American Samurai Special Edition

Once more into the Breach

“They don't make them like they used to” that line runs through my head often, especially when I look at our current leaders. I can't help but laugh,(albeit due to gallows humor) when I see our current President, or the last one, or the one before him, and before him, that list starts to get quiet long before you began to run into men that one might call a leader much less heroic. Most are not even that remarkable, I would make exceptions for Nixon, Eisenhower, and Teddy Roosevelt. Nixon because he was a true outsider and might be the highest IQ president we have had. Eisenhower because he was a general that happened to become president, not a politician, but rather a logistical genius, and a hero of WWII. Lastly, there is Teddy Roosevelt, he was a renaissance man, cowboy, soldier, boxer, and adventurer a remarkable man all around. Only one of these I would call heroic. 

But first we should consider what it is to be a heroic man? A heroic man is quite different than a hero. Audy Murphy is a hero, Alexander the Great is a heroic man, Firefighters on 9/11 are heroes, but Napoleon is a heroic man. There is a  difference between a hero and the heroic, a hero is defined by a moment in time, the heroic man defines his time burng the moments he is alive. For me when it comes to the heroic I always turn to Thomas Carlyle. In a collection of Carlyle's lectures titled  On Heroes and Hero Worship Carlyle describes heroic men in this way,

 “They were the leaders of men, these great ones; the modelers, patterns, and in a wide sense creators, of whatsoever the general mass of men contrived to do or to attain; all things that we see standing accomplished in the world are properly the outer material result, the practical realization and embodiment, of Thoughts that dwelt in the Great Men, sent into the world: the soul of the whole world's history, it may justly be considered, were the history of these.”

 For a better understanding of the heroic in Carlyleian terms, you must read On Heros and Hero Worship. It is a masterful work and a great introduction to Carlyle, who if you don't know is a master of the English language and one of the most prolific writers of the 19th century. But for now, consider how he describes the heroic man, does any world leader in living memory fit that description? I doubt our current age has produced such a man, in terms of US Presidents only one of the three Nixon, Eisenhower, and Teddy Roosevelt can be considered heroic in Carlyleian terms. 

The answer is obviously, Teddy Roosevelt. He truly was a man of heroic substance. A man of will, who never settled, lived a life of adventure, and left his mark on the world. Teddy is America, in the same way, Frederick the Great is Prussia or Alfred the Great is England. Those men are the great leaders of their nations who embody the greatest attributes that their people manifest. If you had one former president to represent America is there even a question? Maybe Washington, but I would argue that America as an idea was not formed fully and so he could not represent its full potential. Teddy is it, he is America, say what you will about his politics, but Teddy was American exceptionalism in carnate. 

  There is a clear deletion between the presidents' pre and post-Teddy Roosevelt. Of the first twenty-six Presidents, nineteen had military service, out of these seventeen saw combat and led men on the battlefield. These were men of action leaders shaping a new nation. Post-Teddy, we have ten Presidents that were in the military, but they saw little if any combat and were not men of martial status but were simply in the military due to WWII. They did not have to scrap and fight they inherited an established country, they were handed the keys to the castle so to speak. These men were mostly politicians or intellectuals first, not great leaders, and not heroic.

The post-heroic age is how I would describe the era following Teddy’s time in office. From Woodrow Willson onward it is clear (to borrow terms from Machiavelli) that the “Lions” have given way to the “Foxes”, or in layman's terms, we could say the general gives way to the politician. This transformation has resulted in dimensioning returns, with each subsequent president being less qualified to lead than the last. It would be laughable to compare the credentials of Biden, Obama, Trump, Clinton, or Bush to any President in the 19th century. Do you really think Obama is the same caliber man as Washington or Jackson? You may not like their politics but those are leaders of men, and Obama is…Obama. This is why I consider this time post-heroic these men who lead us now are forgettable, weak, and uninspiring, they stand on the shoulders of giants and say they are flying.

To highlight my point I am going to give a quick overview of Teddy Roosevelt the last President of the heroic age. While you read I ask that you keep in mind the Presidents we have had in our lifetime and compare them to those of the past. Not in terms of policy but as a man, as a leader, and as a representative of America. 

 Teddy Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States, and the youngest man to hold that office. Born into a well-to-do family in New York he was a sickly child suffering from severe asthma. He would overcome this weakness through strenuous exercise and will. He took up rowing, boxing, and wrestling as ways to overcome his weakness. This focus on strength would define Teddy for the rest of his life.

He was homeschooled and later went to Harvard. There he studied biology and became a published ornithologist. He also went on to be runner-up in an intramural boxing tournament, a member of the literary society, a member of the Porcelain Club, was editor of The Harvard Advocate, and graduated magna cum laude. After graduation, he went on to write A Naval History of the War of 1812. Already he has a more impressive resume than most but Teddy was more than an intellectual and he would prove that.

Teddy grew up with a romantic notion of the west and dreamed of being a cowboy. Eager to prove himself a man and more than the child of New York aristocrats he built a ranch in the Dakota Territory using the inheritance from his father's estate. His time as a rancher led him to create the Boone and Crockett Club with the goal of the conservation of large game animals and would foreshadow his creation of the National Parks Service. Ranching proved hard and Teddy was determined to live the life of a cowboy always on the ground working his cattle, but after the particularly harsh winter of 1886-1887, his cattle were wiped out. With his dreams of ranching gone he returned to New York. 

Now he was no longer just a New York  Intellectual, he was a cowboy, a man of the people, he had experienced the west and returned home a new man. Teddy decided to get into politics, first in the Civil Service Commission, then as the New York City Police Commissioner. As Police Commissioner he regularly walked officer’s beats late at night despite the danger, again proving his willingness to get his hands dirty.

Continuing to climb the ladder, he was then appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy by William Mckinley. This would not last long because during this time tensions built to war with Spain. The United States blamed the sinking of the USS Maine in Cuba on the Spanish. “To hell with Spain, remember the Maine”, became a rallying cry for pro-war politicians and Roosevelt was one of its loudest proponents.

Yet ever a man of honor, he put his money where his mouth was. While most politicians were eager to send young men to fight and die from the safety of their offices in Washington, Teddy was not. Despite protests from his wife and friends he resigned from his post in Washington eager to join the fight.

This was a different time it was an age of adventure, so Teddy didnt join the Army instead he raised a volunteer regiment. Made up of Ivy Leaguers, professional and amateur athletes, upscale gentlemen, cowboys, frontiersmen, Native Americans, hunters, miners, prospectors, former soldiers, and tradesmen, and under the command of former Confederate general Joseph Wheeler. They truly embodied their namesake the “Rough Riders”. After training for six weeks in San Antonio, they went to Florida, commandeered (one might argue illegally) a naval ship, and headed to Spain to fight.

The defining moment for Teddy was the charge up Kettle Hill at the battle of San Juan Heights. Under his leadership, the Rough Riders became famous for their suicidal assault on July 1, 1898. While in support of the regular army, Roosevelt and the Rough Riders charged Spanish rifles head-on. Roosevelt on his horse (aptly named Texas) rode back and forth between rifle pits at the forefront of the advance up Kettle Hill, an advance that he urged despite the absence of any orders from superiors. Teddy recalled the events,

"I sent messenger after messenger to try to find General Sumner or General Wood and get permission to advance, and was just about making up my mind that in the absence of orders I had better 'march toward the guns,' when Lieutenant Colonel Dorst came riding up through the storm of bullets with the welcome command 'to move forward and support the regulars in the assault on the hills in front.' "

Eventually, with his horse tangled in barbed wire, and his rifle empty Teddy led the charge on foot with only his revolver in hand. The Rought Riders took the hill and later when asked to recall the battle Teddy simply called it “the greatest day of my life”. The victory came at a cost of 200 killed and 1,000 wounded. For his actions on the day, Teddy was awarded The Metal of Honor. 

After the war, he would be Govonver of New York, and Vice President under William Mckinley. After Mckinley was assassinated Teddy would become US president. I will stop here, this is not a full biography and I believe I have already laid the groundwork for my larger point so the details can be spared.

Now compare that life with, Biden, Trump, Obama, etc. politics aside can you truly say they are even worthy of being in the same room? You cannot honestly say yes, and any attempt to do so would be disingenuous at best and herein lies my point, we are in the post-heroic age. Leaders willing to fight and die like Teddy are almost foreign to us. We are so starved for heroes we latch on to anyone with a glimmer of potential. That desire for the heroic man does not go away. C.S. Lewis said in Present Concerns

“Where men are forbidden to honor a king they honor millionaires, athletes, or film stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.”

It may be that we are just living through the “good times create weak men phase of our civilization” true hardship is alien to our leaders they are the products of lavish decadent lifestyles. It matters not what side of the political spectrum you sit it is easy to see that we are not ruled by our betters.  Alexander famously rode out in front of the Macedonian cavalry, Teddy rode in front on Kettle Hill. One can almost imagine Teddy giving Shakespeare’s “once more into the breach” monologue from Henry V to his men. Our current leaders would probably struggle to even fully understand the willingness of a king to fight with his men, much less rally them to battle and charge into the breach.

Where does that leave us? There does not appear to be a heroic man on the horizon, and even if there were the current regime is still too powerful to allow him to come to power. The post-heroic age may be the winter of our civilization, but after winter comes spring; the time to grow our own heroes, to inspire the heroic in our sons, to give them that which the world denied us, to give them the tools to truly be great.

The cultivation of character falls on us. We have to instill heroic values in our children. You must choose what kind of man you want to raise a heroic man or a modern man, but you must decide because if you don't the world will decide for you. 

-TJS

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