About The Lesser of Two Evils

Post 686:

I had about twenty minutes respite today. In that, I was happy to watch a touch of Master and Commander, one of the great unsung classics of our time. It opens with a fierce battle and doesn’t relent in keeping you in the seat of the captain and crew, up against a seemingly unbeatable foe.

There is a scene that is instructive. The officers are sat about, dealing mentally with what is and what is to come. One would expect them to adopt a mood of solemnity and stolid seamanship, but they get about to a bit of carousing.

They get on with it, is the point. Despite the losses and tragedy, this lot takes a minute or two to enjoy the point. The point. Why not carry on in good cheer?

Off the top or my head, there’s plenty of reason not to do so. The situation pretty much blows. That said, you don’t go winning wars or vanquishing enemies without a bit of stringent, strange forbearance. This is the point, I think, and if we expand on it, probably the reason why a tiny country like England could rule the Seven Seas.

My intention is to outline the facility of industriousness. I won’t, however, be praising any empire of any kind. I’m constitutionally opposed to any empire or any state that pits man against man. I doubt good has come from any of it in the final analysis, though that’s the milieu of men counted better than I. Big stories tell us about our small selves, is the point. And as far as books and movies, it’s a damn fine rendering.

Cheers and see you after.