Thread: Y “Bronze Age?” Is conquering spirit the main attribute admired by @bronzeagemantis? Bronze Age on equal or lesser footing with Roman, Crusader, & Mongols as conquerors...no. Bronze Age has one major distinguishing Characteristic: The Heroic

The Heroic can be understood in socio-military terms as well as literary and metaphysical. Current thread will focus on socio-military and contrast to Roman, Medieval, and Steppe. Next thread for literary and Epic context. This applies as much or more to BAP podcast as book

From whence does “the Heroic” emerge? A hero is someone who distinguished himself from his peers, from mere “others” to a status of Legend or more. Not every era allows for this. There can only be one Augustus, or Trajan, or Domitian...it matters not. The Emperor is the *first*

Good example of this is Justinian and Belasarius. Belasarius phenomenal general, Justinian coward with delusional vision for Byzantiums future. Belasarius was too great for Justinian, who lived in his shadow, always trying to bring him to heel but always in need of his skill

I am told even today, highly capable recruits to the Navy Seals are rejected only on the grounds that they are too narcissistic, too self-absorbed. For good reason, this will get people killed. But all of this is a characteristic of social, and not military, organization.

Different social organizations produce different quality of men, who make better or worse soldiers, superior or inferior formations and tactics. Our concern is not the military history (as fascinating as that is), but the men.

A Bronze Age, even Athenian, soldier is of very different character and social status than Knights, Legionaries or Mongols. They are patriarchs on their own land, self-taught in martial skills, providers of their own gear, and equal to all fellow soldiers in social standing

When BAP talks of gymnasium culture, this is part of what he means. These are men who train together in their leisure time, not under generals or under orders. It is a way of life, not profession or brief time “in” for pay or pension or even patriotism. It necessity 4 survival

There is some ranking, richer land-owners can afford more weapons and equip more men, but Bronze Age era was local and small enough that this never metastasized to grant one man undue control, such as monopolistic latifundia and professional, bankrolled armies of Roman Empire

The self-reliant Bronze Age Warrior had the same innate qualities admired by Thomas Jefferson for the Yeoman farmer and, as I see it, the same potential and resilience as BAP sees in the middle class american “armed to the teeth.”

Some eras have a specific number of troops at the ready and troops in reserve who can be called up and deployed, usually to meet the needs of a political elite. Not so in a heroic age, these men have farms to tend to and jobs to report to. There is a fighting “season”

And herein lies the crucial distinction: soldiers in empires are reduced to numbers, soldiers in Heroic Ages are *MEN* The Romans had legionaries, mongols had “hordes,” a medieval army is made up of small number of knights and hosts of expendable peasants

Bronze Age phalanx is all equals, all citizens. The Iliad names many names, laments many heroes. We can tell of individual deeds of the Trojan war. Tell me the deeds of *any* mongol under Ghengis? Sing me the lament of any medieval peasant who wasn’t a knight. You can’t

This is why we need a Bronze Age Mindset. Roman Emperors and Napoleon dredged up whatever refuse they could from any gutter in any outlying village or town, same with Medieval nobles, slapped a leather helmet on serfs & hurled them upon the enemy spears.

Citizenry and land was granted to Roman soldiers as a contingency for service, it was a prerequisite for Greeks.

So Bronze Age Mindset is both living in an immediate inter-connectivity with spirit, self, and world, AND being a self-reliant citizen on equal footing with men with whom you trust your life, namely, your neighbor. This is y BAP advocate Boy Scouts and other men’s clubs

This y being a Man is most important thing today. Your morals and opinions must be subjugated by your DUTY as a MAN. This is why you MUST side with the store owner who kills a rioter, you MUST side with men chasing down stranger in neighborhood, has NOTHING to do with “race”

Greek men did not join army as job, they protected their land as brothers. This is why they want to tear down Roosevelt, because he was real man, and he reminds today’s men of their FAILURE at being a Man