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Head Cases

7.19.06 @ 12:01AM

HONOR THY CULTURE
Re: James Bowman's Fighting Words:

Thank goodness someone has said exactly what I have felt all along about the now infamous head butt! I have played sports for most of my life and while there are insults hurled around on the field of play, they are usually not really personal. Usually they are comments about your ability, how you look, act, etc. but they generally do not cross over into attacks on family members or loved ones because this is generally seen as out of bounds. When you see fights in professional sports can almost always be traced to those boundaries being crossed. So I say good for Zidane, he should have done worse to a man that insults someone's family to try to gain an edge in a soccer match. Every so often a man has to stand up and be a man, even if the wimps and wussies of the world cringe at the sight of a man reacting harshly to the unacceptable.
-- E.D. Edwards
North Carolina

James Bowman's defense of Zinedine Zidane's head butting in the World Cup final is very interesting, but flawed in several ways. In my opinion, it was very "wussy" of Zidane to let the Italian defender provoke him into an act that threw him out of the game, left his team one man short, and probably led to the defeat of his team. It is unfortunate that in the world of sports today, there is no honor on the field -- anything goes, and you can say anything of you think it will give you an advantage over your opponent. A "manly" man would have not fallen for this cheap and very "wussy" ploy of verbal intimidation. A gentleman would have shown restraint, not ignoring the comments, but setting them aside for later defense of his honor. He would not have acted so recklessly, without concern for his team and, let's face it, his country. The so-called honor society of much of the Islamic world, as described by Dr. Ahmed, involves impulsive, thoughtless, reckless and terrorist acts, and then hiding among the civilians for self-protection. This is neither honorable nor courageous, but instead, it is my very definition of cowardliness. Instead, Zidane should have used these insults to help motivate himself to kick Materazzi's *** on the field, within the rules of soccer, thereby bringing honor and victory to his team and to his country. But, whether France won or lost, Zidane would be more than justified in confronting Materazzi and settling the matter after the game.

My other point of contention is that a gentleman would never strike an opponent without warning and without a chance for self defense. In my opinion, sucker-punching, or "sucker-butting," is a cheap and dishonorable act. It is similar to the terrorist that blows up defenseless women and children civilians, but on a much lower level, of course, since it is not a murderous act (although a blow to the chest like that could have been fatal). If restraint during the game is not possible, then perhaps Zidane should have confronted Materazzi verbally on the field, challenging him to take his best punch at him. If Materazzi responded with the first punch, then Zidane could have attacked Materazzi in self-defense and it would have been excused as such. Materazzi would have been thrown out of the game. At worst, both would have been red carded, and the French team would not have been put at a disadvantage by Zidane. Showing some restraint during the game, so as not to put your team at a disadvantage, would have been the most difficult and most "manly" thing to do. Instead, Zidane was weak and a fool to fall for Materazzi's cheap trick. Neither man deserves our respect. Now if you will excuse me, I have a few windmills to attack...
-- Mike Spencer
Midland, Michigan

Mr. Bowman is quite correct. The quickest way to start a fight with a man is to impugn his manhood. And the quickest way to impugn a man's masculinity is to call him a coward (or its various permutations: wimp, cuckold, etc.). On the other hand, questioning a man's masculinity can be a very effective method to motivate men to greater efforts, as any coach or drill sergeant knows. It is in the nature of masculine honor that it needs to be demonstrated repeatedly. Once a man reaches maturity and his masculine status is established, the need diminishes but does not disappear. Most men would prefer to die with their boots on than not. This is not, as the feminists would argue, "merely" a cultural artifact that can be discarded as humanity "evolves." (In any case, culture is never "merely;" there are usually very deep reasons for a human culture to be what it is.)

Masculine honor is "pre-cultural"; it is primordial. I believe it is in the Creator's original blueprint for men. Honor is the cultural expression of the very essence of manhood. The Greeks called it thumos; we could call it passion. (It was also a Greek saying to "die young, live gloriously.") This masculine passion evinces itself in the focus, intensity and energy which men typically devote to what occupies them, whether it be model railroading or warfare. Honor or thumos stands at the heart of the masculine paradox, for it is this very quality that goads us to do both great and glorious deeds as well as commit acts of utter depravity. Yet without it, and its offspring courage, virtue and ultimately life, would be impossible. Wise cultures respected thumos and understood that it needed to harness this masculine energy for the good of is members.

Perhaps the modern war on honor, and in consequence, manhood, lies at the bottom of the demographic catastrophe now enveloping the West. Perhaps if we kill honor, we kill the life force as well. I recall reading many years ago of how the native men on one of the Caribbean islands were forced into farming by the Spanish colonizers. This was considered women's work and as a result, the men literally died of shame and dishonor. As for Mary Ann Sieghart's line that "Walking away from insults isn't wussy, it's mature," only a feminist would be obtuse enough say that. A woman rooted in reality (tradition) would understand that sometimes walking away from an insult is folly and a man who cannot defend himself or his women and children is not worth bothering about. Feminism will be the death of us.
-- Stephen Cianca
Dublin, Ohio

Zidane's sudden head-butting in response to an insult hardly seems a matter of honor, at least in any sense that's ever been held in Western societies. There, honor was to be recovered by a duel, formally demanded and formally accepted. Honor wasn't recovered by shooting the insulter in the back without warning. You can hardly correct an accusation of cowardice with a cowardly murder.

There's little need to seek a rationale for this behavior. It's a product of a sick and twisted culture. It's madness born in a world where raped women are killed by their relatives, and where legitimate military actions are met by sending one's teenage son to blow up children at a Bar Mitzva. It's the behavior of thugs devoid of honor and obsessed with a terribly perverted sense of vanity or vengeance.

There's no need to excuse the inexcusable and little reason to even try to explain it. Insults are the best response. This nasty little twit should be laughed off the world stage.
-- Michael W. Perry, Seattle
Editor of the soon-out: Chesterton at War: Militarism and Pacifism in the Writings of G. K. Chesterton

Jesus said that if someone strikes you on the one cheek, to turn the other. It is unnatural, but is that wuss or power? Note that it is a personal response. Governments don't have a cheek to turn, and are responsible for punishing evildoers. "Thou" in "thou shalt not kill" is singular, as opposed to Leviticus 20:2"...he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones."
-- John Denney

ADDING FEUD TO THE FIRE
Re: Matthew Omolesky's Israel and International Law:

It's my opinion that the term proportionality has been misconstrued, particularly in ways that depart from its original meaning in "just war" discussions. In current use, the term seems to avoid or even exclude a purpose of war other than proportional revenge. My understanding of proportionality in its "just war" sense is that force should not exceed that which is necessary to destroy the enemy’s ability and will to persist in his aggression. To engage in a series of like-kind reprisals (the approach that the UN seems to advocate) only invites continuing conflicts and what become no more than feuds.
-- Pat B'ham

As a regular (if more often that not erstwhile) correspondent to The American Spectator, I cannot allow Matthew Omolesky's commentary "Israel and International Law" to pass without critique.

From whom is Israel defending itself by attacking Lebanese civilians and infrastructure? Hezbollah, a non-state entity. If Omolesky's analysis is correct, then the United Kingdom would have been perfectly within its rights to have invaded the Republic of Ireland and razed Dublin to the ground after the Provisional IRA perpetrated the Birmingham pub bombings of 1974, murdered Captain Robert Nairac in 1977 or attempted to assassinate Baroness Thatcher in 1984.

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