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The Crusades
Jan. 4th, 2002 10:12 amDoes anybody know very much about the Crusades? I heard a great show about them on Ideas last night, but I've never really researched them before. The accounts of the Crusades that they read aloud last night sounded remarkably like the same sort of back-and-forth that's happening in the Middle East today. And it sounded like there was a point in the 11th century at which the situation could possibly have been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties in the immediate area, but external influences from the West pushed things past the boiling point before that solution could be tried.
The other readings of note from the program were quotes by officers on both sides of the armies after a particularly drawn-out battle. Each said that if it weren't for the atrocious religion of the other side, that they would be proud to call those men their brothers; such was the enormous respect that each side developed for the other due to their skill and valour in combat.
Geez. They could see through everything except that one, measly thing: their religion. What a strange irony that they were willing to slaughter so many men whom they understood and respected so much, simply because they prayed to a different version of God. I remember learning about St. Augustine's treatise on the notion of Just War (indeed, a God-sanctioned war) during a religious ethics course in my undergrad. Today, the propagandists have changed (and their message more efficiently distributed via the media), but the central message and techniques appear to have remain largely unchanged for the past 900 years. That's a fairly long time to be beating the same dead horse.
The other readings of note from the program were quotes by officers on both sides of the armies after a particularly drawn-out battle. Each said that if it weren't for the atrocious religion of the other side, that they would be proud to call those men their brothers; such was the enormous respect that each side developed for the other due to their skill and valour in combat.
Geez. They could see through everything except that one, measly thing: their religion. What a strange irony that they were willing to slaughter so many men whom they understood and respected so much, simply because they prayed to a different version of God. I remember learning about St. Augustine's treatise on the notion of Just War (indeed, a God-sanctioned war) during a religious ethics course in my undergrad. Today, the propagandists have changed (and their message more efficiently distributed via the media), but the central message and techniques appear to have remain largely unchanged for the past 900 years. That's a fairly long time to be beating the same dead horse.
