People are extremely good at deluding themselves. Our brains are really just delusion-generating machines, in some senses. I don't think there's anything especially appalling about the gentleman professional soldier idea, an idea that still exists, at least notionally, to this day. It's why officers are addressed as "sir" -- they are considered gentlemen, by tradition -- and why Colin Powell called off the savage destruction of the retreating Iraqi army in the first Iraq war, because it wasn't "chivalrous".
The idea existed, and its notional version continues to exist, because it's useful to have if you want to be capable of sending men and women to their deaths. I suppose it is appalling that the need to send people to their deaths still exists, and looks likely to exist for a long time, but as it's there, I can't blame people for deluding themselves as to their role in these things if it's what keeps them sane (to a point -- obviously, one can delude oneself into believing you've no real role or agency at all in these things; as, it seems, Liddell Hart and the German generals preferred to put forward as their official narrative).
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momijizukamori
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Date: 2010-02-12 08:23 pm (UTC)The idea existed, and its notional version continues to exist, because it's useful to have if you want to be capable of sending men and women to their deaths. I suppose it is appalling that the need to send people to their deaths still exists, and looks likely to exist for a long time, but as it's there, I can't blame people for deluding themselves as to their role in these things if it's what keeps them sane (to a point -- obviously, one can delude oneself into believing you've no real role or agency at all in these things; as, it seems, Liddell Hart and the German generals preferred to put forward as their official narrative).