War is the Father of Us All

Heraclitus spoke "Πόλεμος πάντων μεν πατήρ ἐστι" and our humanity is revealed and questioned at the same time.

It can be said without uncertainty that the state all people currently reside in has resulted from the outcomes of their most recent episode of war.

No civilization can be had without order.

Order is made, and kept by the victorious war party.

The languages you speak, customs you keep, most things that are so imbedded in your nature they are hardly ever considered; all made to be by the men that seized or defended the land it's practiced on.

This has been the decisive element of all our ancestors' stories beginning and ending beyond any written record we have to remember.

All the way back to the time of Hunters, there was only one way for the Gatherers to be safe.

As this goes on a certain group who has had the best Hunters for generations eventually are gifted the knowledge of agriculture.

Potentially even establishing a peaceful sort of longhouse people that just farmed the land and gathered resources.

Then, men in horse-drawn chariots arrived and the world changed forever.

These new archetypes of mankind, masters of animal husbandry shaped the future of every new land traveled to.

Enter the Proto Indo European peoples; mastering the horse out in the harsh steppe lands, and then chasing the setting sun into the West.

To some degree, everyone of European ancestry can be traced back to these nomadic people that swept across the earth.

Imagine as they entered simple farm communities on horseback, virtually unstoppable. Over the succeeding centuries their different settlements would eventually carve out the cultures of Ancient Europe.

They developed Europe's entire genetic protocol.

Yet still, no matter what would transpire, ultimately the factor that determined change in most every sphere of civilizational transition, is war.

It would both build civilizations, and eventually tear them down.

A Nation is defined by its Warriors

Often overlooked by the modern assessments of what defines a culture, ethnicity, and the country they represent is the fighting force. How vast and skilled the army, the size and capability of the navy, and special task units.

Every civilization only exists so long as there is ample war-fighting men willing to defend the borders.

This is at the core of all worlds that populate history.

It cannot be ignored.

The way to function as a people in a society aimed towards peace is to have it entirely surrounded by the dogs of war, waiting, watching the gates.

So deservingly so, a new outlook, interest and appreciation for the sailors and soldiers of your respective homeland may be in order, these souls are the lifeblood of every world.

Ultimately, the prosperity and longevity of the world as citizens know it hangs in the balance of every battle their men fight.

Polemos Πόλεμος

Put simply, the personification and spiritual embodiment of war itself.

Through the very nature of our historical lens, one may notice rather quickly how Polemos stands as the patriarch of all our homelands.

He stands as a testament to the formation and destruction of everything from small villages to the greatest of empires.

Any aspiring or collapsing civilization will pass through the gates of Polemos.

Aesop, Fables 533 (from Babrius 70) (trans. Gibbs) (Greek fable C6th B.C.) :
"The gods were getting married. One after another, they all got hitched, until finally it was time for Polemos (War) to draw his lot, the last of the bachelors. Hybris (Reckless Pride) became his wife, since she was the only one left without a husband. They say Polemos loved Hybris with such abandon that he still follows her everywhere she goes. So do not ever allow Hybris to come upon the nations or cities of mankind, smiling fondly at the crowds, because Polemos (War) will be coming right behind her."

Heraclitus spoke plainly, which would be why he is responsible for so many timeless truths about the human experience.

There is something cosmic, grandeur, extraterrestrial and infinite about our being; but too often is the flesh and blood reality of life ignored.

Like it or not, men fought tooth and nail, bled and died for the soil you stand on to be claimed as whatever country you hail from. And the only way it remains that way is for you and yours to be prepared to do the same.

War, the Father of us all.