Introduction: Optimism at the End of the World (original) (raw)
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When armies struggle against all odds, the source of the soldiers' motivation to fight remains an unsolved puzzle. According to scholarly literature, comradeship and social cohesiveness are key factors in the conduct of any struggle. However, persistent fighting and determined resistance seem to occur also when soldiers are totally unacquainted with each other. This phenomenon calls for another observation, recognizing that social cohesion may not necessarily be the only explanation for human persistence on the battlefield. Probing into the case study of the Arab-Israeli 1973 war, 217 testimonies of soldiers and commanders have been reviewed. According to theories of positive psychology, some of these testimonies indicate how collective hope and optimistic attitudes are major motivating factors. Doubting Some Common Knowledge Why soldiers fight is a puzzle that bothers students of human behavior particularly when confronted with historical evidence of struggles where people have fought until the bitter end even when all, for them, had been lost. Facing fatal casualties and overrun by overwhelming military forces, one would expect soldiers belonging to disadvantaged armies to give in. Yet as Somerset Maugham has taught us, passion does not know the cost, and the heart has its reasons that reason takes no account of (Maugham, [1944] 2000). One common explanation for a continuous struggle even when the chance of succeeding seems slim lies within the social bonds of military units. Social cohesion as a human motivator has been examined time and again with numerous case studies of armies, starting far back with the Spartan military tradition (Sekunda & Hook, 1998), continuing through the poor but socially cohesive Confederate army of the American Civil War (Frank, 1991) as well as accounts of the Wehrmacht's social community structure (Shils & Janowitz, 1948), and concluding with records of current reserve units in the IDF [Israeli defense forces] (Ben-Dor, Pedahzur & Hasisi, 2002). On the other hand, in contrast to common wisdom, there is evidence that sometimes persistence in combat exists even when army units are destroyed and reduced to individual soldiers who are not necessarily acquainted with each other. The social capital theory of networks and group cohesion fails to explain why troops continue to fight even when their units have been dismantled and their comrades have all died. Perhaps an extreme example of that is the phenomenon of the Japanese holdouts. In the aftermath of World War II tens of thousands of Imperial troops were bypassed by the advancing American forces, and many of them were left stranded in isolated islands in the pacific. Those Japanese soldiers went into hiding, waiting for attacks that would never come and commands from military authorities that no longer existed. Devastatingly short of supplies and cut off from their homeland, thousands of them hid from the American patrols in the thick jungles and mountains of the islands,
Introduction: Organizing hope: Narratives for a better future
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Unlikely Signs: Hope in a Culture of Optimism
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This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Theological Studies at Digital Commons @ Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theological Studies Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@lmu.edu. Repository Citation Hoover, Brett C., "Unlikely Signs: Hope in a Culture of Optimism" (2005). Theological Studies Faculty Works. 234. http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/theo\_fac/234