Quote:
Originally Posted by Tenchu
Amnell, I am not human in the sense you are. It is not natural to accept death when you neither have the feeling of despair/depression, or when there is no greater good, such as to save your family or something. In every essence, the Way of the Warrior is inhuman. It is something that must be learned. That is what I meant.
I mean like, you are your American self (not being anti American anymore), but when you fight, it is the same types of reasons that all your enemies fight for. The Muslims believe it is for the good of their community, for their families well being, and the Iranians and Iraqis believe it is for freedom. The Japanese were fighting for their greater good, they thought their emperor was a God, like Bush does about the Christ God. They are really all the same reasons. And then, they really do all the same things. The Muslims bombed the towers, the US bombed Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the entire middle east. I am not sparking a debate on who is more just to do this, the point is given the right circumstances and level of desperation, they will do the exact same things for their cause, which is a cause inspired by the exact same thoughts. Does it not even cross your mind that this kind of conflict is slightly futile? It is basic humanity. And do you think humanity has an end? No. It exists to further itself. So these conflicts will never have an end.
A Warrior must look at things objectivly. He must enter a battle he knows can be won. And he must keep himself.
What you are saying you are completely wrong. Your morphing in the face of your enemy to become his weakness is killing your heart, you are loosing. And then the reasons you fight for are like illusions in a desert... They are not the rational thoughts of a sensible mind. They are the same basic ideas you and all men are born with, and you have effectivly gotten no where since the day you were born...
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Hm... Okay, what you said before makes a little more sense. Now I have a new question:
Other than battle-philosophy, what's the real difference between you and me as humans?
Before you answer that: I think I see what you're trying to say, but I feel that I need to question it both for my own understanding and also to force you to think about it.
You say that not fearing death for a 'damn good reason' is inhuman. I tend to agree, but that doesn't make you less human or superhuman. Everyone has their quirks, no? A man died a few years ago, eaten by a grizzly bear. He'd lived with these creatures every summer for thirteen years, completely unafraid of them. That might seem inhuman to anyone, yeah? Or any soldier throughout history who met his physical limit and kept going, still strong, in a state that to any normal person might seem beyond the limits of human ability. They were all still human. You are no different. If I cut you, you would bleed. If I killed your family, you would cry (unless you really hate them, which happens <_<; ). If I handed you a cuddly little kitten, you would smile (or sneeze).
Learned behaviours are nothing special. I learned to read and write--I wasn't born doing those things.
Next...
This may not have any bearing on the conversation (actually, I'm more interested in the above issue than this one), so read at your discression.
Morphing in the face of the enemy. Taking advantage of his weaknesses. Giving him no chance, once he has initiated conflict, to defend himself. It has no bearing on my soul. In a most literal sense, it's nothing more than me waiting for my sparring partner to step to the left when he should have stepped to the right and then striking. In a larger sense, it's battlefield tactics: flanking maneuvers, ambushes, logistic disruption, etc. In politics, this can be seen as researching the opposing candidate and exposing his faults. In debate, keeping track of the little details your opponent "fails" to address and then pressing in on those. These things have no effect on me.
In trying to become like the enemy in order to anticipate him better, that's when things become compromising. It's well known that undercover cops tend to come out in a very sad state mind as opposed to their going in.
In cases of a combatant (in any sense of the word) trying to become his enemy to defeat his enemy, the real battle is no longer 'in the ring', but in the heart. It's not an impossible fight, either. Undercover cops do recover, eventually.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that every battle a person faces will leave some kind of mark, no matter how they face it. Like the willow and the oak previously mentioned. The willow might change its shape a bit, the oak might lose a lot of branches--in either case, both live on with the signs of the wind's passing.
Just don't try to imitate the wind, 'cause the wind always dies out, eventually. (^_^;; I know that was a lame extension of the analogy, forgive me!)