I saw this on Twitter, in response to a Noah Smith tweet, but haven't had time to read it yet. Seems good and interesting, though.
I saw this on Twitter, in response to a Noah Smith tweet, but haven't had time to read it yet. Seems good and interesting, though.
1 comment:
At the very least wars of the 20th century and onwards have little to do with "strong men" in the traditional sense of that term. The Germans were the toughest and well trained of military personnel at the start of the war, in fact many other nations had let their defenses wither. Germany lost. It was their myth that democratic peoples were soft, a myth perpetuated by the Soviets.
If not for the antithesis of strong men, Turing, Britain may have fallen. The same is true for those who created radar, and the brilliant innovation of integrated air defense, and R.J. Mitchell inventing the Spitfire. None of those would have counted as strong men but their contribution was vastly superior than any individual strong man soldier.
Modern wars are not going to be won by strong men on the battlefield. Modern wars are won in the lab, in the factory, on the testing range, in the military academies, by technologists of all kinds designing new weapons and defenses. There will still be a need for strong individuals on the battlefield but anyone who thinks it doesn't take strength of character to spend years solving a technological problem is probably still ensnared in the strong men mythology.
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