Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Never Say Die

I've been listening to a podcast called "Hardcore History". It's produced by Dan Carlin, and I'm in the middle of his series on the Punic Wars. (The wars between Rome and Carthage.)

Carlin describes the Romans as folks whose greatest asset was their refusal to surrender. They would simply not admit defeat, even when they'd been beaten on the field of battle, and would just keep going until they wore down their enemy.

He quotes a historian who describes it:
Victory through Superior Determination.

Thinking through his soccer career, business career, CrossFit career, and other general moments of his life,

I thought that sounded like a good description of Walter, too.

4 comments:

Paul Stokes said...

I haven't heard the podcast yet, but I would want to amend the motto so it would read "victory through nuanced determination." The scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail comes to mind, where the Black Knight (do I have the name right?) is VERY determined as his limbs are lopped off one by one.

Macon said...

Ha. Actually, the podcast makes the point that while Superior Determination works well against other humans, it does not work well against mother nature.

The romans lost 80,000 people in one bad storm at sea because they were trying to figure out how to have a navy. The weren't very good at it, but just kept throwing people at it.

Strangely, the Sea never seemed to back down.

Paul Stokes said...

Sounds like a great podcast. As soon as I figure out how to put it in my iPod (which means I have to figure out how to turn the thing on), I'm going to listen to it.

Sean Meade said...

from what i've heard, this description of Walter describes with wooing of Morgan as well :-)