This is something I’ve been thinking for a while. I’m a bit torn to be honest. To be clear, I’m talking about American society as a whole, for what it’s worth. It’s without doubt that America has a warrior subculture… we’re all part of it. The question is more… can America itself be considered a warrior culture. And yes, it’s more difficult because 99%+ of the population immigrated at some point.
Look at a wide spectrum of warrior cultures, like the Sengoku-era Japanese, the Maori, the Mongols, the late Republic and early Roman Empire, the Spartans, the Apache, and the Vikings. From honorable single combat to professional conscripted soldiers, from hunters-turned-conquerors to fearless raiders just trying to get by. There’s a huge variety of what any person could consider a warrior culture. But is America such a culture?
Can you define a warrior culture by the percentage that participates in war? Japan may be disqualified if that’s the case.
Perhaps the percentage of time that the society spends in warfare versus in peace? But if that were the case, a great many nations, societies, and cultures would qualify that normally one would not think of as a warrior culture.
Maybe discipline? Discipline takes many forms and is worth talking about… although America has pretty much everything but discipline.
Maybe a willingness to die in combat? Is that for the entire population or just the warriors?
And THERE’S your winning answer. The UN-disciplined majority have DECLARED “war” ON discipline, morality, Christianity, law enforcement & the legal system, masculinity, and any tradition that contributed to building America’s greatness (honesty, hard work, ingenuity, et.al.).
NOW we’re left with the Harpy/entitlement/homosexual/anti-social/self-absorbed ethic in America. In OTHER words… :bad:
No. America does have a rough yesterday during its early days, that could be considered a warrior type culture. Being that America has been a lot of war over the years, perhaps the Military- I do not know, I am not in it- is its own Warrior culture. Fighting and going to war is not enough, though. There needs to be guiding ideals behind the actions.
I think there is a difference between being at war and having a warrior culture. Throughout history all wars have been waged by a small percent of warriors and a majority of poor schmucks caught in a wrong time, wrong place…
The USA is by far NOT a warrior culture. We may be a culture at war, but we are NOT warriors. Hell the USA is pretty much at war with culture if you want to be technical.
I don’t think the US has a “warrior culture” so much as we have a warrior class and a worshipping and glorification of that class that has come up from the ashes of Vietnam.
America revels in violence without discipline. Our most popular sport, pro football, is a shining example of this. People love the violence on the field and the stupidity off the field.
Warrior cultures are typified by the non-warrior members of society at least recognizing the threat (often existential) they were under by outside forces.
The non-warriors also supported the warrior class, or at least understood the importance of their work at home to the defense of the state and homeland. Educators taught youth the importance of civics and how their future professions, warrior or not, supported the nation.
A high percentage of the adult population were also veterans themselves, which made this easier.
National leadership also backed their defenders. Decisions to go to war or not, and strategic shifts or withdrawals were made by people who either knew the consequences from experience, or at least had some understanding of the repercussions.
I’ll leave it to the reader to decide if this is us.
Some of the answers are speaking of the population as a whole, I don’t believe that post industrial era there have been many, if any, civilized (wrong word) cultures where the warrior ethos permeated the entire population.
The Samurai were a subset of Japanese society, IMO you would be wrong to call the Japanese a Warrior Society simply because of the Samurai.
One of the problems that I see is that my definition of a warrior may be very different than yours. Warriors are not rapers and pillagers, to me they are folks that step up and do the right thing when needed and then step back after the job is done. Ego involvement for a true warrior is nil, they do what is needed because it needed done.
I have a higher opinion of most of my fellow citizens than many seem to profess. Even during the hippie generation - there was no shortage of volunteers to fly helicopters into hot LZ’s - the protestors and anti-war activists were a subset, not a majority of the population.
Someone spoke of discipline - yes, many of our citizens do seem to be undisciplined in traditional activities and behavior. But if we put them into a situation where they are motivated to achieve, they may surprise you. My daughters live like wolves - if I let them - yet both of them are highly focused and motivated in several areas, music and sports. I’ve seen and heard my youngest play a section over and over on her trap set to get it just right, ditto the oldest who will repetitively practice the fingering and bowing needed to play a difficult selection on her bass. And they have both swim 2 hours a day, 5-6 days a week, for the last 8 years. The kids they hang with are just as focused, and just as undisciplined in the same areas.
I know my basis for comparison is small, based on my experience, but I think all of us suffer from that same bias. And, I think we are saying the same exact thing my great grandfather said about my grandpa, and my grandpa said about my dad…
This country has never been a warrior culture. Of course we made short work of the warrior culture that was here before us. You probably don’t want to live in a warrior culture, it’s not for most people and it’s very exclusionary.
Even in the Military most of the people don’t even have the Warrior Mindset. Hell, most are just going through the passes. There are exceptions but not as many as you would think.
