James Delingpole James Delingpole

Remembrance day salutes man’s ancient instincts

War has a fatal attraction for men, says James Delingpole. Those who fall in combat are indeed the best and the bravest — and we shall certainly need their like again

War has a fatal attraction for men, says James Delingpole. Those who fall in combat are indeed the best and the bravest — and we shall certainly need their like again

Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, and I’m sorry to repeat such a hoary cliché, but the reason it’s so hoary is it’s true. There’s barely a chap I know who doesn’t wonder how he’d fare if forced to undergo the ultimate male test — combat. And the ones who claim not to wonder such things I find frankly a bit weird. Are they not in denial of almost everything it means to be a man?

A boy’s childhood is — even now, in an era when we’re supposed to have evolved from all that militaristic nonsense — a preparation for war. Some of it’s plain obvious, like the way boys love to fight one another with sticks, and shoot each other from behind corners going ‘peeeooing peeeooing’ (or, better still, ‘trrrrrrrrrrrrr’ if they can roll their ‘rs’ and do machine guns) with their pointed fingers.

Some of it is more subtle like hide and seek — a classic concealment and evasion exercise which teaches you the importance of staying stock still and holding your nerve even when the seeker’s so close you think he absolutely must have seen you. Notice too how men and boys behave during friendly games of football. The only time they applaud during the match is when someone is injured and, having writhed on the ground for a decent interval, the victim picks himself up and elects to play manfully on. This sly social conditioning of our boys to put their team’s interests before their own, to be ready if necessary to make the ultimate sacrifice, did not die with G.A.

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