How do you prepare yourself mentally for a war with a high casualty rate?

How do you prepare yourself mentally for a war with a high casualty rate?
I honestly don't get how WW1 soldiers on the western front didn't pussy out in the face of almost guaranteed maiming or death.

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    That shit would be easy for me

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >I honestly don't get how WW1 soldiers on the western front didn't pussy out in the face of almost guaranteed maiming or death.
    It was common for soldiers of WW1 to think of going to war as "going on adventures" before they reached the frontlines

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      There was less to do back then

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Yup, they didn't have cartel beheading videos to watch to realize the horror before making it there

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        what about the video where they peeled the dude's face off while we was alive?

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Thread should've ended here.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      These:

      Yup, they didn't have cartel beheading videos to watch to realize the horror before making it there

      Also:
      >pussy out in the face of almost guaranteed maiming or death.
      Either the war is Just and you're putting your life on the line to stop "almost guaranteed death" or intolerably cruel society from reaching your family and friends,
      Or the war is Unjust and you shouldn't be risking your life for somebody else to acquire more land/resources/wealth/power. If the war is unjust, you should be constantly looking for opportunities to leave, to sabotage efforts, or to mutiny.
      Getting locked up for a few years might be the better alternative if the war is that brutal and there are that many deaths-- if the opposing side isn't going to enslave your home country if they win, and there's a huge chance you're gonna die, why bother fighting at all?

      That said, modern wars are full of secrets and it can be extremely difficult to be on the side that isn't going to misuse the wireless neural-interface networks which were put in place over the last 30 years.

      >How do you prepare yourself mentally for a war with a high casualty rate?
      Hope and denial, basically. Everyone believes he'll make it out alive somehow. They haven't yet seen the reality of war. They haven't yet had their comrade's head explode in front of their eyes, or seen how insignificant and inconsequential a single soldier is in a modern war. You can compare it with serious illnesses like lung cancer, which has like a 90 % fatality rate or something. Patients just ignore the statistics and hope for the best. What else can they do?
      >I honestly don't get how WW1 soldiers on the western front didn't pussy out in the face of almost guaranteed maiming or death.
      WW1 is a special case because back then most people saw war as this grand adventure that makes a man out of you. All the war bling and fancy uniforms are specifically designed to cover up the fact that war is hell. Also, don't forget pretty much every nation lied to hell and back about their casualties. The only way people got reliable news from the front was from soldiers on home leave, and the governments made sure interactions between soldiers on home leave and the population were kept to a minimum for that very reason. And even when it happened, one single soldier telling the truth usually wasn't taken seriously. Must be a coward or a defeatist, God save England, Vive la France, Für das Vaterland etc. pp.

      >Hope and denial, basically.
      These are the choices of fools.

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    You don't.
    They teach you how to march, and by the time you've marched into hell it's too late to do anything but keep your head down.

  4. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >control the info thats coming from the front
    >control the mindset of the guys on the front
    >"those 50 guys just died but dont worry, youll be fine now go get em"
    >balls and bravado helped a little
    Video related

  5. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Stop being a soft civilian frick and go touch lead

  6. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    You accept that you are already dead as you in fact are. This is as good a place as any. The only real option is to die a coward or not.

  7. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    You haven't watched the proper documentaries, It's fairly straightforward

    ?t=11

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      The absolute fricking greatest
      >non stop British humor
      >hilarious character flaws and spot gags
      >characters built up over multiple seasons and historical eras
      >good luck everyone

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        If this was the only image left of WWI after 1000 years, it wouldn't be wrong

  8. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Life used to be a lot more boring, there was no netflix, internet, malls, etc

    Going to die in a Trench instead of sitting in your shitty factory job wasn't too bad

  9. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Mutinies were quite common in the French, Italian, German, and Russian armies.

  10. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >I honestly don't get how WW1 soldiers on the western front didn't pussy out in the face of almost guaranteed maiming or death.
    Because at first, everyone was ready to go to war and thinking it would be over by Christmas. Afterwards, it became a battle of investment and revenge.

  11. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Cowardice was frowned upon on society scale and downright reason for execution in the frontlines. A very different mindset to todays "mental health day"-taking dipshits.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      People who think like this deserve to be cannon fodder.
      It is your karma.

  12. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    If they pussied out they'd be shot for cowardice, your odds in an enemy trench or no mans land look better with that in mind.

  13. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    The other day I saw a discussion where they said Tolkien went to WW1 and that was the reason why he wrote High Fantasy.

    Then people pointed out that Tolkien seems to have actually known what he was getting on as he didn't rush into getting enlisted.

    For reference:

    https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/people/tolkien.htm

    And yes, this does actually reflect in his writings, which is the reason you got in the Silmarillion entire civilizations getting wiped out, battles with hundreds of thousands of casualties and even the deployment of weapons of mass destruction which damaged the entire continent.

    While it's absolutely clear his tales are christian good-vs-evil narratives he also makes clear war is horrible and everyone would rather be in their own turf doing their own stuff if it wasn't because some loonies started to have delusions of godhood.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >s tales are christian good-vs-evil narratives
      they were a deliberate stab at moving beyond the post-Manicheanism Church world view and mythos and creating one around the dissolution of the messianic figure instead of the tapestry of ethnic strife and ultimately humanism
      there was no God or Abraham/Jesus/Mohamed/Young intercessory in Tolkien's world, no salvation, only evil and the choice to fight it or eat shit.
      Compare that to C.S. Lewis, 6 books of the Lion Jesus getting merced to save a gaggle of stupid children

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Gandalf is a literal angel sent by God.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          Who can't do shit but wave a sword around once in a while and eventually jump on a ship back to Never-Never Land

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >there was no God or Abraham/Jesus/Mohamed/Young intercessory in Tolkien's world
        It was literally God who completed the job and pushed Gollum into the lava after Frodo lost ot the Ring.
        >no salvation
        There were even two kinds, one for Elves, one for Men.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      LotR is low fantasy.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Only by the Third Age

  14. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    People were rather more used to death because antibiotics were barely a thing,
    and lots of diseases considered trivial today were still death sentences

  15. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    you don't. you just go because you have to.

  16. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >How do you prepare yourself mentally for a war with a high casualty rate?
    Hope and denial, basically. Everyone believes he'll make it out alive somehow. They haven't yet seen the reality of war. They haven't yet had their comrade's head explode in front of their eyes, or seen how insignificant and inconsequential a single soldier is in a modern war. You can compare it with serious illnesses like lung cancer, which has like a 90 % fatality rate or something. Patients just ignore the statistics and hope for the best. What else can they do?
    >I honestly don't get how WW1 soldiers on the western front didn't pussy out in the face of almost guaranteed maiming or death.
    WW1 is a special case because back then most people saw war as this grand adventure that makes a man out of you. All the war bling and fancy uniforms are specifically designed to cover up the fact that war is hell. Also, don't forget pretty much every nation lied to hell and back about their casualties. The only way people got reliable news from the front was from soldiers on home leave, and the governments made sure interactions between soldiers on home leave and the population were kept to a minimum for that very reason. And even when it happened, one single soldier telling the truth usually wasn't taken seriously. Must be a coward or a defeatist, God save England, Vive la France, Für das Vaterland etc. pp.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      1)
      >All the war bling and fancy uniforms are specifically designed to cover up the fact that war is hell.
      Elaborating on that: Through its propaganda the government makes sure to paint this picture of a grand adventure where boys become men.
      Imagine you're an impressionable teenager from some backwater town in Prussia or whatever. Every soldier you've seen so far is wearing this nice clean uniform, dons a sharp haircut, commands deference and respect wherever he goes, girls look at him and blush, old people take off their hats when passing him, you've got a cool monument dedicated to his predecessor, there's a whole national holiday for him, in your free time you read pulp stories about people like him, whenever you open the newspaper there's an article praising his heroic deeds or his latest glorious victories, and so on. He's the epitome of manliness, a modern knight in shining armor who vanquishes dragons and saves beautiful maidens in need. Of course you're gonna think: I want to be like this man.
      Toxic masculinity is a term that gets thrown around constantly these days, but if you really want to know what is: this is it.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        2)
        Conversely, whenever you see someone who claims to have seen the front and to know what war really is like: this one is a shell of a man. He's wearing ragged clothing, has a strange stare, maybe he's disabled or homeless, but certainly an alcoholic. His wife has left him because he can't provide for her, you heard he mutters in his sleep and occasionally wakes up screaming ... In short, he just seems rather queer and is uncomfortable to be around.
        Now who are you going to believe? Your government, your teacher, your priest, in short: everyone you know, who all paint this rosy picture of a grand adventure, or the mentally ill town alcoholic noone talks to? I'm willing to bet most young men choose to believe the former.
        Maybe you even want to do your part and enlist yourself? But even if you have doubts, once you get the draft your mind basically chooses to believe the rosy picture of war as a coping mechanism. "It can't be that bad, and once I'm back maybe Fräulein Müller will finally notice me." Etc.

  17. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >no internet or social media and news controlled and censored worse than current russia/china
    >wars back then seen as minor kerfuffles by the european monarchies
    >muh country pride

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >the fat c**t in the top hat demands your service
      brb going to enlist

  18. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    They didn't know it was a high casualty rate until they got there. It wouldn't work these days because people have too much information about what war is actually like.

  19. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >have fun
    >b urself
    anything missing?

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      a couple limbs, perhaps

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        skill/attitude issue

  20. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >I honestly don't get how WW1 soldiers on the western front didn't pussy out in the face of almost guaranteed maiming or death.
    'Only' 10% of British soldiers actually died and they'd only be in the trenches for 2 weeks at the time, before being rotated out. Of course, there were battles with 50% casualty rates and what not, but overall 90% of men made it back. Still sucks ass, but it's not the turbo meat grinder guaranteed death it's made out to be in pop culture.
    Plenty of conflicts have had a proportionally higher fatality rate.

  21. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >I honestly don't get how WW1 soldiers on the western front didn't pussy out in the face of almost guaranteed maiming or death.
    Becuase that guy you're stood next to is likely a an old friend, relation or workmate, you're not going to let him go over the top on his own are you?

    Tl;dr Pals batallions

  22. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    It's crazy how much information about the current war is being successfully suppressed in the information age. It would have been a million times easier to do back then.

  23. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Different times. Women still had 5+ children back then and death at a young age was common anyway. Also without sports and video games war was the single most entertaining thing for young men. What else were they going to do, work on a field for 16 hours a day until they die?

  24. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    People were made of sterner stuff back then

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