{"id":9867,"date":"2018-06-09T18:38:36","date_gmt":"2018-06-09T12:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intelligent-torvalds.74-208-171-134.plesk.page\/?p=9867"},"modified":"2023-09-23T08:53:19","modified_gmt":"2023-09-23T13:53:19","slug":"will-arete-and-troy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/?p=9867","title":{"rendered":"Will, Aret\u00e9 and Troy"},"content":{"rendered":"

An article\u00a0in the Washington Post<\/a> by Mark Berman<\/a> and Marwa Eltagouri<\/a>, entitled \u201cParkland suspect detailed plans in chilling videos: \u2018I\u2019m going to be the next school shooter<\/a>\u2019\u201d caught my ear.\u00a0 Two excerpts from it are contrasted below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He announced plans to become a school shooter, detailed how many people he hoped to murder and gloated about the infamy he would gain from such a massacre.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see me on the news, you\u2019ll all know who I am,\u201d he says before laughing. \u201cYou\u2019re all going to die!\u201d<\/td>\n

Yet even as it emerged after the massacre that he was a troubled young man with a pattern of disturbing behavior and alleged violence, what motivated him to open fire remains unanswered.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Though the journalists’ apparent deafness, whether real or feigned, to the shooter\u2019s own words aroused my curiosity, it\u2019s not really the subject of this essay.\u00a0 I want to consider the persistence of ancient heroic aret\u00e9 in the contemporary world.<\/p>\n

In Homer the word applied to men capable of fighting\u2014able warriors. \u00a0They had to possess the best weapons, and their wealth guaranteed the quality of these weapons. \u00a0The [men] capable of effectively defending the group united in themselves strength, courage, good birth, and martial skills. \u00a0Moral or spiritual values were rarely mentioned. \u00a0Aret\u00e9 primarily meant the strength and skill of a warrior or wrestler, and especially heroic virtue. \u00a0It was inseparable from a spirit of competition and pride that involved a feeling of duty and responsibility toward the idea of aret\u00e9. \u00a0Over time the concept of aret\u00e9 was extended to prudence and cunning, advantageous traits in war. \u00a0The desire to win the crown of aret\u00e9 is the essence of heroism.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Zbigniew Pa\u0144puch\u2019s<\/a> definition of heroic aret\u00e9<\/a>\u00a0above may not seem at first to describe a school shooter\u2019s psyche unless one considers the question: \u201ceffectively defending the group\u201d from whom?\u00a0 I\u2019m starting here because I think his brief treatise on the ethical problems of aret\u00e9 through time, though otherwise quite able and compelling, misses one key element\u2014the desire (will<\/em>) that animates it: glory, honor and immortality.\u00a0 \u201cThe probable cause affidavit,\u201d of another school shooter arrested recently, \u201csays he told an investigator he spared people he liked because he wanted his story told.\u201d[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Pa\u0144puch has given me a fresh appreciation for Wolfgang Petersen\u2019s<\/a> and David Benioff\u2019s<\/a> Troy<\/a>.\u00a0 This desire to be remembered is cited in the opening narration of the movie:<\/p>\n

Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity.\u00a0 And so we ask ourselves will our actions echo across the centuries?\u00a0 Will strangers hear our names long after we\u2019re gone and wonder who we were\u2026<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though the film was criticized<\/a> for not adhering to the standard myths it does an excellent job of exploring the ethical issues of aret\u00e9 in dramatic form.\u00a0 I think Homer may have approved.\u00a0 Surely, the poets of a later epoch would have understood.<\/p>\n

The movie begins in Thessaly. \u00a0Agamemnon\u2019s<\/a> (Brian Cox<\/a>) will to power<\/a> over the Greek city states has led him to confront Triopas<\/a> (Julian Glover<\/a>), the last free <\/em>king of Thessaly. \u00a0\u201cI brought all the Greek kingdoms together,\u201d Agamemnon extols his own aret\u00e9 later in the film.\u00a0 \u201cI created a nation out of fire worshippers and snake eaters!\u00a0 I build the future.\u201d \u00a0He proposes a battle of champions to Triopas, but his own champion Achilles<\/a> (Brad Pitt<\/a>) is AWOL.<\/p>\n

A boy finds Achilles back in camp, sleeping off a drunken orgy with two beautiful naked women.\u00a0 \u201cI want what all men want,\u201d Achilles admits later in the film.\u00a0 \u201cI just want it more.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Achilles prepares to leave for battle, the boy says, \u201cThe Thessalonian you\u2019re fighting, he\u2019s the biggest man I\u2019ve ever seen.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t want to fight him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why no one will remember your name,\u201d Achilles replies.<\/p>\n

When Achilles arrives at the front Agamemnon doesn\u2019t honor him as he feels he deserves.\u00a0 He turns to leave.\u00a0 But Nestor<\/a> (John Shrapnel<\/a>), full of \u201cprudence and cunning,\u201d knows how to manipulate him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAchilles, Achilles,\u201d Nestor calls his name to salve his wounded pride, \u201cLook at the men\u2019s faces.\u00a0 You can save hundreds of them.\u00a0 You can end this war with a swing of your sword.\u00a0 Let them go home to their wives.\u201d\u00a0 And Achilles obeys Nestor.<\/p>\n

After Paris<\/a> (Orlando Bloom<\/a>) takes Helen<\/a> (Diane Kruger<\/a>) with him back to Troy, her husband\u00a0Menelaus<\/a> (Brendan Gleeson<\/a>) asks his brother Agamemnon for help to regain his honor.\u00a0 \u201cI want her back,\u201d he says, \u201cso I can kill her with my own two hands.\u00a0 I won\u2019t rest till I\u2019ve burned Troy to the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought you wanted peace with Troy,\u201d Agamemnon says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should have listened to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeace is for the women and the weak,\u201d Agamemnon consoles his brother.<\/p>\n

Thus Mr. Pa\u0144puch described the \u201cAret\u00e9 of mores\u2026the mores and culture of the ordinary life, mentality, and way of life of \u2018the best people\u2019\u2014\u2019\u03b1\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03b9 [aristoi].\u201d[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

They were aware of their privileged and exclusive position. \u00a0They had refined manners and knew how to act in every situation. \u00a0They showed great hospitality, composure in their response to unexpected situations, and were natural in ordinary life. \u00a0They typically acted with irreproachable courtesy toward those who acted wickedly. \u00a0Forbearance and admonitions always came before the meting out of just punishment. \u00a0The role of the woman and the womanly aret\u00e9 was an essential element of their mores. \u00a0Beauty<\/a> was part of feminine aret\u00e9, just as a man was judged according to his intellectual and physical virtues. \u00a0A woman\u2019s aret\u00e9 was also measured by the purity of her manners, and provident economic management. \u00a0This was connected with the social and legal status of women as mistresses of the home, the guardians of every good custom, and the teachers of tradition and culture.<\/em><\/p>\n

The woman with her specific aret\u00e9 had a moderating influence on the ways of men.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cOld King Priam thinks he\u2019s untouchable behind his high walls,\u201d Agamemnon argues with his counselor Nestor.\u00a0 \u201cHe thinks the sun god will protect him.\u00a0 But the gods protect only the strong!\u00a0 If Troy falls I will control the Aegean.\u201d\u00a0 When he cannot dissuade him from attacking Troy Nestor encourages Agamemnon to call on Achilles and his Myrmidons<\/a>.\u00a0 \u201cHe can\u2019t be controlled,\u201d Agamemnon laments.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s as likely to fight us as the Trojans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need to control him, we need to unleash him.\u00a0 That man was born to end lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nestor\u2019s plot to use Achilles to achieve Agamemnon\u2019s dream of a unified Greece dramatizes the evolution of aret\u00e9 as described<\/a> by Mr. Pa\u0144puch, a further moderation of the heroic aret\u00e9 of the sons of disobedience<\/a> <\/em>(\u1f00\u03c0\u03b5\u03b9\u03b8\u03b5\u1f77\u03b1\u03c2, a form of \u1f00\u03c0\u03b5\u03af\u03b8\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1<\/a>) :<\/p>\n

The fight for heroic aret\u00e9 earlier was a fight for personal glory, but with time it was replaced by the motive of heroic love of the fatherland.\u00a0 Fortitude understood as military skill became aret\u00e9. \u00a0The \u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03b9\u03c2<\/a> and what was of benefit or harm to it was the measure of true aret\u00e9.\u00a0 It was shameful and blameworthy for a man to refuse to sacrifice his health, property, or life for the fatherland.\u00a0 The ethics of the state replaced aristocratic ethics.\u00a0 This process became clearer yet as the conception of justice and the ideal of the state under the rule of law took shape.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a>This definition mirrors an argument which attempts to wrest Nietzsche’s will to power<\/a> from Nazis: \u201cSome of the misconceptions of the will to power, including Nazi appropriation of Nietzsche’s philosophy, arise from overlooking Nietzsche’s distinction between Kraft <\/em>(force) and Macht <\/em>(power).[2]<\/a><\/sup> \u00a0Kraft <\/em>is primordial strength that may be exercised by anything possessing it, while Macht <\/em>is, within Nietzsche’s philosophy, closely tied to sublimation and \u2018self-overcoming\u2019, the conscious channeling of Kraft <\/em>for creative purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Odysseus<\/a> (Sean Bean<\/a>), the \u201cone man he\u2019ll listen to,\u201d is dispatched to channel Achilles\u2019 Kraft <\/em>for Agamemnon\u2019s creative purposes.\u00a0 \u201cLet Achilles fight for honor,\u201d Odysseus pleads.\u00a0 \u201cLet Agamemnon fight for power.\u00a0 And let the gods decide which man to glorify\u2026We\u2019re sending the largest fleet that ever sailed, a thousand ships\u2026This war will never be forgotten.\u00a0 Nor will the heroes who fight in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he considers whether to swallow his contempt for Agamemnon\u2019s Macht<\/em>, Achilles\u2019 mother, the sea nymph Thetis<\/a> (Julie Christie<\/a>), prophesies his fate:<\/p>\n

If you stay in Larisa you will find peace.\u00a0 You will find a wonderful woman.\u00a0 You will have sons and daughters, and they will have children.\u00a0 And they will love you.\u00a0 When you are gone, they will remember you.\u00a0 But when your children are dead and their children after them your name will be lost.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

If you go to Troy glory will be yours.\u00a0 They will write stories about your victories for thousands of years.\u00a0 The world will remember your name.\u00a0 But if you go to Troy you will never come home.\u00a0 For your glory walks hand in hand with your doom.\u00a0 And I shall never see you again.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cEveryone dies,\u201d Achilles\u2019 expresses his own attitude toward death\u2014and life\u2014later in the film, \u201ctoday or fifty years from now.\u00a0 What does it matter?\u201d\u00a0 And so he encourages his Myrmidons as they approach the beach of Troy with the words, \u201cYou know what\u2019s there, waiting, beyond that beach\u2014immortality!\u00a0 Take it!\u00a0 It\u2019s yours!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hector<\/a> (Eric Bana<\/a>) confronts Achilles in the Trojan temple of Apollo over the dead bodies of his priests. \u00a0\u201cThese priests weren\u2019t armed,\u201d he shouts.\u00a0 \u201cFight me!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy kill you now, prince of Troy,\u201d Achilles smirks, \u201cwith no one here to see you fall?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy did you come here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll be talking about this war for a thousand years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a thousand years the dust from our bones will be gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, prince, but our names will remain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over time aret\u00e9 took on a more moral, even a religious, meaning.\u00a0 Zbigniew Pa\u0144puch wrote this of \u201cAret\u00e9 in realization<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\n

<\/a>A man\u2019s conscious efforts play an essential role in his achievement of aret\u00e9.\u00a0 By nature we are capable of acquiring permanent dispositions and developing them in ourselves by habituation.\u00a0 These dispositions are not innate.\u00a0 We only possess predispositions to acquire them because natural operations are not subject to change by habituation, \u201cwe acquire the virtues by first having actually practiced them, just as we do the arts\u201d\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Aristotle<\/a> also stated that there was a converse dependence: there is no prudence without aret\u00e9.\u00a0 The idea that happiness can only become fully real in the presence of the transcendent good, God, was revolutionary compared to the ancient conception of happiness.\u00a0 St. Thomas Aquinas<\/a> created a great synthesis of the ancient conception of aret\u00e9 and Christian doctrine.\u00a0 He incorporated into his system the inheritance of great ancient conceptions (Aristotelian<\/a>, Stoic<\/a>, and neo-Platonic<\/a>) and the content of Christian revelation.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Aret\u00e9 <\/em>it seems has always been a religious<\/a> attempt to tame the will, to rechannel the desires, of the sons of disobedience<\/em>.\u00a0 Paul wrote (Ephesians 2:1-3 NET Table<\/a>):<\/p>\n

And although you were dead in your<\/a> transgressions and sins, in which you formerly lived according to this world\u2019s present path, according to the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience, among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ancient \u201cheroic\u201d aret\u00e9 persists because the ruler of the kingdom of the air <\/em>still whispers sweetly to the deceitful<\/a> heart of the old human<\/a> in virile young men, \u201cglory, honor, immortality.\u201d\u00a0 Clint Eastwood<\/a> proposed an alternative to the willful self-aggrandizing pursuit of chimeric\u00a0aret\u00e9 in his movie The 15:17 to Paris<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Young Spencer Stone<\/a> (William Jennings<\/a>) gets in a lot of trouble at his smug religious school.\u00a0 His fiercely loyal mother Joyce Erskel<\/a> (Judy Greer<\/a>) confronts him in his bedroom after a report that he toilet-papered a neighbors’ house.\u00a0 \u201cI am mortified, Spencer.\u00a0 Mortified,\u201d she repeats after he acknowledges it.\u00a0 \u201cWhat am I gonna tell Anthony\u2019s father?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think you should tell…\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, you don\u2019t think.\u00a0 The constant calls from the principal, all the trouble you\u2019ve been causing, it\u2019s too much.\u00a0 It\u2019s too much Spencer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMom, I\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it is getting harder and harder to come in here because every time I do, I just leave disappointed.\u201d\u00a0 She slams his bedroom door as she leaves.<\/p>\n

That night Spencer prayed what apparently became his life-long prayer, a prayer<\/a> attributed to St. Francis of Assissi<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.\u00a0 Where there is hatred, let me sow love.\u00a0 Where there is injury, pardon<\/a>.\u00a0 Where there is darkness, light.\u00a0 And where there is sadness, joy.\u00a0 For it is in giving that we receive.\u00a0 It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.\u00a0 And it is in dying that we are born into eternal life.\u00a0 Amen.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My own bungled lifetime, seeking any and every other remedy, caused me to marvel at the boy.\u00a0 \u201cWhere? How? Such genius,\u201d I sputtered in amazement.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit’s answer was immediate, and came in the form of Jesus’ couplet<\/a> on\u00a0\u1f11\u03bb\u03ba\u03cd\u03c9<\/a>, which both exalts… (John 6:44a NET)<\/p>\n

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws (\u1f11\u03bb\u03ba\u1f7b\u03c3\u1fc3, a form of \u1f11\u03bb\u03ba\u03cd\u03c9)<\/em> him…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…and humbles (John 12:32 NET):<\/p>\n

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw (\u1f11\u03bb\u03ba\u1f7b\u03c3\u03c9, another form of \u1f11\u03bb\u03ba\u03cd\u03c9)<\/em> all people to myself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
Back to Peter’s Way?<\/em><\/a><\/div>\n
Back to Fear – Leviticus<\/em><\/a><\/div>\n
Back to Condemnation or Judgment? – Part 15<\/em><\/a><\/div>\n
Back to Sowing to the Flesh, Part 2<\/em><\/a><\/div>\n
Back to My Deeds, Part 3<\/em><\/a><\/div>\n
Back to Cobwebs<\/em><\/a><\/div>\n
Back to The Day of the Lord, Part 6<\/em><\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

<\/a>[1]<\/sup> CNN, \u201cAlleged shooter at Texas high school spared people he liked, court document says<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

[2]<\/sup> http:\/\/www.ptta.pl\/pef\/haslaen\/a\/arete.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An article\u00a0in the Washington Post by Mark Berman and Marwa Eltagouri, entitled \u201cParkland suspect detailed plans in chilling videos: \u2018I\u2019m going to be the next school shooter\u2019\u201d caught my ear.\u00a0 Two excerpts from it are contrasted below: He announced plans … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3833],"tags":[3235,2527,2526,4326,4325],"class_list":["post-9867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-section-four","tag-ephesians-21-3","tag-john-1232","tag-john-644","tag-movies-the-1517-to-paris","tag-movies-troy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9867"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21954,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9867\/revisions\/21954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}