06-25-2014, 03:36 PM
Quote:Bryan,
It's important I ask - for are you reacting simply to a 'word' that I am using deliberately, but in context, and certainly in a modern way - because I am trying to communicate in the 21st century in English?
I can assure you that 1980's British Army methods are not rooted in 'management speak' - and I very much doubt that they are today - but word-use changes and the word 'manage' may well be used - in context and accurately. I know that the Officer selection process is relatively unchanged - and has been the same way for 2 generations.
- When you received orders - did someone then check they were carried out? That's 'management'.
- When you were allocated a bed-space, did someone check that there was a bed and the makings and that the facilities worked? That's 'management'
- Did someone check that the food had arrived, or that the mules were arranged for, and their additional forage, and the muleteers to, goodness, 'manage' them; that there were spare pila, shields, armour....I could go on? That's 'management'.
That's not for here though. Is it just the word you don't like? For then I will use something different and concentrate on why I think the Centurion spent the majority of any battle 'commanding and controlling' his century from a position he could actually see it.
When you tell your kid to go to bed and then you check up on them, are you managing?
When your dog starts whining and you feed it, are you managing?
The fact that you chose to use a business word (military leads or commands vs. business manages) to convey the idea of basic supervision is exactly what I am referring to. You are using business speak. Everyone single one of those examples you provided above you could have substituted another verb but you chose the one most associated with leadership in the business world.
All those 'horrible' things you say the Romans did - then I'll horrify you some more - for they truly are 'management techniques' (we could call them 'control measures').
But one thing I will assure you of - is that man hasn't changed very much if at all in 10,000 years! We are no different from the Romans. Massacring populations, killing girl children, raping the planet and exploiting people mercilessly - it all still goes on; we are just a bit more 'civilised' these days.
So when the British got defeated at Dunkirk, did Churchill and Parliament order four slaves to be buried underneath Westminster Abbey? Were the retreating British army units decimated when they returned home? Did Monty become the richest man in England after he sold all the Nazis he captured into slavery? After taking a city Germany, how many commanders allowed their units three days to rape and pillage the city? How many slaves do you own? When you served in the army, how many tribal cultures did you help eliminate when your commanding officer ordered the entire male population to be flogged and beheaded? What sword thrust or slash is best for dispatching a cowering women with a babe in hand? Do I really need to go on and on about this?
Just because in movies the Romans speak with British accents doesn't make you a Roman. You're British, from the 21st century. Your culture does NONE of those things. The few isolated incidents of brutality in war by western nations are punished severely these days. Rwanda aint the world. Victorian England wasn't even getting away with that stuff. Romans were there own unique culture, separated by yours by two millennia.
I do maintain that all the heroic actions we read about are there because they are the interesting, exciting and more 'glorious' subjects that are deliberately emphasized to affect the cultural mindset that is encouraged, wanted and needed. You want people to support and join your army and try their hardest.
So you don't read about the 99%
So accounts of bravery are propaganda, got it. In real life, 99% of the duties of a centurion in battle were much more mundane. Lots of note taking no doubt. Controlling the men from the rear, making sure they are being managed by controlling them. Ensuring they are being well led, by managing them, in a controlling manner. All from the rear. Because that's what leadership is. Crastinus' speech to Caesar at Pharsalus probably actually went something like "Imperator, you will be proud of the way I manage today from the rear, in life or death!" And then he accidentally fell on his abacus and died.
