re: #80 thedopefishlives

Truthfully, there’s an element of value in warriors’ indulgence of artistic pursuits. Killing is a brutal business; modern armies understand this, and train their soldiers to break down their human impulses to enable them to kill efficiently. But it still takes a toll on a man, as PTSD and the thousand-yard stare can testify. Cultivating an artistic talent or hobby gives one’s mind a place to go when the stress of killing other human beings threatens to take its toll.

On the other hand, the scholar-warrior imagery of the past was a form of social distance, since at any given moment warrior-castes would be more likely to be using violence again the inferior merchant and peasant castes, and intellectual cultivation was part of establishing a sense of superiority and license.