Boys to Men

Steven Pressfield's "The Warrior Ethos" summarizes a stark distinction between the ways boys were cultivated into men (ie warriors) in one of the most widely recognized cultures of revered warfare (the Spartans) and how boys are weened into manhood today. Even in the greatest military in the world, men do not undergo anywhere near the level of adversity inculcated in the rites of passage (Callusing of the Mind) that mere children did in the Spartan Culture. Men of that time might have a good laugh at our attempts to apply austere conditions to our warrior trainees. Does the situation we face today call for less? Or in our intellectually superior age have we deemed these practices too savage to render necessary in preparing men for the inherent savagery of war. Reading the excerpt below - though extreme, inserts a slight feeling of longing to the trials that created those great men of battle. Marines all crave adversity and the enduring of punishing environments. 

Chapter 10 - "Boyz 2 Men"
- When they were boys, Alexander and his friends were forced to bathe in frigid rivers, run barefoot till their soles grew as thick as leather, ride all day without food or water and endure whippings and ritual humiliations. On the rare occasions when they got to rest, their trainers would remind them, "While you lie here at ease, the sons of the Persians are training to defeat you in battle."
     In Sparta, boys were allowed to stay with their mothers till they were seven. At that age, they were taken from their families and enrolled in the agoge "The Upbringing". This training lasted till they were eighteen, when they were considered grown warriors and were enrolled in the army. 

 "The boys in training were given one garment, a rough cloak that they wore all year long. They slept out of doors year-round. Each boy carried a sickle-like weapon called a xyele. They were allowed no beds but instead had to make nests of reeds gathered each night from the river. They were not permitted to cut the reeds with their sickles but had to tear them with their bare hands."

Food for the boys was pig's-blood porridge. A visiting Persian envoy was once given a taste of this gruel:

     "Now I understand Spartan Courage in battle. For surely death is preferable to dining upon such slop."

Bad as the food was, the boys got little of it. Instead, they were encouraged to steal. Stealing was no crime, but getting caught was. A boy who got caught was whipped. To cry out was considered a sign of cowardice. It was not unheard of for a Spartan boy to die of a beating without uttering a sound. 

          "In my day [said the first-century historian Plutarch], tourists traveled hundreds of miles to witness these scourgings, and to behold the courage of the boys enduring them in silence.  

There was a footrace in sparta each year among the boys. They ran ten miles, barefoot, carrying a mouthful of water. The boys were not allowed to swallow any of the water but had to spit it all out at the end of the race. Spartan boys were not permitted to speak to their elders unless spoken to. When addressed by their seniors, they stood in their rough cloaks, hands respectfully inside the garment, with their eyes on the ground.

                        Once a Spartan boy stole a fox and hid it under his cloak. Some grown Warriors stopped to question him on an unrelated subject. Beneath the cloak, the fox began gnawing at the youth's belly. The boy made no sound but allowed the beast to bleed him to death, rather than cry out or reveal his deed.  

Obviously I would not advocate for the reinstatement of Spartan culture - but I would advocate for taking a much closer and more intentional look at what we require of young men, escpecially those entering the service. By lowering standards and requiring men to endure less, we are doing them a disservice, not protecting them.