It is common at closed social gatherings to hear even young officers... seething at what they perceive as the decadence and self-indulgence of modern French society. In the southern city of Nîmes, home to the Legion’s largest infantry regiment, the Second, a French officer complained to me about the local citizens. He said, “They speak about their rights, their rights, their rights. Well, what about their responsibilities? In the Legion we don’t speak about our rights. We speak about our duties!”This is a great piece, by the way, well worth reading in full. Why do men join the Legion? It isn't because they are looking for purpose or meaning: the whole history of the Legion is about dying for nothing at all, or at least nothing more than the passing dreams of some French politician. The culture of the Legion celebrates the meaninglessness of their deaths:
I said, “It angers you.”
He looked at me with surprise, as if to say, And you it does not?
An idea grew up inside the Legion that meaningless sacrifice is itself a virtue—if tinged perhaps by tragedy. A sort of nihilism took hold. In 1883, in Algeria, a general named François de Négrier, addressing a group of legionnaires who were leaving to fight the Chinese in Indochina, said, in loose translation, “You! Legionnaires! You are soldiers meant to die, and I am sending you to the place where you can do it!” Apparently the legionnaires admired him. In any case, he was right.I once went as far as contacting the French consulate to ask after joining the Legion, as a young man, but was unable to reach anyone who felt competent to discuss it. What was I looking for, I wonder, in that culture of meaningless sacrifice and death?
Honor is sacrifice, I have argued: 'to honor' is to give of yourself for something you feel deserves a sacrifice; 'honor' is the quality of a man who so sacrifices. But here is nothing but sacrifice for its own sake. Honor is laying aside rights, and taking on responsibilities. "In the Legion we don't speak about our rights. We speak about our duties!"
The tragedy is France. For what is this extraordinary sacrifice made? For what are these extraordinary duties taken on? A society, and a people, that the Legionnaires rightly despise as decadent and faithless.
They are ascetics then. Ican respect certain ascetic practices, but in the end, the lack of meaning bothers me. Could be worse though. I'll take duty with no purpose over hedonism with no purpose any day.
ReplyDeleteI'll take duty with no purpose
ReplyDeleteand
“You! Legionnaires! You are soldiers meant to die, and I am sending you to the place where you can do it!”
If there is no purpose, how is there duty? Responsible for what?
It seems to me that being willing to die for no purpose--dying for no purpose--is just suicide. And those who take advantage of a man's willingness to commit a pointless suicide are simply committing murder.
It also seems to me that Patton had the right of it: I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his country.
Soldiers do die in combat, and sometimes it's necessary to spend their blood like water. But their deaths have honor, and the spending is acceptable, only when there is a purpose to it.
Eric Hines
Maybe the purpose is their own. Maybe they just wanted to live like men, and die like men.
ReplyDeleteThat's entirely possible. I don't (necessarily) have to agree with their purpose, so long as there is one. I was working off your second quote in OP: An idea grew up inside the Legion that meaningless sacrifice is itself a virtue....
ReplyDeleteI don't agree that this is a valid purpose.
Eric Hines
I once saw this old black and white film that was some sort of mystery--but the hook was that the hero ran away and joined the *Spanish* foreign legion--and ended up in fighting in North Africa. There were two scenes that stuck with me from this film--one, a enlisted man had to escort an officer back to camp from the town. The enlisted man hated the officer and had sworn to kill him. The officer knows of this, but gives his pistol to the man. They make it back safely. The officer asks for his weapon back and then puts the man under arrest; one for threatening to kill an officer, and two, for not doing it, "because a legionnaire always keeps his word". Second thing was the inevitable outpost surrounded by arabs, and almost everybody is killed before relief arrives. But the outpost does not fall. The relieving troops are marched past the corpses of the dead defenders as an (I guess) an object lesson. I think the LT would probably approve of both.
ReplyDeleteDon't know anything about the Foreign Legion, but I spent a little time with some French paratroopers in northern Iraq during Operation Provide Comfort in '91. They seemed very professional. I would have expected that they pampered their troops a bit, but compared to the Brits, Dutch, Italians, and of course, us Yanks, they had the fewest amenities. I was surprised but I suspect the military culture is much different from that of their political leaders.
ReplyDeleteJose
Maybe they just wanted to live like men, and die like men.
ReplyDeleteMaybe. And don't forget the "blaze of glory" allure to frustrated young men
...which goes right to what you say. Honor is sacrifice...'to honor' is to give of yourself for something you feel deserves a sacrifice...But here is nothing but sacrifice for its own sake.
ReplyDeleteWhich tells you what you already knew - that this kind of desire comes along with being human, and especially male. And just like the sex urge and the religious instinct, it can be managed well or badly, and channeled for destruction and tyranny as well as the good life, beauty, and liberty.