Lessons

In my educational career, the most important take away that I have acknowledged from any history class that I have completed- European History, American History, Pre-Modern, etc. – is that history repeats itself. That being said, I think it is extremely important and beneficial to not take certain topics lightly. In a couple of years, hopefully everyone in section 3001 will be commissioning as Navy or Marine Corps officers; therefore, any military lesson we learned should have had some relevance to us so that we know the characteristics of a great leader. We have learned about many solid leaders in many civilizations, but lessons from Sun Tzu, who was a part of the ancient Chinese civilization, stuck with me the most. I believe that that the knowledge I learned from legalism and Sun Zhou’s Art of War in the ancient civilization will be the most useful to me as I graduate that Naval Academy.

Legalism arose as a prominent philosophy in ancient China around 300-200 BCE in the Qin Empire. “Legalism is a classical philosophy that emphasizes the need for order above all other human concerns.” (Dr. Wheeler) It was a belief that as long as there is strong political leadership with a shared vision, then the peace would be preserved. This lesson should not be taken lightly because as future leaders, we should start realizing the importance of communication. If everyone is on the same page, missions should, in theory, get completed successfully and quickly. “Legalism argues that the well-being of the state would be best guaranteed by clear-cut rules rather than any reliance on private morality.” (Kevin Rudd) Although I agree that it is important to have good morals and good intentions, we were often taught in our leadership class how important it was to stick to the mission and only so ever would we have to sway away from the plan.

To this day, The Art of War is often referred to discuss influential strategies that can apply to military warfare. After reading the three chapters that were mandated for our fourth blog, I realized the importance of preparation. You have to learn strategies, not memorize them. If you “know the enemy, and know yourself, the victory is never in doubt.” (Tzu, 19) In a state of uncertainty, one’s mind can fog up and forget what drills they thought they had memorized like the palm of their hands. If they learned and studied the drills, success could have come easy.

We have studied several ancient civilizations that have been ruled by many great leaders, but I hope to carry out the lessons learned from Sun Tzu and the philosophy of ancient China out to the fleet with me.

Word Count: 451

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-rudd/chinese-strategic-thoughts_b_6417754.html

https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/chinese_legalism.html

Christianity vs Islam

As a result of the long drawn out war against the Islamic Middle East, tensions between Christians and Muslims have increased in the West. Majority of Western Christians refuse to believe the compatibility in religions because most associate the religion with the violent acts of terrorism that have occurred since the War on Terror began. Stereotypes against Muslims have yet to crumble because of the uneducated people who continue to spread ignorance. Islamophobia continues to grow in western cultures. Putting political differences aside, the two share major ideas that set the foundation to their religions.

A significant similarity between the religions is that both believe in a long line of prophets who spread God’s words to the people on earth. “Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, John the Baptist, and Jesus were sent by God/Allah as messengers of His word. (Sharples) Despite the line of prophets, the two religions have differing perceptions of Jesus. The Islamic religion believes that Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary, was just another prophet who carried the Lord’s word. They view Muhammad as the superior prophet because he is the “final messenger.” On the other hand, Christians perceive Jesus as the son of God. Jesus is the second of the holy trinity, therefore he is almost as equal to God because he is God’s flesh.

Both Christianity and Islam share Holy Scriptures. Christians follow the Bible while Muslims follow the Qur’an. Although there is two different books, both religions use the Old Testament and the New Testament as sacred texts and they both believe in the same God. Before this class, I automatically believed that the Qur’an and the Bible had radical difference, but that was because of ignorance and lack of research. I was surprised to discover that both books share many characters as well as narratives: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Mary, Garden of Eden, the flood, and the near-sacrificing of Abraham’s son.

Despite the surprising similarities between Christianity and Islam, the two are not mutually exclusive because of the ideologies shared with Judaism. Judaism is a completely separate religion with vast similarities in the one God, prophets, narratives, and Satan. Without research, all three religions seem completely different because of the modern day Christian, Jewish, and Muslim. Stereotypes of each religion has fogged our perception of each. Because of ignorance, each religion seems incompatible with each other, but in reality they are all vastly similar. If you brought in other religions and examined each, you would probably find surprising similarities as well.

Articles used:

https://www.onfaith.co/text/9-similarities-between-christianity-and-islam

https://www.allaboutreligion.org/islam-vs-christianity-faq.htm

https://allthatsinteresting.com/quran-bible-similarities

Word Count: 427

Sun Tzu or Dant?

The Art of War, written by Sun Tzu, is easily one of the most influential strategy texts in military warfare. For centuries, people have been referring to this text that is composed of thirteen chapters for military tactics, business strategies, legal thinking, and a course for better habits. The teachings of Sun Tzu have been widely accepted, even in modern days, because they focus on finding the easiest way to achieve a goal. After reading chapters one, three, and seven most knowledge passed down all seems like common sense. I feel like in a state of uncertainty, people’s minds start fog up on simple strategies practiced day by day. Sun Tzu reminds his audience that their years of preparation have led all to this important moment, and victory is not as unachievable as most think.

This 2,500+ year old book still connects with a 21^st century audience because of its over-arching philosophy- great preparation leads to great victory. The Five Essentials for victory will ground success in every battle: “know the enemy, know yourself, and the victory in never in doubt.” (Sun Tzu, 19) Preparation is one of the greatest things that is stressed upon a midshipmen in the United States Naval Academy. As you step foot in Bancroft Hall after swearing in, plebes have to endure through six straight weeks of discipline because “discipline is organization, chain of command, control of expenditure.” (Sun Tzu, 5) Discipline teaches plebes how to be a proper midshipmen, and a future Naval or Marine Officer. We are taught to study every battle- rates, academics, and physical missions- ahead of time to prepare for our success. We are taught to choose our own battles. For example, before choosing a major, underclassmen are told to choose a major you would willingly stay up at two in the morning doing. Knowing chemistry was not my strong suit, I did not major in this because an A seemed unachievable based on my previous performances in Chem I and II. I enjoy doing problems that I can apply to the real world, so I chose an applied math major. Sun Tzu stresses that it is important to know your battles, so choose carefully and you will strive for supremacy.

The Naval Academy and The Art of War share similar ideas on victory. We were forced to learn Roosevelt’s quote: “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming.” Much like this quote, Tzu writes “victory belongs to the man who can master the stratagem of the crooked and the straight.” (Tzu, 43) Both share the idea that victory is rewarded to the man that does, not the one who sat around unprepared.

Lessons at the Naval Academy align close to lessons given by The Art of War, both have an effective mindset of knowing your battles, preparation, and discipline.

Word Count: 505

https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-china/the-art-of-war

http://mentalfloss.com/article/63389/roosevelts-man-arena

https://jamesclear.com/sun-tzu-habits

Fear of Christianity? Understandable.

Before the 3^rd century CE, the Romans targeted those who practiced Christianity because they believed their religious beliefs and practices held a threat to the growing empire. The monotheism was certainly a culture shock because at the time, polytheism was the only known form of religion. Romans were accustomed to worship and praise many powerful gods to look upon the empire. Different prayers were sent to different gods- beauty, wisdom, war, childbirth, the sky, the sea, the arts… you name it. The Christian religion not only undermined the polytheistic beliefs, but brought upon many social changes. The Romans had a valid reason to reject Christianity because the Christians did not share the same pride and love of powers, which triggered a suspicion for a mass cult that had to be persecuted.

The Romans feared that Christianity would be the downfall of the great empire because the newly practiced beliefs would upset their gods. If you were to look at Christianity from an outsider’s standpoint, it is pretty easy to understand why this religion instilled such fear in the Romans. A lack of understanding for the religion can make one question religious practices and beliefs. For starters, the Passover service can be viewed as being cannibalistic as Christians eat the body (bread) and drink the blood (wine) of Jesus Christ. Although Romans partook in many sacrifices for their gods, it was unheard of to eat human flesh to commemorate their gods. Additionally, Christians refused to sacrifice to and pray to a divine monarch because of the belief of only one God: “I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have any strange gods before Me.” The Romans were so used to believing that power was divided between their gods and their monarchs, it is reasonable why the thought of the Christian’s Lord having ALL the power terrified them. Isaiah 8:11-13 quotes “ The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread.”

Being Christian was considered a crime, they were often persecuted to get rid of the religion. Pain, even death, was forced upon the Christians when they would refuse “to swear by the emperor and offer incense to his images, or to sacrifice to the gods.” (Lunn-Rockliffe) This test of Christian faith brought suspicion to the Romans since they would refuse to practice beliefs that were brought down by generations. Many died painful deaths, but the Christians were persistent. Christianity soon grew in numbers under the rule of Constantinople. It was not until 360 AD when it was reestablished as the dominant religion in the empire under Emperor Julian.

Word Count: 448

Work Cited

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/christianityromanempire_article_01.shtml

https://nwspiritism.com/spiritist-knowledge/why-did-the-romans-hate-the-christians/

Representative > Direct

Direct democracy was practiced by the Athenians and was implemented on their society because it was believed to be the best form of government for their society. The idea was revolutionary, it allowed male citizens to have a political voice in the Assembly to express their opinions regarding their government. Overtime, humans studied the idea of democracy and changed ideas to make it more applicable to societies. The American forefathers expanded on the idea of Athenian democracy and introduced a more representative democracy. A representative democracy is based on a society appointing people to office who then vote for their constituents. Although direct democracy is the foundation to our modern government, it does not match the strength and the overall coverage of representation of today’s American democracy.

When everyone is given a voice in government, an assembly can become extremely disorganized. What I took away from “Reacting to the Past” was that no one really thought about what was best for the nation, people had secret agendas that prioritized what was best for themselves. Not only that, but the voices of the assembly were limited to male citizens. Athenian democracy did not allow metics, slaves, or women to vote. “It was the free adult male population of Athens that was allowed to take part in government and make decisions on behalf of the women and children living in their household.” Of a population of 385,000, only 30,000 were Athenian citizens. (Haddox) Do the other 355,000 not have a say? Does their political voice not matter? Today’s democracy does not restrict the women’s freedom to vote, nor does it limit people from attaining citizenship. A direct democracy allows the people to vote on elected officials, senators, and congress, who can represent them and their beliefs in the Senate and House of Representation. They are voted into office to share the beliefs of their constituents. In my district, my congresswoman holds monthly town meetings to note what change the residents want to see in office. Emails are sent to inform those signed up on her agenda, and you can call her office if you have any questions regarding her actions. This direct representation allows the people to have a louder voice in government, without being so clustered and disorganized like our version of the Athenian Assembly.

The Athenian direct democracy has good intentions because the people can speak for themselves. However, the modern representative democracy has proven to be the most efficient. I might be biased because of my gender… but at least I know my voice can be heard through our modern democracy.

http://www.ancientfacts.net/was-ancient-greek-democracy-better-than-todays-american-democracy/

Click to access Haddox.pdf

Blog Post #1

There is a great difference in the connotation of the word tyranny compared to pre-democratic Greek society and our modern post-democratic society. Before the rise of democracy, a tyrant was an oppressive ruler who came to power through inheritance or force. Despite their cruel ruling, the word “tyrant” did not have a negative connotation because no matter how they ruled, tyrants were strong leaders who brought upon positive changes to society. As democracies grew and spread, “tyrant” developed a negative connotation because they are now viewed as selfish, incompetent, and arrogant leaders who bring destruction to society.

An article from the Daily Intelligencer: America Takes Next Step towards Tyranny, defines our president as tyrant. The author, Andrew Sullivan, describes Trump’s presidency as “the purge. Any constraints that had been in place to moderate the tyrant’s whim are set aside; no advice that counters his own gut impulses can be tolerated.” People have been fired, or quit, because they can no longer deal with a tyrant in power. The article continues to point out that America’s wellbeing is not a concern in the eyes of Trump, instead all he wants is a push for capitalism overseas because that is how he himself achieved greatness. This article defines Trump as a tyrant based off of Plato’s definition of a tyrant. Our president can be compared to “a late-stage democracy, dripping with decadence and corruption, with elites dedicated primarily to enriching themselves, and a people well past any civic virtue.” There is worries that Trump will become even more dangerous in the future through manipulation of the Republican Party. They make it clear that our president has no care for collateral damage and is full of ignorance. Persuasive diction is used. If he continues at the rate he is going, “war is coming. And there will be nothing and no one to stop him.”

Sullivan has accused Trump to being a modern tyrant- decadent, cruel, unjust, and having little to no concern of the American people. I think that if you are reading this article with the pre-democratic definition it does not fit. This definition contradicts the connotation of a tyrant that the ancient Greeks had because instead of perfecting our country, it seems as if the majority of people think our president is failing America. However, if you are reading with a post-democratic definition it seems to fit because of how negatively Sullivan portrays Trump.

Work Cited

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/america-takes-the-next-step-toward-tyranny.html