WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.500 when you hear the word warrior, your brain probably... 00:00:05.559 --> 00:00:08.839 instantly serves up this highly cinematic, incredibly 00:00:08.839 --> 00:00:11.300 dramatic image. Oh, absolutely. It's a very loaded 00:00:11.300 --> 00:00:14.519 term. Right. Like, you might picture a lone samurai 00:00:14.519 --> 00:00:17.859 drawing a katana in the pouring rain. Or, you 00:00:17.859 --> 00:00:20.460 know, a Spartan standing resolute behind this 00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:23.539 massive dented bronze shield. Yeah. Or maybe 00:00:23.539 --> 00:00:26.000 a Viking on the prow of a longship. Exactly. 00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:29.079 It's a word that just feels completely drenched 00:00:29.079 --> 00:00:34.479 in honor and myth and this almost mystical concept 00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:37.359 of individuality. It really is an incredibly 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:39.219 evocative piece of language. I mean, it comes 00:00:39.219 --> 00:00:42.200 preloaded with an entire psychological and moral 00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:44.399 framework. Yeah. You don't just happen to fight 00:00:44.399 --> 00:00:46.939 if you are a warrior. You adhere to a specific 00:00:46.939 --> 00:00:49.460 code. Yeah. There's this implication of nobility 00:00:49.460 --> 00:00:51.619 and self -sacrifice that is basically baked right 00:00:51.619 --> 00:00:53.340 into the syllables. But if you actually look 00:00:53.340 --> 00:00:55.740 at the history of that word and, you know, the 00:00:55.740 --> 00:00:58.119 brutal complex reality of the people who actually 00:00:58.119 --> 00:01:00.240 bore that title over the centuries, the picture 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:02.640 gets significantly more complicated. Oh, it gets 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:05.959 messy. Very messy. It really does. So today, 00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:08.760 our mission in this deep dive is to take this 00:01:08.760 --> 00:01:12.920 seemingly simple, everyday word, warrior, and 00:01:12.920 --> 00:01:16.319 completely unpack its surprisingly complex 5 00:01:16.319 --> 00:01:18.680 ,000 year evolution. It's quite the timeline. 00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:22.500 It is. And we are basing today's journey on a 00:01:22.500 --> 00:01:25.680 comprehensive Wikipedia overview that basically 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:28.680 tracks the history of the warrior from prehistory 00:01:28.680 --> 00:01:31.280 all the way to the modern day. And it truly is 00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:33.340 an unbelievable journey for you to listen to. 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:35.900 We're going to look at how humanity's relationship 00:01:35.900 --> 00:01:38.420 with the act of fighting completely transformed 00:01:38.420 --> 00:01:41.000 over millennia. Right. And that was largely driven 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:43.459 by how society itself was changing around the 00:01:43.459 --> 00:01:45.739 fighters. Yeah. We're going to travel from ancient 00:01:45.739 --> 00:01:48.379 nomadic horsemen who literally shaped the languages 00:01:48.379 --> 00:01:50.379 we are using to speak to each other right now 00:01:50.379 --> 00:01:53.400 to aristocratic elites who, like, hoarded the 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:56.060 glory of combat behind velvet ropes. Right. And 00:01:56.060 --> 00:01:58.930 then onto the rise of brutal, highly displaced 00:01:58.930 --> 00:02:01.769 standing armies. Exactly. And finally, we will 00:02:01.769 --> 00:02:03.829 look at how the concept of the warrior has been 00:02:03.829 --> 00:02:06.530 resurrected today as a highly calculated psychological 00:02:06.530 --> 00:02:09.229 tool. Right. Okay, let's unpack this. So to really 00:02:09.229 --> 00:02:12.090 grasp the magnitude of this evolution, we have 00:02:12.090 --> 00:02:14.699 to travel back to the very beginning. Like pre 00:02:14.699 --> 00:02:17.180 -civilization beginning. Exactly. Long before 00:02:17.180 --> 00:02:19.879 cities, before kings, before written laws or 00:02:19.879 --> 00:02:23.800 taxes, we are talking about pre -state societies. 00:02:23.960 --> 00:02:26.419 Right. The really early days. Yeah. In these 00:02:26.419 --> 00:02:29.539 early tribal or clan -based groups, being a warrior 00:02:29.539 --> 00:02:32.120 was absolutely not a specialized profession. 00:02:32.300 --> 00:02:34.039 I mean, you didn't go down to a local recruitment 00:02:34.039 --> 00:02:36.539 office, sign a four -year contract, and get shipped 00:02:36.539 --> 00:02:39.340 off to a base. No. Not at all. There was no military 00:02:39.340 --> 00:02:42.860 as a separate, distinct entity standing apart 00:02:42.860 --> 00:02:44.370 from the community. So everyone was just sort 00:02:44.370 --> 00:02:47.250 of involved. Exactly. If the community was threatened 00:02:47.250 --> 00:02:50.509 by an outside group or if a harsh winter meant 00:02:50.509 --> 00:02:52.729 they needed to raid neighboring resources just 00:02:52.729 --> 00:02:55.289 to survive, every able -bodied person picked 00:02:55.289 --> 00:02:58.150 up a weapon. Wow. They fought because the group's 00:02:58.150 --> 00:03:00.849 survival literally depended on it. But our overview 00:03:00.849 --> 00:03:03.650 highlights a very specific group from this era 00:03:03.650 --> 00:03:05.789 that completely changed the trajectory of human 00:03:05.789 --> 00:03:09.310 history, right? The Yamnaya. Yes, the Yamnaya 00:03:09.310 --> 00:03:11.900 culture. They originated from the Pontic Caspian 00:03:11.900 --> 00:03:14.379 steppe, and they are a perfect case study for 00:03:14.379 --> 00:03:16.960 this era. Okay, set the scene for us. Picture 00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:20.599 these vast, seemingly endless, grassy plains 00:03:20.599 --> 00:03:23.460 stretching from modern -day Ukraine and Russia 00:03:23.460 --> 00:03:27.080 down toward the Caspian Sea. We're talking... 00:03:26.810 --> 00:03:29.550 roughly four to five thousand years ago. And 00:03:29.550 --> 00:03:33.009 the Yamnaya had a massive, world -altering advantage. 00:03:33.370 --> 00:03:35.669 They were some of the earliest human beings to 00:03:35.669 --> 00:03:38.750 domesticate and ride horses. Which is huge. Right. 00:03:38.810 --> 00:03:41.349 Because they were mounted, they unlocked this 00:03:41.349 --> 00:03:44.169 unprecedented physical mobility. I mean, they 00:03:44.169 --> 00:03:46.449 weren't just defending a single river valley 00:03:46.449 --> 00:03:49.710 or a static cluster of huts. No, they were constantly 00:03:49.710 --> 00:03:52.949 moving, expanding and colliding with other cultures 00:03:52.949 --> 00:03:55.650 across these vast distances. To put it in modern 00:03:55.650 --> 00:03:58.189 terms, These early Yamnaya warriors were essentially 00:03:58.189 --> 00:04:01.689 the ultimate independent pioneers or survivalists. 00:04:01.729 --> 00:04:04.069 They were entirely self -sufficient. What's fascinating 00:04:04.069 --> 00:04:07.270 here is the profound sociological impact of that 00:04:07.270 --> 00:04:09.090 specific mobility. What do you mean by that? 00:04:09.389 --> 00:04:11.750 Well, think about the spread of the Indo -European 00:04:11.750 --> 00:04:14.449 language family, which is this massive umbrella 00:04:14.449 --> 00:04:17.250 encompassing everything from English and Spanish 00:04:17.250 --> 00:04:21.949 to Hindi and Russian. That didn't happen through 00:04:21.949 --> 00:04:24.750 peaceful academic exchange or trade routes alone. 00:04:24.860 --> 00:04:28.019 Wait, really? Yeah. It was driven in large part 00:04:28.019 --> 00:04:31.600 by the relentless migrations and conquests of 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:34.360 these exact horse riding warrior cultures. Wait, 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:36.000 I want to make sure I'm really visualizing this. 00:04:36.180 --> 00:04:38.220 They didn't just ride into a new territory and 00:04:38.220 --> 00:04:41.579 hand out dictionaries. No. How does a warrior 00:04:41.579 --> 00:04:44.180 on a horse thousands of years ago actually change 00:04:44.180 --> 00:04:46.439 the literal words coming out of my mouth today? 00:04:46.660 --> 00:04:50.040 It is a process of cultural and demographic replacement, 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:52.480 which is often called elite dominance. Elite 00:04:52.480 --> 00:04:55.480 dominance, okay. When a highly mobile, militarily 00:04:55.480 --> 00:04:58.540 superior group like the Yamnaya rides into a 00:04:58.540 --> 00:05:02.040 new territory populated by, say, scattered stationary 00:05:02.040 --> 00:05:04.540 farmers, they don't just conquer them. Right. 00:05:04.540 --> 00:05:06.800 They intermarry, they seize the resources, and 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:08.980 they establish themselves at the top of the social 00:05:08.980 --> 00:05:11.819 hierarchy. Oh, I see. So over generations, the 00:05:11.819 --> 00:05:13.839 language of the conquerors, which is the language 00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:16.839 of power, trade and survival, becomes the dominant 00:05:16.839 --> 00:05:19.100 tongue. That puts a completely different spin 00:05:19.100 --> 00:05:21.800 on the ancestral roots of our vocabulary. It 00:05:21.800 --> 00:05:24.899 really does. So in pre -state societies, being 00:05:24.899 --> 00:05:28.060 a warrior was a way of life that directly drove 00:05:28.060 --> 00:05:31.500 human migration and the literal diffusion of 00:05:31.500 --> 00:05:34.779 global culture. Wow. But a guy on a horse is 00:05:34.779 --> 00:05:36.680 really only as terrifying as what he is holding 00:05:36.680 --> 00:05:39.439 in his hands, right? True. We often think of 00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:41.879 ancient warfare as primitive, but the basics 00:05:41.879 --> 00:05:44.660 were already well established long before complex 00:05:44.660 --> 00:05:47.579 governments existed. I mean, bows, arrows, slings, 00:05:47.819 --> 00:05:50.879 axes, clubs, spears. Yeah, you don't need a bureaucratic 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:52.699 state to figure out how to sharpen a stick or 00:05:52.699 --> 00:05:55.379 swing a heavy rock. Exactly. You certainly don't. 00:05:55.639 --> 00:05:57.959 The critical shift in lethality, however, happens 00:05:57.959 --> 00:06:00.339 with the introduction of metallurgy. Oh, right. 00:06:00.680 --> 00:06:03.899 Bronze and iron. Yes. Once human beings figure 00:06:03.899 --> 00:06:06.399 out how to smelt copper, and then alloy it into 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:08.939 bronze and eventually forge iron, the physics 00:06:08.939 --> 00:06:11.560 of combat change overnight. Because like a stone 00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:13.879 axe might be heavy, but it can shatter against 00:06:13.879 --> 00:06:17.060 another rock or bone. Exactly. A bronze axe bites 00:06:17.060 --> 00:06:19.560 into a target and holds its edge. It fundamentally 00:06:19.560 --> 00:06:22.480 changes the calculus of violence. Precisely. 00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:26.420 But even with those deadly New Bronze axes, the 00:06:26.420 --> 00:06:28.959 Yamnaya and cultures like them were still fighting 00:06:28.959 --> 00:06:31.620 as a unified community. The burden of violence 00:06:31.620 --> 00:06:34.120 was a shared reality. And here's where the timeline 00:06:34.120 --> 00:06:37.139 takes a massive pivot. Yes, it does. Society 00:06:37.139 --> 00:06:40.100 fundamentally changes its structure. We invent 00:06:40.100 --> 00:06:42.740 agriculture. We sought following herds. We settle 00:06:42.740 --> 00:06:45.360 down in fertile valleys. We plant grain. We build 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:47.459 heavy stone walls to protect that grain. And 00:06:47.459 --> 00:06:50.319 we create the first cities. And populations absolutely 00:06:50.319 --> 00:06:53.689 boom. Right. And as human society settled down 00:06:53.689 --> 00:06:56.689 and grew exponentially larger around 5 ,000 years 00:06:56.689 --> 00:07:00.589 ago, that independent roaming warrior model completely 00:07:00.589 --> 00:07:03.449 broke down. It simply could no longer scale. 00:07:03.670 --> 00:07:06.129 No. If you have a city of 50 ,000 people relying 00:07:06.129 --> 00:07:08.370 on complex irrigation, you can't have everyone 00:07:08.370 --> 00:07:10.610 abandon the farms to go ride horses for six months. 00:07:10.889 --> 00:07:13.670 Exactly. That agricultural revolution triggers 00:07:13.670 --> 00:07:16.410 the rise of the first true hierarchical systems. 00:07:16.509 --> 00:07:19.170 OK. For the first time, you have a distinct class 00:07:19.170 --> 00:07:21.629 of rulers. and a massive class of the ruled. 00:07:22.550 --> 00:07:24.529 And the economic and social gap between those 00:07:24.529 --> 00:07:27.490 two groups begins to widen drastically. I mean, 00:07:27.569 --> 00:07:30.589 if you are a newly minted king of a booming city 00:07:30.589 --> 00:07:32.730 state and you decide you want to conquer the 00:07:32.730 --> 00:07:34.709 neighboring valley to take their silver mines. 00:07:35.370 --> 00:07:38.329 You don't necessarily want to risk your own royal 00:07:38.329 --> 00:07:40.750 blood in the vanguard. No, you definitely don't. 00:07:40.829 --> 00:07:43.430 You also don't just casually ask for civilian 00:07:43.430 --> 00:07:46.829 volunteers. You use your power to force the lower 00:07:46.829 --> 00:07:50.610 -class men, the farmers, the laborers, into military 00:07:50.610 --> 00:07:52.910 roles. And this marks the birth of the professional 00:07:52.910 --> 00:07:55.230 soldier. Which is distinctly different from the 00:07:55.230 --> 00:07:57.970 older concept of warrior communities. The distinction 00:07:57.970 --> 00:08:01.029 between those two concepts is absolutely vital 00:08:01.029 --> 00:08:03.089 to understanding the rest of human history. How 00:08:03.089 --> 00:08:06.740 so? A warrior in a clan -based system fights 00:08:06.740 --> 00:08:09.220 because it is part of their core identity and 00:08:09.220 --> 00:08:11.819 it's a direct duty to their kin and their own 00:08:11.819 --> 00:08:14.300 survival. Right. A professional soldier fights 00:08:14.300 --> 00:08:16.680 because they are ordered to by a massive state 00:08:16.680 --> 00:08:19.180 apparatus, almost always under the threat of 00:08:19.180 --> 00:08:21.600 severe punishment and usually for some basic 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:24.839 form of compensation or daily rations. Wow. The 00:08:24.839 --> 00:08:27.939 state abstracts the violence. It becomes a job, 00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:31.060 not an identity. Here's where it gets really 00:08:31.060 --> 00:08:34.629 interesting because Logic would tell you that 00:08:34.629 --> 00:08:37.429 the people doing the actual bleeding and dying 00:08:37.429 --> 00:08:39.429 in the mud would get the glory. You would think 00:08:39.429 --> 00:08:42.990 so. But instead, the elites, the ruling class 00:08:42.990 --> 00:08:46.090 who were sitting comfortably in palaces, basically 00:08:46.090 --> 00:08:48.590 hoarded the warrior ethic for themselves. They 00:08:48.590 --> 00:08:51.370 absolutely did. I'm stuck on this idea. So fighting 00:08:51.370 --> 00:08:53.889 went from a universal survival necessity for 00:08:53.889 --> 00:08:57.809 everyone to an exclusive VIP status symbol. Yes. 00:08:58.289 --> 00:09:00.870 The elites kept the glorious warrior title, but 00:09:00.870 --> 00:09:03.929 basically outsourced the grueling, horrific reality 00:09:03.929 --> 00:09:07.429 of war to the lower classes. How did the peasants 00:09:07.429 --> 00:09:09.409 not just turn around and overthrow the guys in 00:09:09.409 --> 00:09:11.230 the fancy armor? Well, they didn't overthrow 00:09:11.230 --> 00:09:13.629 them because the elites monopolize both the physical 00:09:13.629 --> 00:09:16.429 tools of violence and the ideological justification 00:09:16.429 --> 00:09:18.529 for it. Oh, that makes sense. Warfare became 00:09:18.529 --> 00:09:21.639 a pure, heavily guarded display of status. Fighting 00:09:21.639 --> 00:09:24.000 was only considered a prestigious noble activity 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:26.799 when it was associated with power, wealth, and 00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:29.799 aristocracy. Wow. The ruling class intentionally 00:09:29.799 --> 00:09:32.940 cultivated the myth of the noble warrior to psychologically 00:09:32.940 --> 00:09:34.899 separate themselves from the common foot soldier. 00:09:35.179 --> 00:09:38.000 Because they just viewed the foot soldiers as 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:41.330 completely expendable meat for the grinder. Exactly. 00:09:41.730 --> 00:09:43.549 The historical examples of this hoarding behavior 00:09:43.549 --> 00:09:46.350 are wild. Like look at ancient Egypt. Right. 00:09:46.610 --> 00:09:48.570 The pharaohs wouldn't be depicted organizing 00:09:48.570 --> 00:09:51.789 logistics or managing supply lines. They had 00:09:51.789 --> 00:09:55.470 massive temple walls carved with images of themselves 00:09:55.470 --> 00:09:58.590 riding in these incredibly expensive gold -plated 00:09:58.590 --> 00:10:01.750 war chariots. Yes, casually shooting arrows and 00:10:01.750 --> 00:10:03.850 smashing their enemies with maces all by themselves. 00:10:03.970 --> 00:10:06.769 It was an intentional marketing campaign to showcase 00:10:06.769 --> 00:10:09.909 their divine solitary prowess. And we see this 00:10:09.909 --> 00:10:12.309 again. The exact dynamic repeated across continents 00:10:12.309 --> 00:10:14.850 and across millennia. Jump forward to Europe 00:10:14.850 --> 00:10:17.149 during the Middle Ages. Okay, knights in shining 00:10:17.149 --> 00:10:19.909 armor. You have the mounted knight. This is a 00:10:19.909 --> 00:10:22.429 man clad in custom -fitted, incredibly expensive 00:10:22.429 --> 00:10:25.350 steel armor, riding a specially bred warhorse 00:10:25.350 --> 00:10:27.549 that cost more than a peasant village could earn 00:10:27.549 --> 00:10:29.529 in a lifetime. Wow, I never thought about the 00:10:29.529 --> 00:10:32.649 cost. These knights felt absolute undisguised 00:10:32.649 --> 00:10:34.690 contempt for the lower -class foot soldiers, 00:10:35.009 --> 00:10:37.750 the drafted peasants with basic spears who actually 00:10:37.750 --> 00:10:40.529 made up the vast bulk of the armies. They literally 00:10:40.529 --> 00:10:42.470 looked down on them from horseback. They did. 00:10:42.750 --> 00:10:45.649 And it wasn't just a European or Egyptian phenomenon. 00:10:46.250 --> 00:10:48.870 The historical record shows Mesoamerican societies 00:10:48.870 --> 00:10:51.830 in pre -Columbian America doing the exact same 00:10:51.830 --> 00:10:54.610 thing. Yes, the jaguar and eagle warriors. Right. 00:10:54.669 --> 00:10:58.149 You had these highly elite aristocratic soldiers 00:10:58.149 --> 00:11:01.909 who wore elaborate, terrifying costumes and they 00:11:01.909 --> 00:11:04.289 kept themselves strictly socially separated from 00:11:04.289 --> 00:11:06.710 the lower classes whose job was essentially just 00:11:06.710 --> 00:11:08.570 to stand in the back ranks and throw stones. 00:11:08.970 --> 00:11:12.090 We also see the ultimate crystallization of this 00:11:12.090 --> 00:11:15.190 aristocratic hoarding in Japan. Oh, the samurai. 00:11:15.330 --> 00:11:18.690 Yes. The samurai emerged as a hereditary military 00:11:18.690 --> 00:11:21.990 nobility, an entire gated officer caste from 00:11:21.990 --> 00:11:24.230 the 12th century all the way to the late 19th 00:11:24.230 --> 00:11:26.769 century. A gated caste. If you were not born 00:11:26.769 --> 00:11:28.850 into that specific caste, you were not a samurai, 00:11:29.309 --> 00:11:32.269 period. Wow. The title, the honor, the social 00:11:32.269 --> 00:11:34.350 standing, and even the legal right to carry certain 00:11:34.350 --> 00:11:37.210 types of weapons were all strictly gated behind 00:11:37.210 --> 00:11:40.120 your bloodline. It's the ultimate VIP country 00:11:40.120 --> 00:11:42.419 club of combat. Like, you can only get past the 00:11:42.419 --> 00:11:44.799 velvet rope if your parents remembers. But while 00:11:44.799 --> 00:11:48.299 having a class of elite, glory -seeking aristocratic 00:11:48.299 --> 00:11:50.820 warriors sounds incredibly impressive in epic 00:11:50.820 --> 00:11:53.720 poetry and looks fantastic in museum paintings, 00:11:54.120 --> 00:11:56.519 I have to imagine it isn't always the most effective 00:11:56.519 --> 00:11:59.639 way to win practical large -scale wars. It is 00:11:59.639 --> 00:12:02.580 remarkably ineffective. Really? And this is where 00:12:02.580 --> 00:12:06.659 the romantic, mythical ideal of the warrior violently 00:12:06.659 --> 00:12:09.879 clashes with the brutal, pragmatic reality of 00:12:09.879 --> 00:12:11.980 statecraft. Oh, interesting. Think about the 00:12:11.980 --> 00:12:14.480 psychology of the clan -based warrior or the 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:18.059 aristocratic knight. They ride into battle primarily 00:12:18.059 --> 00:12:20.659 seeking personal valor. Right. They want to engage 00:12:20.659 --> 00:12:23.159 in single combat. They want to capture a rival 00:12:23.159 --> 00:12:26.259 noble to ransom them for personal wealth. Most 00:12:26.259 --> 00:12:28.320 importantly, they want a song written about their 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:30.460 specific deeds. They desperately want to be the 00:12:30.460 --> 00:12:32.919 main character of the battle. Yes, exactly. But 00:12:32.919 --> 00:12:35.679 if you are an emperor trying to build or maintain 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:39.259 a massive, continent -spanning empire, you absolutely 00:12:39.259 --> 00:12:41.759 do not want 10 ,000 main characters running around 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:43.899 the battlefield chasing their own personal glory. 00:12:44.120 --> 00:12:46.200 No, that sounds like a nightmare. You want a 00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:49.519 cohesive, predictable machine. And that brings 00:12:49.519 --> 00:12:52.440 us to the practical approach to warfare that 00:12:52.440 --> 00:12:56.259 forever changes history. The Roman legions. Ah, 00:12:56.440 --> 00:13:00.370 the Romans. They are a... the perfect contrast 00:13:00.370 --> 00:13:02.830 to the main character syndrome. Very true. They 00:13:02.830 --> 00:13:05.529 didn't rely on the aristocratic desire for mystical 00:13:05.529 --> 00:13:08.590 glory to win their battles. They relied on two 00:13:08.590 --> 00:13:12.250 very practical, unromantic things, the bureaucratic 00:13:12.250 --> 00:13:15.330 incentive of promotion and a terrifyingly strict 00:13:15.330 --> 00:13:17.740 level of physical discipline. The Roman legionary 00:13:17.740 --> 00:13:19.759 was the ultimate professional. They fought in 00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:22.460 tight, complex formation. Right? If a Celtic 00:13:22.460 --> 00:13:24.500 champion ran out into the open space between 00:13:24.500 --> 00:13:26.559 the two armies and screamed out a challenge to 00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:29.200 single combat, the Roman legionary wouldn't break 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:31.259 ranks to fight him to win a glorious reputation. 00:13:31.480 --> 00:13:33.460 Because breaking ranks would compromise the shield 00:13:33.460 --> 00:13:36.039 wall. Yes. And his own centurion would likely 00:13:36.039 --> 00:13:38.720 execute him for insubordination. Wow. It's exactly 00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:40.879 like a modern sports franchise realizing that 00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:43.320 a roster full of flashy ego -driven superstar 00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:46.220 players who refuse to pass the ball will eventually 00:13:46.220 --> 00:13:49.320 lose to a highly drilled, fundamentally sound 00:13:49.320 --> 00:13:52.679 team where the system itself is the star. That's 00:13:52.679 --> 00:13:55.320 a great analogy. The Roman system was the star, 00:13:55.580 --> 00:13:58.379 not the individual guy holding the sword. If 00:13:58.379 --> 00:14:01.019 we connect this to the bigger picture... The 00:14:01.019 --> 00:14:03.080 state essentially stripped the individuality 00:14:03.080 --> 00:14:05.820 completely out of combat. Yeah. Warfare was no 00:14:05.820 --> 00:14:08.460 longer a theatrical stage for an aristocrat to 00:14:08.460 --> 00:14:11.500 attain personal glory. It became a brutal, highly 00:14:11.500 --> 00:14:14.100 practical mechanism for state expansion. Just 00:14:14.100 --> 00:14:17.289 a machine. The goal was no longer honor. The 00:14:17.289 --> 00:14:19.789 goal was the efficient, systemic destruction 00:14:19.789 --> 00:14:22.750 of the enemy and the permanent taking of territory. 00:14:22.909 --> 00:14:25.350 And this mechanical, systemic view of warfare 00:14:25.350 --> 00:14:29.570 only gets more intense and, frankly, more dehumanizing 00:14:29.570 --> 00:14:32.960 as we move forward in time. Let's fast forward 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:36.519 to Europe's standing armies of the 17th and 18th 00:14:36.519 --> 00:14:38.899 centuries. We're talking about the era of black 00:14:38.899 --> 00:14:41.600 powder, muskets, and those incredibly bright 00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:44.519 iconic colored uniforms. The era of linear warfare. 00:14:44.580 --> 00:14:46.720 Right. And to understand why discipline became 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:49.159 the absolute uncompromising core of training, 00:14:49.559 --> 00:14:51.740 you have to understand the mechanism of the weapons. 00:14:51.940 --> 00:14:55.860 The muskets? Yes. Smoothbore muskets were notoriously 00:14:55.860 --> 00:14:57.960 inaccurate. You couldn't just aim at a single 00:14:57.960 --> 00:15:00.399 target from a distance and hit it. The only way 00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:03.879 to inflict damage damage was massed volley fire. 00:15:04.059 --> 00:15:06.720 Which means you need hundreds of men to stand 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:08.779 shoulder to shoulder in a perfectly straight 00:15:08.779 --> 00:15:11.659 line, marching slowly out in the open toward 00:15:11.659 --> 00:15:13.879 the enemy. Exactly. They have to stand there 00:15:13.879 --> 00:15:16.899 exposed, loading and firing these complex must 00:15:16.899 --> 00:15:19.919 -hits in unison. All while the enemy is firing 00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:22.059 cannonballs that are literally tearing through 00:15:22.059 --> 00:15:24.580 their ranks. It's horrifying. You physically 00:15:24.580 --> 00:15:27.259 cannot get human beings to do that if they're 00:15:27.259 --> 00:15:30.019 acting as individuals with a sense of self -preservation. 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:32.580 It requires overriding basic human instincts. 00:15:33.539 --> 00:15:35.779 The psychology of this era is fascinating and 00:15:35.779 --> 00:15:38.899 deeply grim. How so? The officers in these 18th 00:15:38.899 --> 00:15:41.320 century armies were aristocratic. They often 00:15:41.320 --> 00:15:43.299 literally bought their military commissions with 00:15:43.299 --> 00:15:46.399 family wealth. Wow. but they viewed their men, 00:15:46.600 --> 00:15:49.220 the actual soldiers in the lines, as strictly 00:15:49.220 --> 00:15:52.960 lower class. The officer's primary role was absolutely 00:15:52.960 --> 00:15:55.320 not to inspire them with rousing speeches about 00:15:55.320 --> 00:15:59.179 ancient glory. No, their role was to use harsh, 00:15:59.899 --> 00:16:03.220 relentless corporal discipline to transform those 00:16:03.220 --> 00:16:06.840 men into reliable, unthinking cogs in a gunpowder 00:16:06.840 --> 00:16:09.370 machine. Frederick the Great of Prussia famously 00:16:09.370 --> 00:16:11.990 summed up this entire philosophy. He did. He 00:16:11.990 --> 00:16:14.250 explicitly stated that the common soldier must 00:16:14.250 --> 00:16:17.129 fear his own officer more than he fears the enemy. 00:16:17.409 --> 00:16:20.009 Yeah. That is the ultimate expression of the 00:16:20.009 --> 00:16:23.129 machine model of warfare. The soldier is a fleshy 00:16:23.129 --> 00:16:26.129 tool. Nothing more. He is certainly not a warrior. 00:16:26.289 --> 00:16:28.190 Not at all. But I'm looking at this timeline 00:16:28.190 --> 00:16:31.909 and there is a massive fatal flaw in that 18th 00:16:31.909 --> 00:16:34.029 century model. What's that? You can only treat 00:16:34.029 --> 00:16:36.940 people like expendable unthinking cogs. under 00:16:36.940 --> 00:16:39.580 the threat of the Latch for so long. Eventually, 00:16:39.919 --> 00:16:42.279 the very scale of human conflict changes. Right, 00:16:42.379 --> 00:16:43.799 the Industrial Revolution changes everything. 00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:46.080 When we move out of the era of kings and into 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:48.019 the Renaissance and eventually the modern era, 00:16:48.519 --> 00:16:51.360 wars stop being small, localized border disputes 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:53.299 fought by a few thousand professionals. They 00:16:53.299 --> 00:16:56.159 become massive existential conflicts. requiring 00:16:56.159 --> 00:16:59.679 the mobilization of millions of ordinary citizens. 00:17:00.039 --> 00:17:02.259 And when a government suddenly needs millions 00:17:02.259 --> 00:17:04.900 of people to pick up a rifle, they realize they 00:17:04.900 --> 00:17:06.880 have to radically change their psychological 00:17:06.880 --> 00:17:09.720 approach. Yes. You need those troops motivated. 00:17:10.059 --> 00:17:12.119 Because you simply cannot beat a million men 00:17:12.119 --> 00:17:15.519 into submission. The logistics of terror fail 00:17:15.519 --> 00:17:17.859 at that scale. Right. You need them to want to 00:17:17.859 --> 00:17:21.000 fight. You need emotional and ideological buy 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:24.539 in. Yeah. And so searching for a solution societies 00:17:24.539 --> 00:17:27.759 began to look backward into history for inspiration. 00:17:28.539 --> 00:17:30.559 Interesting. During the Renaissance, European 00:17:30.559 --> 00:17:33.420 thinkers became obsessed with reviving the ancient 00:17:33.420 --> 00:17:36.420 Greek ideals of the citizen soldier. They pushed 00:17:36.420 --> 00:17:39.400 the idea that a free man has a sacred civic duty 00:17:39.400 --> 00:17:41.400 to defend his republic. So governments start 00:17:41.400 --> 00:17:43.420 incorporating mass conscription, drafting the 00:17:43.420 --> 00:17:45.380 general populace. Exactly. But the moment you 00:17:45.380 --> 00:17:47.519 draft the local baker, the blacksmith and the 00:17:47.519 --> 00:17:50.359 schoolteacher, the entire psychological dynamic 00:17:50.359 --> 00:17:53.680 flips. You can't treat the town baker like the 00:17:53.680 --> 00:17:55.799 expendable lower -class scum of the Prussian 00:17:55.799 --> 00:17:58.579 Army. No, you really can't. The historical data 00:17:58.579 --> 00:18:01.680 shows a massive attitude shift here. Officers 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:03.880 were suddenly instructed to treat their soldiers 00:18:03.880 --> 00:18:06.400 with moderation, appeal to their patriotism, 00:18:06.460 --> 00:18:08.950 and show them basic respect. because those new 00:18:08.950 --> 00:18:11.809 soldiers were citizens. They had rights. They 00:18:11.809 --> 00:18:14.509 had families who voted. They had political voices 00:18:14.509 --> 00:18:17.430 at home. Wow. The power dynamic fundamentally 00:18:17.430 --> 00:18:21.029 shifted from top down terror to a necessity for 00:18:21.029 --> 00:18:23.849 mutual respect. There's a fascinating, highly 00:18:23.849 --> 00:18:26.329 specific example from the American Civil War 00:18:26.329 --> 00:18:29.269 that perfectly illustrates this radical shift. 00:18:29.390 --> 00:18:32.150 In many volunteer regiments, especially early 00:18:32.150 --> 00:18:34.990 in the conflict, the men actually elected their 00:18:34.990 --> 00:18:37.650 own officers. Think about the immense implications 00:18:45.719 --> 00:19:00.450 Right. That is wild. It is the exact opposite 00:19:00.450 --> 00:19:02.769 of Frederick the Great. Absolutely. But because 00:19:02.769 --> 00:19:05.049 these citizen armies eventually swelled into 00:19:05.049 --> 00:19:08.150 the millions, like think about the staggering 00:19:08.150 --> 00:19:11.450 scale of World War One and World War Two. Millions 00:19:11.450 --> 00:19:13.910 and millions of men. Governments faced a massive 00:19:13.910 --> 00:19:17.000 psychological hurdle. How do you convince an 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:19.960 18 -year -old farm boy or a factory worker to 00:19:19.960 --> 00:19:22.819 voluntarily charge out of a trench and run directly 00:19:22.819 --> 00:19:25.299 into heavy machine gun fire? It's a huge ask. 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:28.200 You can't just use discipline and eventually 00:19:28.200 --> 00:19:30.940 even abstract civic duty wears thin in the face 00:19:30.940 --> 00:19:32.680 of artillery. You need something much deeper, 00:19:32.859 --> 00:19:36.480 something primal. So, societies made deliberate, 00:19:36.900 --> 00:19:39.839 highly engineered efforts to revive the ancient 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:42.740 warrior spirit. They realized. They needed to 00:19:42.740 --> 00:19:45.900 tap into that visceral 5 ,000 year old mythology. 00:19:46.440 --> 00:19:48.380 They needed to convince the modern, terrified 00:19:48.380 --> 00:19:51.180 conscript that he wasn't just a fragile, fleshy 00:19:51.180 --> 00:19:53.579 cog in an industrial slaughterhouse, but that 00:19:53.579 --> 00:19:56.619 he was the rightful spiritual descendant of the 00:19:56.619 --> 00:19:59.299 Amnaya, of the Spartans, of the Samurai. So what 00:19:59.299 --> 00:20:01.500 does this all mean? For me, looking at the entire 00:20:01.500 --> 00:20:03.619 scope of this deep dive, there is this incredible, 00:20:03.759 --> 00:20:06.759 almost painful historical irony. Well, look at 00:20:06.759 --> 00:20:09.960 the timeline of what society actually did. Five 00:20:09.960 --> 00:20:12.259 thousand years ago, the ruling class violently 00:20:12.259 --> 00:20:15.359 took the esteemed title of warrior away from 00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:18.019 the common person to give it exclusively to the 00:20:18.019 --> 00:20:20.640 elites. Right. They hoarded the glory behind 00:20:20.640 --> 00:20:23.400 castle walls. But then centuries later, when 00:20:23.400 --> 00:20:25.839 modern governments desperately needed massive 00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:28.220 willing armies of commoners to go fight and die 00:20:28.220 --> 00:20:30.720 in their industrial wars, they took that shiny 00:20:30.720 --> 00:20:33.440 mythic title of warrior and desperately handed 00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:35.819 it right back to the working class through marketing 00:20:35.819 --> 00:20:38.099 campaigns. This race is an important question 00:20:38.099 --> 00:20:40.130 for all of us today. about the sheer power of 00:20:40.130 --> 00:20:43.210 language. The word warrior transitioned from 00:20:43.210 --> 00:20:46.309 a literal nomadic lifestyle on the steps, to 00:20:46.309 --> 00:20:49.470 a strictly gated noble caste, to a mechanical 00:20:49.470 --> 00:20:52.390 cog in a musket line, and finally into a highly 00:20:52.390 --> 00:20:54.910 refined psychological tool. It's quite the arc. 00:20:55.630 --> 00:20:58.150 Looking at the analysis today, because of its 00:20:58.150 --> 00:21:00.529 deeply heroic connotations, the term warrior 00:21:00.529 --> 00:21:03.690 is heavily used as a calculated metaphor in publications 00:21:03.690 --> 00:21:06.450 advocating for or recruiting for modern militaries. 00:21:06.670 --> 00:21:10.089 It's an incredibly potent metaphor. When a military 00:21:10.089 --> 00:21:12.490 recruitment brochure calls an 18 year old kid 00:21:12.490 --> 00:21:15.349 a warrior today, they aren't promising him the 00:21:15.349 --> 00:21:17.829 independence of a step nomad wandering the plains. 00:21:17.930 --> 00:21:20.109 Definitely not. And they certainly aren't giving 00:21:20.109 --> 00:21:22.710 him the elite political power of an armored knight. 00:21:23.049 --> 00:21:25.789 They are using the feeling of the word, the myth, 00:21:26.349 --> 00:21:29.230 to inspire sacrifice and absolute loyalty. It 00:21:29.230 --> 00:21:32.440 is a linguistic mechanism. used to dignify the 00:21:32.440 --> 00:21:35.519 incredibly brutal, chaotic, and often entirely 00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:38.619 unglamorous reality of modern combat. Yeah. The 00:21:38.619 --> 00:21:40.980 state needs individuals to be willing to sacrifice 00:21:40.980 --> 00:21:43.420 themselves for the greater good. And calling 00:21:43.420 --> 00:21:45.900 them a warrior provides an immediate framework 00:21:45.900 --> 00:21:48.640 of honor and heroism that makes that ultimate 00:21:48.640 --> 00:21:51.660 sacrifice socially acceptable and even culturally 00:21:51.660 --> 00:21:54.079 desirable. It completely changes how we look 00:21:54.079 --> 00:21:56.259 at the word the next time we hear it. It really 00:21:56.259 --> 00:21:58.579 does. We've traced this incredible journey today. 00:21:58.759 --> 00:22:01.079 We started out on the windswept Pontic Caspian 00:22:01.079 --> 00:22:03.720 steppe with the horseback riding Yamnaya, whose 00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:06.339 very movement and martial prowess shaped the 00:22:06.339 --> 00:22:08.549 syllables we are using. right now. We watched 00:22:08.549 --> 00:22:11.630 the ego -driven pharaohs and samurai lock the 00:22:11.630 --> 00:22:14.829 concept of glory behind palace doors and bloodlines. 00:22:15.529 --> 00:22:18.369 We saw the Romans and the Prussians crush that 00:22:18.369 --> 00:22:21.329 individual Edo under the boot of extreme discipline 00:22:21.329 --> 00:22:23.869 turning men into parts of a geometric machine. 00:22:23.950 --> 00:22:27.329 And finally we saw modern societies dust off 00:22:27.329 --> 00:22:30.730 the old myth to print on military recruitment 00:22:30.730 --> 00:22:33.230 brochures. Right. It really reminds you that 00:22:33.230 --> 00:22:35.470 wands aren't just passive descriptions. They 00:22:35.470 --> 00:22:38.589 are powerful, active tools used to shape our 00:22:38.589 --> 00:22:40.890 reality and our willingness to act. And that 00:22:40.890 --> 00:22:42.869 leads to a final thought I'd like to leave you 00:22:42.869 --> 00:22:44.809 with. Something to actively look out for in your 00:22:44.809 --> 00:22:47.289 own life. Okay. If the concept of the warrior 00:22:47.289 --> 00:22:49.650 has been continuously adapted and weaponized 00:22:49.650 --> 00:22:52.309 by those in power to extract self -sacrificing 00:22:52.309 --> 00:22:55.250 loyalty, first by ancient kings hoarding status 00:22:55.250 --> 00:22:57.829 and later by modern militaries building morale. 00:22:57.869 --> 00:23:00.089 Right. Where else is this ancient psychology 00:23:00.089 --> 00:23:03.220 being used on us today? Step entirely outside 00:23:03.220 --> 00:23:05.859 the military world. Think about the modern civilian 00:23:05.859 --> 00:23:08.660 world. You know, the original text brings up 00:23:08.660 --> 00:23:11.799 a fascinating, if somewhat controversial, modern 00:23:11.799 --> 00:23:15.319 linguistic trend. And just to be clear For you 00:23:15.319 --> 00:23:17.880 listening, we aren't taking a stance on the politics 00:23:17.880 --> 00:23:20.519 here at all. We are purely looking at the linguistics 00:23:20.519 --> 00:23:22.680 of the source material. Absolutely. It notes 00:23:22.680 --> 00:23:25.640 that the term warrior has heavily infiltrated 00:23:25.640 --> 00:23:29.440 our everyday culture. Exactly. When massive corporations 00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:32.059 call their mid -level employees corporate warriors, 00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:34.759 or when various political and social movements 00:23:34.759 --> 00:23:37.819 demand you be a social justice warrior or a culture 00:23:37.819 --> 00:23:39.940 warrior, you have to ask yourself a question. 00:23:39.980 --> 00:23:42.779 Right. Are they actually offering you the nobility, 00:23:43.019 --> 00:23:45.809 respect, and independence of the ancient steppe? 00:23:46.109 --> 00:23:48.769 Or are they simply borrowing a 5 ,000 -year -old 00:23:48.769 --> 00:23:50.690 psychological trick to get you to march into 00:23:50.690 --> 00:23:53.170 battle, exhaust yourself, and sacrifice your 00:23:53.170 --> 00:23:55.349 own well -being for their bottom line or their 00:23:55.349 --> 00:23:58.309 cause? Wow. It is a word that demands sacrifice. 00:23:58.569 --> 00:24:00.569 The question is, who is benefiting from it?