To Ride, Shoot Straight And Speak The Truth
That Is The Ancient Charge Of Youth
Supposedly the Persian empire had a policy pertaining to youthful members of the royalty that, at a certain age, they be sent far away from the centers of power so as to reside with nobles living near the frontier. (It's mentioned in Herodotus' account of the Greco-Persian wars.) Here they were charged to concentrate on learning three things, to be expert riders, to shoot accurately and to speak nothing but the truth. Wine, women and song were out for the duration while they learned the hard lessons of leadership in a hard world. They had to learn by doing how to conduct warfare since, in those days, it was a low level constant along the frontiers. At the end of their tenure they could resume life at the palace and learn diplomacy and such ancillary skills, but they would be changed in such a way that their leadership would not imperil the country. It was a recognition that a leader being raised in wealth could be disastrous.
"Adversity has the effect of drawing out strength and qualities of a man that would have laid dormant in its absence." ~ Herodotus
Theodore Roosevelt is said to have had a plaque reading:
To Ride, Shoot Straight And Speak The Truth
That Is The Ancient Charge Of Youth
(I learned about this from the book by Jeff Cooper entitled To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth. It is available on Amazon.)
The importance of riding and shooting are obvious, but why so much the truth? A leader who lies will get many people killed and battles lost, and it's partly about instilling courage, saying what is really true even when you really don't want to. Remember what Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said:
"The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. "One word of truth outweighs the world." ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
I think though that the idea was mostly to mature the young nobles so that they would be hardened warriors and mature individuals rather than spoiled brats. They would have to partake in any actions of national defense taking part on the borders.
A short video by Jordan Peterson on the importance of telling the truth:
I have heard the story that, in the time of the czars in Russia, any prince in line for the czarship, the son of a czar, would be sent out into the wilderness, on an island, I believe, where he would have to survive alone for one year. I think this was in medieval times. Anyone who knows about this, please help me out. (My sources were a Russian physicist that I worked with, as well as our personal lawyer, whose son-in-law was Russian. They both maintained that, yes, indeed, it was for a full year. I asked the Russian about the possibility of the prince dying, and he said that, well, there were plenty to take his place.) Again, this was no doubt intended to provide a great maturing influence on the individual, as well as making him a survival expert.
"A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today - and in fact we have forgotten." ~ John F. Kennedy
People born into luxury and the upper classes often have fears of falling into the lower classes, as well as a well founded suspicion that they might not actually be superior. Activities such as these would help to eliminate such concerns as well as the low character, and hopefully produced leaders who made proper decisions with less bias toward their personal concerns, and less influenced by fear. They would hopefully learn not to take the cowardly path and thereby become cowardly,
"You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor." ~ Aristotle
During World War 2 the nation's industry was focused on making goods for the war effort. The auto companies switched to military vehicles and other equipment. Some of the best firearms were made by Remington Rand, the typewriter company, since they were used to making, small intricate parts to high precision. When the war ended we were left with an enhanced military-industrial complex, with companies whose main products continued to be military objects instead of, say, refrigerators. President Eisenhour famously warned about the military-industrial complex, worrying that it constituted a power bloc. Eisenhour did not at all think we should become militarily weak, just that this should be under control. I believe he said that for the price of a tank you could build a school building. (He also, I believe, mentioned the danger of the government/science/academia complex, in which I made my living.)
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together." ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
I am not a pacifist, pacifism is the privilege of the protected, but today we have a situation wherein our country often saunters off to war. It is not, in general, the sons and daughters of the powerful taking part, thereby decoupling our leadership from the direct effects of their action.
"Some day there is going to be a man sitting in my present chair who has not been raised in the military services and who will have little understanding of where slashes in their estimates can be made with little or no damage. If that should happen while we still have the state of tension that now exists in the world, I shudder to think of what could happen in this country" ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
They did not learn to ride, or to shoot straight, or to speak the truth. What could we do so as to require all aspiring politicians to undergo such training? Certainly no one should be elected to office who does not shoot straight and speak the truth, though riding is not so much in fashion. Should some simpler, modified form be produced for all the youth of the nation? I suppose that would be the Boy Scouts, but they have suffered grievous attacks. Any ideas in the comments would be appreciated.
"The most hateful human misfortune is for a wise man to have no influence." ~ Herodotus
Some thoughts of mine on the need for wisdom, strength and courage are in an earlier essay of mine:
https://drp314.substack.com/p/wisdom-strength-and-courage
Stay Brave, Stay Free
I know this is just a fantasy, but I would love to have some sort of requirement for politicians to have spent a number of years in a blue-collar job, as in agriculture or construction or landscaping or plumbing. This would help with being grounded in the world of the common man. I would also like to see a requirement to having to run one's own business successfully - small or large, to keep in touch with how the real world and economy operate. The institution of term limits, being subject to be audited at anytime wihtout notice, and perhaps, having to work for no salary for a specified time, could provide meaningful wasy to stave off the class of mostly parasitic career politicians.
I haven't explored these ideas, so there are likely drawbacks. This is just off the top of my head. It's a great brainstorming exercise.
"You can't handle the truth!" And it's true. We can't. We never could and it goes back to the beginning of everything.
Telling the truth got President Kennedy murdered. Telling a lie made Ted Kennedy the Lion of the Senate.
Telling the truth got President Trump idicted. Telling a lie brought President Obama his third term in office. (We can debate whether that is the truth or not).
Our youth were sent into the services for many reasons in my lifetime. The truth was hidden by their leaders and the lie killed millions. But to the young men the truth was that "I served".
Certainly, here in the UK a politician who tells the truth is destroyed by the same people who voted for them. In truth, people are elected to carry on the lie.
But, where did this battle between truth and lies come from?
In my opinion, we open the Bible and right there in Genesis the lies begin.