Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ArkyBeagle 3480 days ago
"In harms way"? Doesn't that seem rather ... barbarian. It seems to reinforce "Only those that die gloriously in battle shall sit with the Gods in Valhalla."

I did not used to hear the word "sacrifice" a lot. I hear it a lot now. I don't like it as a standard of behavior and wish it would stop.
1 comments
lgieron 3480 days ago
> "In harms way"? Doesn't that seem rather ... barbarian.

Was your grandpa that fought in WWII (assuming for a second you had one) a barbarian?

link
ArkyBeagle 3480 days ago
Two uncles ( my grandfathers were both too old) fought in WWII. One was an aircraft mechanic. I don't know what the other uncle did in the war.

Fighting doesn't make one a barbarian. The belief that suffering and sacrifice are the path to glory are.

link
nitrogen 3480 days ago
That seems needlessly personal, and neither answer helps you make an argument in any direction about the parent comment.
link
lgieron 3480 days ago
I though it was a short way to make a clear point. Let me write a longer version then:

Is it barbaric? Maybe, but, whether we like it or not, the world has a defnite component of barbarism to it. There are wars going on as we speak, and there are threats of much bigger wars constantly hanging in the air.

It not impossible to eliminate physical danger out of our lives and to dismiss it (because one does not witness it first-hand at the moment) is not very mature. I'm not even mentioning the natural calamities, fires, car crashes etc., where there's room for heroism as well.

link
ArkyBeagle 3480 days ago
We mostly live with less barbarism and physical danger than any cohort of humans who have ever lived. Obviously, the people in Aleppo drew the short straw there.

I'd just prefer to see no sacrifice of any kind, especially on my account.

link