(MORALITY AND ETHICS [continued(7)])[19th April 1987]

[Redbook3:208-209][19870419:1050e](MORALITY AND ETHICS [continued(7)])[19th April 1987]

19870419.1050

[continued]

Two particular implications arise from this*. One relates to the Just War: the basic (or perceived?) reason for the war is likely to affect the state of mind of the soldier. Although the First World War is often presented as a War between rival imperial powers (and with some reason), its immediate emotional trigger seems to have been the invasion of neutral Belgium; and such curious incidents as the spontaneous Christmas football matches between enemies suggest that for the ordinary soldier, fellow-feeling for the enemy outweighed feelings of enmity.

In the Second World War things seem to have been rather different, perhaps because the Nazi regime was widely (and, as it turned out, correctly) perceived as an evil power, a thing (in our terms) of extreme separation: apart from the sheer struggle for survival against an aggressive and expansionist power, I have the impression that many of those involved in the first Total War felt in some uncertain way that they were fighting for a rather diffuse inner ideal – perhaps for Love itself, against the shadow of the Jackboot**. This is speculative: but in theory, to fight on behalf of the Quality itself would be a purer morality even than to be motivated by the Quality of Love in relation to other people, even if the latter does merge gradually into the former.

*[See last previous entry. For the second implication, see next entry.]

**{Distraction? (cf. +Mk on the […][hill] in '[0]').}

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