in your own life, what you choose to emphasize and what you potentially choose to neglect, will be one of the most determining factors in what type of life you live – and how far you go.

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  ETERNAL PEACE A DREAM?

  One of the greatest military generals of all-time, Helmuth von Moltke, is sometimes quoted as saying, “Eternal peace is a dream – and not even a beautiful dream.”

  This sounds, out of context and on the surface, like just so much more idiotic German belligerism. Perhaps, we grant, eternal peace isn’t possible – but to say it’s not even a beautiful dream to strive for – is this not horrible?

  Well.

  The context of the statement matters.

  Moltke was writing to a Swiss professor of international law, from a veteran soldier’s perspective. In context, you’ll see Moltke is saying something much more nuanced than a rah-rah cheering for warfare –

  “First, I find the humanitarian striving to lessen the sufferings that come with war completely worthy. Eternal peace is a dream --and not even a beautiful one. War is part of God's world-order. Within it unfold the noblest virtues of men, courage and renunciation, loyalty to duty and readiness for sacrifice--at the hazzard of one's life. Without war the world would sink into a swamp of materialism. Further, I wholly agree with the principle stated in the preface that the gradual progress in morality must also be reflected in the waging of war. But I go farther and believe that [waging war] in and of itself--not a codification of the law of war--may attain this goal.

  “Every law requires an authority to oversee and administer its execution, and just this force is lacking for the observation of international agreements. What third state would take up arms because one or both of two warring powers had violated the law of war? An earthly judge is lacking. In this matter success is to be expected only from the religious and moral education, the sense of honor and respect for law, of individual leaders who make the law and act according to it, so far as this is generally possible to do in the abnormal conditions of war.”

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  A HARSH TEST OF CORRECTNESS

  Of all the things that happen upon the Earth, war is the one that most tests the correctness and effectiveness of the participants of it.

  It’s a brutal, dreadful, and horrible thing.

  And yet, it has the characteristics of requiring self-mastery, mastery of the environment, and mastery of other people directly attached into it. You need a keen and trained sense of how you act as a human to survive in war, you need to navigate the laws of physics and biology, and you need to understand the psychology and action of friends and enemies.

  And alas, when it comes to you, you cannot truly abstain from it.

  As Trotsky said,

  “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”

  As such, strategy and philosophy coming from veteran soldiers and warriors has a certain grounded quality to it – a quality that can be learned from and emulated in times of great crisis yes, but also in peacetime.

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  MASTERY OF SELF

  One of the classics of strategy is Musashi’s manual on swordmanship, Go Rin No Sho – the Book of Five Rings.

  Wikipedia –

  “Musashi establishes a "no-nonsense" theme throughout the text. For instance, he repeatedly remarks that technical flourishes are excessive, and contrasts worrying about such things with the principle that all technique is simply a method of cutting down one's opponent. He also continually makes the point that the understandings expressed in the book are important for combat on any scale, whether a one-on-one duel or a massive battle. Descriptions of principles are often followed by admonitions to "investigate this thoroughly" through practice rather than trying to learn them by merely reading.”

  What typically strikes readers of The Book of Five Rings is how Musashi spends only around half of the time actually talking about swordsmanship, in a manual about swordsmanship. He spends a lot of time talking about carpentry, farming, and the various crafts and ways among mankind, about leadership, about selecting the right materials to build a house with, and things of that nature.

  In the book, he mentions techniques worth studying and appropriate situations to deploy them, but more than that, he constantly emphasizes training and conditioning oneself.

  From “The Water Book: Spiriual Bearing in Strategy” –

  “In strategy your spiritual bearing must not be any different from normal. Both in fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. Even when your spirit is calm do not let your body relax, and when your body is relaxed do not let your spirit slacken. Do not let your spirit be influenced by your body, or your body influenced by your spirit. Be neither insufficiently spirited nor over spirited. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit.

  “Small people must be completely familiar with the spirit of large people, and large people must be familiar with the spirit of small people. Whatever your size, do not be misled by the reactions of your own body. With your spirit open and unconstricted, look at things from a high point of view. You must cultivate your wisdom and spirit. Polish your wisdom: learn public justice, distinguish between good and evil, study the Ways of different arts one by one. When you cannot be deceived by men you will have realised the wisdom of strategy.

  “The wisdom of strategy is different from other things. On the battlefield, even when you are hard-pressed, you should ceaselessly research the principles of strategy so that you can develop a steady spirit.”

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  A MASTERY OF SELF

  If you read enough, and if you read the right works, and if you test the ideas in your readings and see if they convert into practice effectively, you will gradually start to see patterns.

  Some writing is true, nearly universally true; most writing is not.

  Most people, including and not excepting most writers, do not know themselves and have not worked to master themselves.

  Likewise, most people – including and not excepting most writers – do not know the world and do not seek to master the environment.

  Instead, most people naturally operate in the domain of trying to persuade others first and foremost – they might not realize they are doing this, of course, but the man who goes into great debt, with unsteady career prospects, to buy a new wardrobe and a new car – if he is not trying to persuade others by that action, rather than what he believes he is doing?

  War affords no such luxuries – whimsical and fantastical ideas fail on the battlefield.

  The battlefield, though, is not the only way to get there.

  Benjamin Franklin, to the best of my knowledge, never took the battlefield; he was never involved in mortal combat.

  Yet he worked ceaselessly towards self-perfection.

  Chapter 9 of Franklin’s Autobiography is titled “Plan for Attaining Moral Perfection”; he opens it –

  “It was about this time I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wish'd to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined. While my care was employ'd in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the contrary habits must be broken, an
d good ones acquired and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct.For this purpose I therefore contrived the following method…”

  Franklin then listed out 13 virtues that he would actively train himself in – Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Chastity, and Humility.

  He drew this all up in a workbook, and decided to rotate through practicing each of these virtues for a week before moving on to the next –

  “I determined to give a week's strict attention to each of the virtues successively. Thus, in the first week, my great guard was to avoid every the least offense against Temperance, leaving the other virtues to their ordinary chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day. Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked T, clear of spots, I suppos'd the habit of that virtue so much strengthen'd, and its opposite weaken'd, that I might venture extending my attention to include the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear of spots. Proceeding thus to the last, I could go thro' a course compleat in thirteen weeks, and four courses in a year. And like him who, having a garden to weed, does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works on one of the beds at a time, and, having accomplish'd the first, proceeds to a second, so I should have, I hoped, the encouraging pleasure of seeing on my pages the progress I made in virtue, by clearing successively my lines of their spots, till in the end, by a number of courses, I should be happy in viewing a clean book, after a thirteen weeks' daily examination.”

  For training in “Order,” he drew up his famous schedule –

  “The precept of Order requiring that every part of my business should have its allotted time, one page in my little book contain'd the following scheme of employment for the twenty-four hours of a natural day.”

  From 5AM to 7AM, he would “Rise, wash, and address Powerfull Goodness! Contrive day's business, and take the resolution of the day: prosecute the present study, and breakfast.” He would ask himself at the start of the day, “What good shall I do this day?”

  He would work from 8AM to 12PM.

  From 12PM to 2PM, “Read, or overlook my accounts, and dine.”

  From 2PM to 6PM, work.

  At 6PM, he would ask himself, “What good have I done to-day?” And then, from 6PM to 10PM, “Put things in their places. Supper. Music or diversion, or conversation. Examination of the day.”

  Of course, he was imperfect at this system – Franklin was human, after all – but over time, “I enter'd upon the execution of this plan for self-examination, and continu'd it with occasional intermissions for some time. I was surpris'd to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish.”

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  A MASTERY OF ENVIRONMENT AND UNIVERSAL TRUTHFULNESS

  There is a certain universal truthfulness in the writings and lives of people who fought to master themselves and to master the environment around them.

  Mastering the external environment actually tests ones ideas and sees if they’re viable.

  It’s no surprise, to me, that most of the greatest thinkers of the ages often use metaphors to farming (as Franklin did above), to carpentry, to the building of buildings.

  To do construction, you need to master physics and engineering, you need to understand materials, you need to work steady – and in the final account, the wind and rain and elements will test your work.

  In Xenophon’s Anabasis, the Greek mercenary leaders realized that the Persians had cavalry and missile troops, and thus could chase them down or shoot at them from a distance.

  This was a physics problem and an engineering problem. There were human components, too, as you’ll see – but this was less about persuasion and more about solving the environment.

  Read the next passage closely, particularly the bolded parts; there’s lots of subtle wisdom here –

  “The dearth of cavalry told against the Hellenes [Greeks]; nor were their infantry able to overhaul the enemy's infantry, with the long start they had, and considering the shortness of the race, for it was out of the question to pursue them far from the main body of the army. On the other hand, the [Persian] Asiatic cavalry, even while fleeing, poured volleys of arrows behind their backs, and wounded the pursuers; while the Hellenes must fall back fighting every step of the way they had measured in the pursuit; so that by the end of that day they had not gone much more than three miles; but in the late afternoon they reached the villages.”

  In other words, the Persians could safely harass, injure, and kill the Greeks from a distance, and the Greeks had no ability to fight back.

  Note how Xenophon deals with this –

  “Here there was a return of the old despondency. Cheirisophus and the eldest of the generals blamed Xenophon for leaving the main body to give chase and endangering himself thereby, while he could not damage the enemy one whit the more. Xenophon admitted that they were right in blaming him: no better proof of that was wanted than the result. "The fact is," he added, "I was driven to pursue; it was too trying to look on and see our men suffer so badly, and be unable to retaliate. However, when we did charge, there is no denying the truth of what you say; we were not a whit more able to injure the enemy, while we had considerable difficulty in beating a retreat ourselves. Thank heaven they did not come upon us in any great force, but were only a handful of men; so that the injury they did us was not large, as it might have been; and at least it has served to show us what we need. At present the enemy shoot and sling beyond our range, so that our Cretan archers are no match for them; our hand-throwers cannot reach as far; and when we pursue, it is not possible to push the pursuit to any great distance from the main body, and within the short distance no foot-soldier, however fleet of foot, could overtake another foot-soldier who has a bow-shot the start of him. If, then, we are to exclude them from all possibility of injuring us as we march, we must get slingers as soon as possible and cavalry. I am told there are in the army some Rhodians, most of whom, they say, know how to sling, and their missile will reach even twice as far as the Persian slings (which, on account of their being loaded with stones as big as one's fist, have a comparatively short range; but the Rhodians are skilled in the use of leaden bullets). Suppose, then, we investigate and find out first of all who among them possess slings, and for these slings offer the owner the money value; and to another, who will plait some more, hand over the money price; and for a third, who will volunteer to be enrolled as a slinger, invent some other sort of privilege, I think we shall soon find people to come forward capable of helping us. There are horses in the army I know; some few with myself, others belonging to Clearchus's stud, and a good many others captured from the enemy, used for carrying baggage. Let us take the pick of these, supplying their places by ordinary baggage animals, and equipping the horses for cavalry. I should not wonder if our troopers gave some annoyance to these fugitives."

  You see two things straightaway.

  First, when Xenophon is rebuked for poor command, he accepts it –

  “Xenophon admitted that they were right in blaming him: no better proof of that was wanted than the result.”

  The result showed that he was in error; note that.

  Second, he immediately starts looking to solve the problem on a physics and engineering level, and yes, on a human level too.

  The final result –

  “[The Persian commander] had grown contemptuous since his late attack, when, with so small a detachment, he had done, as he thought, a good deal of mischief, without the slightest loss to himself. When the Hellenes were not only right across, but had got about a mile from the ravine, [Persian commander] Mithridates also crossed with his forces. An order had been passed down the lines, what light infantry and what heavy infantry were to take part in the pursuit; and the cavalry were instructed to follow up the pursuit with confidence, as a
considerable support was in their rear. So, when Mithridates had come up with them, and they were well within arrow and sling shot, the bugle sounded the signal to the Hellenes; and immediately the detachment under orders rushed to close quarters, and the cavalry charged. There the enemy preferred not to wait, but fled towards the ravine. In this pursuit the Asiatics lost several of their infantry killed, and of their cavalry as many as eighteen were taken prisoners in the ravine.”

  Xenophon and his fellow officers kept developing these types of weapons and soldiers throughout the journey, developing better missiles and more cavalry – without which, they would surely have perished in Persia.

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  MEMORABILIA: AFTER THE EXECUTION OF SOCRATES

  You can imagine the shock of Xenophon, who left Athens as a very young man – not much older than a boy – returning to Athens as a battle-hardened and blood-soaked commander.

  As soon as he arrives, he is told that his teacher Socrates has been executed.