[Industrialblog,
May 30, 2005]
The War
I don't know if I'll be able to express this point. It's about war and history, and about the difference between thinking and doing, especially the difference between thinking about war as a story and being the first guy blown up on a beach, at which point the story ends for you.
We celebrate Memorial Day, which is to honor those who sacrificed their lives. And in that life they also sacrificed their ability to know the end of the story they died to help create. If you were killed at Chancellorsville on the opening moments, you didn't even known you were killed at the Battle of Chancellorsville during what came to be known as a Very Important Battle in the Civil War that the North would ultimately win. Instead, you knew that you came to a fence somewhere in Virginia and were told to charge and were cut down and died. Iwo Jima wasn't Iwo Jima, with all its full resonance, to the fighters. It was a rock somewhere in the Pacific to fight over, and lots died.
Thanks to those who served, and rest in peace.
We celebrate Memorial Day, which is to honor those who sacrificed their lives. And in that life they also sacrificed their ability to know the end of the story they died to help create. If you were killed at Chancellorsville on the opening moments, you didn't even known you were killed at the Battle of Chancellorsville during what came to be known as a Very Important Battle in the Civil War that the North would ultimately win. Instead, you knew that you came to a fence somewhere in Virginia and were told to charge and were cut down and died. Iwo Jima wasn't Iwo Jima, with all its full resonance, to the fighters. It was a rock somewhere in the Pacific to fight over, and lots died.
Thanks to those who served, and rest in peace.