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The Most Profound Question Is, "what Would I Risk Dying For?" The Natural Answer Is "for My Family." But For Most Of History, We Didn't Live In Families. We Lived In Small Communities That Gave Us Our Sense Of Safety And Place In The World, So The Natural Answer Would Be "for My People." The Blessing And The Tragedy Of Modern Life Is That We Don't Need Our Community To Survive Anymore. When We Lose That Idea, We Lose A Sense Of Who We Are.

-Sebastian Junger

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The Most Profound Question

Sebastian Junger

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The Most Profound Question Is, "what Would I Risk Dying For?" The Natural Answer Is "for My Family." But For Most Of History, We Didn't Live In Families. We Lived In Small Communities That Gave Us Our Sense Of Safety And Place In The World, So The Natural Answer Would Be "for My People." The Blessing And The Tragedy Of Modern Life Is That We Don't Need Our Community To Survive Anymore. When We Lose That Idea, We Lose A Sense Of Who We Are.

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If You Get An Infection, You Get A Fever; The Fever Is Your Body Dealing With The Infection. If You Get Traumatized, Your Mind And Your Brain Have A Reaction To That Trauma. If You're Not Dreaming About It, Something's Probably Wrong.

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The Cause Doesn't Have To Be Righteous And Battle Doesn't Have To Be Winnable; But Over And Over Again Throughout History, Men Have Chosen To Die In Battle With Their Friends Rather Than To Flee On Their Own And Survive.

There Is Some Evidence That Average Wave Heights Are Slowly Rising, And That Freak Waves Of Eighty Or Ninety Feet Are Becoming More Common. Wave Heights Off The Coast Of England Have Risen An Average Of 25 Percent Over The Past Couple Of Decades, Which Converts To A Twenty-foot Increase In The Highest Waves Over The Next Half Century. One Cause May Be The Tightening Of Environmental Laws, Which Has Reduced The Amount Of Oil Flushed Into The Oceans By Oil Tankers.

Of The Primary Emotions, Fear Is The One That Bears Most Directly On Survival. Children Show Fear. Adults Try Not To, Maybe Because It's Shameful, Or, In Some Circumstances, Dangerous. The Fear Response Is Automatic, Though, And Your Body Runs Through Its Reflexes Whether You Want It To Or Not.

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I Would Never Want To Pass A Law Limiting Freedom Of Speech, But That Doesn't Mean We Have To Condone Statements That Undermine Basic National Unity And Respect. Imagine Being Asked To Defend A Country Where Some Citizens Say The Man In The White House Isn't Their President. Or A Major Presidential Contender Accuses The Commander In Chief Of Not Even Being A U.s. Citizen. Those Kinds Of Statements Erode Trust In Our Democracy, And It's Up To Both Parties To Publicly Reject Them. We Have To Restore Confidence That We Are A Nation That Loves And Believes In Itself.

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It's Fun To Have Money, But The More Money I Get, The Less Interesting It Becomes. If You Don't Have Very Much, You Have To Think About It. If You Are Starving, You Become Interested In Food. If You Are Struggling To Pay The Bills, Money Becomes Tragically Important.

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Molotov Cocktail

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The Army Consists Of The First Infantry Division And Eight Million Replacements.

Infantry Division

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