A fascinating turning point during the American Civil War occured at the Battle of Cold Harbour, where the Union suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of the Confederate Army. The Confederate troops were entrenched behind earthworks and fallen trees, with sighted positions well marked, when the Union troops were given the order to advance and attack. Cold Harbour marked the last time that the US Military subscribed to the then-standard practice of walking across open fields towards the enemy, firing and reloading as they advanced at a steady, easily predictable pace. After Cold Harbour, military theory shifted towards the virtues of trench warfare, a model which prevailed into World War I. The order to attack was considered by the Union General, Grant to be his greatest mistake and regret of the Civil War. Over 6,500 trained and battle-hardened Union troops died in less than 30 minutes, to archaic weapons wielded by Confederate troops which were largely half-trained.

      In the midst of such a debacle there were many acts of valour and heroism, but one event stands out in my mind as being of particular interest.

     In the initial attack, a regiment from New Hampshire advanced on the Confederate redoubts, with a young man carrying the flag of the United States, their colour-bearer, in the forefront. The colour-bearer was, by tradition, armed only with the honour of his position, no weapons. As the unit advanced, they were picked apart by the Confederate troops who awaited them. One by one, every man but one in the regiment was slain in that slow-motion charge across the bright meadow, they died in bloody windrows amongst the tall grasses.

     The young colour-bearer, his flag waving high above him, continued to advance, looking neither left nor right, his gazed fixed upon the enemy positions before him. The Confederate troops stopped firing, and yelled at him to turn around, to go back. The young colour-bearer advanced, ignoring them, until he was within 10 paces of the earthworks behind which stood his adversaries. Finally he stopped and looked around him, to either side, and realized that he was alone, and unarmed, and within the grasp of the enemy, to capture or slay as they chose. He faced front and planted the flag in the earth before him, before coming to the position of attention, ignoring the yells from the Confederate troops in front of him. Accounts said he stood there for long minutes, before finally, he saluted them, raised up the flag, did an about-face, and marched back the way he came, ramrod straight, flag held high. He neither broke, nor ran. He looked neither left, nor right, as he progressed back through the abattoir of dead littering the fields, his friends and comrades-in-arms, forever gone, returning to his own lines.

     What this colour-bearer did was no great feat of arms, it was no act of heroic endeavour. He was a young man, in a time of heart-rending war of brother against brother. Yet, it seems to me that he was, if only for a few brief moments, a towering figure of courage, integrity, and honour. He mastered his own fear of the horrific circumstance, and did it with a grace and dignity that later generations can only marvel at.

     He knew nothing of Gor, his life predated that of John Lange considerably, he knew nothing of the Scarlet, nothing of the Codes of the Caste of Warriors. Yet, this young man acted with uncommon courage, integrity, and honour, as men have, on occassion, done for untold millenia. The books of Gor tell us that it is the Codes which make the Warrior, but it is clear that the Gorean Caste of Warriors has no monopoly on those virtues which we hold dearer than life itself.

     He was, in spirit and deed, a man worthy of calling Brother, a man whom a Warrior would be proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with on the field of combat, a man who shared, though he knew it not, the common Home stone of all Warriors; battle.

© 2000 |Lionheart All rights reserved

- LionHeart
Rarius, Civitatis Port Kar
Intended of Nyre

The Good of the Many...

The Good of the Many
   by Nyre

The Good of the Many

Outweighs the good of the one. We know this is sound information when we speak of communities in general, and when we blanket ourselves in the politics and structure of the world we live in. However, we stand on mediums such as the Internet and state that the philosophy we live by is different from the society we were conditioned to live in. So why is it this statement still applied to the community we call Gor?

I think it is because so many are afraid of the human side of who we are. That in the human errors of everyday occurrences it steams a fear of not being able to reach that level of understanding that Norman presented to us many years ago.

A famous doctor said long ago that we have forgotten how to smile, and how to play. That in our anal adult worlds buried beneath financial burdens, raising children, and succeeding in highly stressful jobs, there is simply no more time to laugh, and enjoy life as we did when we were young. I am not attesting or defending channels or folks who come to this medium to simply pick a character and be called Gor. I am speaking of a vast number of people that come from diverse backgrounds and attempt to learn about this community called Gor. I see the folks slowly dropping out and I wonder if this is not how it was meant to be, that out there in the living colorful world is where they are going, to a valley perhaps. A valley that is not far from all of us, but surely unattainable to many that attempt the journey. Many have said these people leave this medium because they simply can not cut it, or they are not the right kind of folks *we* are looking for. I think its because most of them can't afford the hours here, or the time away from family. Perhaps they live what many type, and these leaver's revel in that fact. It is a pleasant thought. It is refreshing to know they smile, and they enjoy all that is there to take.

Not to many years ago folks put on white hats with masks, and white cloaks. They attempted to tell us, the majority, that a set group of people were not worthy because they had colored skin. They attempted to tell us that they could not eat with us, ride buses with us, or participate with society. They tried to strain the fact that this group of people had no value to the ordinary citizen. Well, they were wrong. I surely hope those of Gor never don hats or masks of white and attempt to tell us what has value and what has worth and meaning, when each of us knows. We know in heart and we know in education of such that people have value regardless of beliefs.

Not to many years ago, there was a war, and Japanese Americans were moved from their homes, and their teaching positions, and their lives because some people were afraid. They were made to live in camps right in the United States because they were the opposition, they were the enemy. Many of these people were born in the United States, and loved their country, and held great honor and integrity. Yet, they were told they had no value, they were told to go, because someone else decided their worth. Americans did this act its truly something of the good old American pie to read on, and see the roots of which many grow. History is rarely kind and gentle.

Not to many years ago a man lead a country into killing a population of millions. They murdered them, they stole from them, and they took even their birthright from them. They were afraid of these people so they used genocide to apply values in which they believed. We did not forget, we remember, and we continue to remember those souls lost to us, and the contribution they could have given us. The absolution in their deaths and losses.

Gor has potential to be a very bad place projecting images and mistakes that we in history have already made. It is not the gamers or the role players that hurt it so much. For most of those folks hit the nail on the head and say, Yes, I play, and no I can not live this. It is the mentally unstable that come looking for something that they don't have. It is a bridge to fixing their worlds, and a sick lack of morality. I am certain every society has these people. The fact remains when it comes to history our endings are usually not pretty nor free of blood. We are a warring breed this is certain. I am also certain more war is yet to come. After all we can barely get along on a text medium, let alone a whole big world.

The facts are we are human regardless of the axioms we believe in, and in that we are imperfect. It doesn't make us a kinder Gor, or leveling a playing field it is simply a truth. We are human beings. Can we apply and live this philosophy, absolutely. In doing so we don't change our DNA makeup of switching to another race of people, we simply believe. Who decides and who is responsible for Gor and its philosophy, who belongs. The answer from the community was loud. The people spoke and they said, each of us are responsible, not one or another, but each. In our actions and our beliefs we all carry something that empowers us to believe the facts we follow. So it is a true contradiction, indeed it is the good of the one that outweighs the many in this society. We agreed this when we each took responsibility for the philosophy and who leads it

Each of us lead.

"Such things are symbols of rank and hierarchy. They lie at the foundation of natural society, one in accord with the aristocracy of nature, a society in which there are places for both heroes and slaves. They speak of ordered arrangements. All are not the same. All are not leveled, nor must they pretend to be. Such a flat, crushed world, without difference and meaning, lies to the ruled and makes liars of the rulers. It imposes fraud upon one and hypocrisy upon the other. In the unnatural world, as all cannot be the best, there is no alternative, if all are to be the same, then to reduce the best to the level of the worst, at least in pretense."

Page 224

Magicians of Gor

© 2000 Nyre all rights reserved nyre@home.com