On Men and Soldiers and Mr. Firestone

Over the Christmas holidays I’ve had the opportunity to do some reading. I’ve been struck by the disparity of nobility between the men and warriors described in the various times and cultures I’ve been reading about. These authors describe some wonderful examples of manhood as well as some to be pitied or loathed.

The heroes of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy are models of what it means for a man to be a “warrior poet”. Pan Skshetuski, Pan Kmita, and Pan Volodyovshi, all knights who are courageous, deadly and feared in battle, are firstly concerned about their duty as a citizen, friend, and husband. Each when encountered with opportunities to pursue personal power or pillage chooses instead to defend the disadvantaged and maintain their loyalties. In matters of love these same warriors treat the ladies with utmost chivalry and nobility. These exemplary soldiers of seventeenth century Poland stand in stark contrast to those of Liberia in the early late twentieth century.

Howard French writes in A Continent for the Taking about how Liberia’s general Taylor built an army for his rebellion by promoting drug addiction among the pre-adolescent boys of the country. These addicts became reliant on Taylor’s supply of drugs for which they could only pay with military service in his rebel army. It was sad to consider how military service which could build Sienkiewicz’s polish young men into famous heroes and inspire the same of his readers, could also be perverted into serving the ego of a rebel general and poison a countries youth in the process. What then does our affluent Western culture think about the potential of men?

Ryan Firestone, heartthrob of an early season of “The Bachelor”, is an heir to at least part of the Firestone estate that once made Liberia, now the land of addict boy soldiers, great by means of their rubber exports. Ryan, together with a cast of twenty or so models, spent a season on our televisions hot-tubbing, rose giving, heart breaking, love making… you get the point. I fear that I was not the only young man to ashamedly be attracted to this lavish life of fast cars and extravagant dates with airbrushed models.

While we pat ourselves on the back for not rewarding the type of manhood displayed by general Taylor and his army, may we not be content with Ryan Firestone’s example of manhood either but instead strive for the more challenging life of a warrior poet.