Random Musing: the leaders of "less advanced" civilizations were often the best warriors of their tribe. I believe this is a carryover from older instances of humanity where the toughest male had to be able to defend all the females intended to mate. As society perpetuates, the Warrior-king has become less and less of a staple in a tribe. is this progress?
Friend 1: Don't you think the best warriors also have wisdom in addition to battle prowess? Like, they know when to fight, when to negotiate, when to let go....
Maybe I have an idealized archetype in mind - but when I think Warrior-king, I think of that. So, I would not think it progress when he vanishes.
Friend 2: That is no longer true because modern warefare is divorced from an immediate impact on a family or small group. At least in our modern culture.
Friend 2: And in viewing the series on the civil war recently... the generals were not always the bravest or smartest of men. Often they were drunkards, andpompus and fool hardy... and audacious.
Me: Example of that is Ulysses S Grant, he was vlearly the inferior mind fighting Robert E Lee, he just had way more everything.
But this is sort of what i mean, the General now is an arm of the leader, at least in theory... I suppose in the case of the south Jefferson Davis is the only one who could have lead the Confederates better than Lee (he was first at West Point when Lee graduated 2nd). But could Lincoln have won the war as a General instead of the statesman?
Friend 3: I thought the leaders of hunter- gatherer tribes were often elders who may have been the best warriors in the past but in their leadership role were more like strategists & decision makers.
Me: That is also a consideration. Were tribes more or less advanced when they were small enough to avoid other tribes for generations and follow the wisest or when tribes brushed up against one another in war and trade and were lead by the strongest... Or the strongest by proxy...
Friend 4: What about the medicine man/shaman? His warrior skills were often shit, but a good warrior king knew that if you barely managed to survive a battle, he was the most important person on the planet to find, if you hoped to continue living. In many cases, he out ranked the king.
Me: good point. Maybe this is the origin of religion. he could heal and he could attribute it to whatever higher being.
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