Von Richthofen, Armed Hordes, and James Dean

Have you guys ever seen "Rebel Without a Cause?" Well, there is one scene in the classic film that I thought about today. The scene has outlander James Dean getting involved in a little scuffle with some local boys. Well, instead of just wailing on each other like a Springer episode, two of the guys, one of whom is James Dean, (From Indiana, "Where Cool was Born"), decide to fight with knives and set up rules so that no one is permanently injured. After a few slices, they all go home and get ready to go back to school. "Cool" indeed. (BTW Axl and Slash are both from Indiana, as is our chief Justice and Jim Davis of Garfield acclaim.)

I saw this scene a long time ago and have always loved it. Two guys want to fight, they don't hate each other, they just need to fight. So they go at it with something the world used to know as "class." When I went into high school, I had probably fought with all of my friends up to that point. But when we mixed in with different groups of people, there was this us/them mentality that snuck in and now if there was a fight, it was a brawl and you might get shot.

What is it about these days where men back-stab, gang up, and if they lose, claim that they were "screwed" or cheated? There used to be rules to the game. If you got in a fight at school, you went after school to the gym and boxed. You don't take cheap shots and you don't gang up and "jump" people. When you fight, you fight for a reason and you fight with respect.

I don't really know why things are the way they are exactly. Part of it is probably sissy education. Part of it is that kids don't spend much times with their father while he is interacting with other adult men. Part of it is race and tribalism in American democracy but on a local level, I think it is due to laziness, television, and the inability of men to have friends.

Well, whatever the causes, today, May 2, is the birthday of Manfred von Richthofen, probably the greatest flying ace ever. The "Red Baron" served Germany with complete military honor and was deeply respected by all sides of WWI. He was a model soldier and patriot.

Back in those days, there was a saying amongst the old European fighters, "We kill the machine, not the man." There are stories of aces going to great lengths to not shoot the cockpit of the airplanes but to damage the engine. In many instances, after battle or capture, enemy soldiers were treated extremely well. (A good movie on this is the French film "The Grand Illusion")
Remember, in the East in WWI, the war was really between three emperors. It was an isolated land battle with non conscripted troops many of whom were led by nobility into war like the magnificent Karl I of Austria. This war was brutal, but man, these people did have class.

So, then the US gets involved and despite pleas for peace from Austria-Hungary, Wilson and his Puritanical brethren don't do anything but indoctrinate their troops, massacre an Empire, and leave Europe with a power vacuum ripe for another Austrian to take hold of a few years later. From then on, war in the West has been near total, ideological, and racial. Soldiers are to be like machines doing the will of the commander. You don't hear the same stories coming from WWII. You do hear about the US starving 1.2 Million German soldiers, the fire-bombing of Dresden, the atomic bombs in Japan, and of course the Holocaust. (Read "Monarchy and War" online by Erik Leddihn)

Fukuyama and the neo-cons say that democracies never start wars. Well, that is debateable, but they certainly know how to finish them... with a lot of innocent people dying. WWI was an insane lust for the blood of Catholics and old Europe. It was nothing more than the French Revolutionaries coming back for more death and democracy. And with that hatred and egalitarian indoctrination, nothing was sacred, not even the Churches.

When the "Red Baron" died, his pall-bearers were Australian soldiers. His death was mourned by soldiers from Germany to America. A picture of his procession led by the English is below. Americans would take their hats off when he was around. Battle to him was a chess-match between men of honor, men you want to have a cigar with afterwards, leave, and come back to fight again.

So somehow we have gone from Joe Louis to Mike Tyson, from Hank Aaron to Barry Bonds, and from Karl I to George W. I don't know how to get back, but guys like von Richthofen make me realize that we are today missing something fundamentally masculine that even some cool kid from 1950's Indiana understood but has since been, in my estimation, forgotten.


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