There are only two kinds of people in this world: The predators and the grazers. And the predators always get to the top, because they’re prepared to fight to get there and consume people and things that get in their way. The others haven’t the nerve, or the courage, or the hunger or the ruthlessness. So the world is governed by the predators, who become the potentates. And the potentates are never satisfied.
Here is my favourite passage from the novel “The Dogs Of War” by Frederick Forsyth written in 1974. This conversation takes place between Cat Shannon, mercenary contractor, and main protagonist of the story, and Julie Manson, daughter of Sir James Manson, the wealthy man who hired Cat Shannon to overthrow a small African nation’s government in order to install a puppet government and steal the mining rights to a recently discovered mountain of solid titanium (discovered, of course, by Manson Mining Co. surveyors and, of course, not reported to anybody)
“Why do you live the way you do? Why be a mercenary and go around making wars on people?”
“I don’t make wars. The world we live in makes wars, led and governed by who pretend they are creatures of morality and integrity, whereas most of them are self-seeking bastards. They make the wars, for increased profits or increased power. I just fight the wars because it’s the way I like to live.”
“But why fight for money? Mercenaries fight for money don’t they?”
“Not only the money. The bums do, but when it comes to a crunch the bums who style themselves as mercenaries usually don’t fight. They run away. Most of the best fight for the same reason I do: They enjoy the life, the hard living, the combat.”
“But why do there have to be wars? Why can’t they all live in peace?”
He stirred in the darkness and scowled at the ceiling ” Because there are only two kinds of people in this world: The predators and the grazers. And the predators always get to the top, because they’re prepared to fight to get there and consume people and things that get in their way. The others haven’t the nerve, or the courage, or the hunger or the ruthlessness. So the world is governed by the predators, who become the potentates. And the potentates are never satisfied. They must go on and on seeking more of the currency they worship. In the Communist world, and don’t ever kid yourself into thinking the Communist leaders are peace loving-the currency is power. Power, power, and more power, no matter how many people have to die so they can get it. In the Capitalist world the currency is money, more and more money. Oil, stocks, gold is the goals, and even if they have to lie, steal and bribe and cheat to get it. These make the money, and the money buys the power. So really it just comes back to the lust for power. If they think there’s enough of it to be taken, and it needs a war to grab it, you get a war. The rest, the so-called idealism, is a load of crap.”
“Some people fight for idealism. The Vietcong do. I’ve read about them in the newspapers.”
“Yeah, some people fight for idealism, and 99 out of 100 of them are being conned. So are the ones back home who cheer for the war. We’re always right, and they’re always wrong. Those GIs in Vietnam, do you think they die for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? They die for the Dow Jones Index on Wall Street, and always have. And the British soldiers who died in Kenya, Cyprus, and Aden. You really think they rushed into battle shouting for God, King and country? They were in those lands because their colonel ordered them there, and he was ordered by the War Office, and that was ordered by the Cabinet, to keep British control over the economies. So what? They went back to the people who owned them in the first place, and who cared about the bodies the British Army left behind? It’s a big con, Julie, A big con. The difference with me is that no one tells me to go and fight, or where to fight, or which side to fight on. That’s why the politicians, the Establishments, hate mercenaries. It’s not that we are more lethal than they are; in fact we’re a damn site less so. It’s because they can’t control us; we don’t take their orders. We don’t shoot the ones they tell us to shoot, and we don’t start when they say ‘Start,’ or stop when they say ‘Stop.’ That’s why we are outlaws; we fight on contract and we pick our own contracts.”
“What about wars when people fight for what they know is right?” she asked. “I mean what about fighting Hitler? That was right wasn’t it?”
Cat Shannon sighed and nodded.”Yes, that was right. He was a bastard all right. Except that they, the big shots in the western world, sold him steel up to the outbreak of war and then made fortunes making more steel to crush Hitler’s steel. And the Communists were no better. Stalin signed a pact with him and waited for Capitalism and Nazism to destroy each other so he could take over the rubble. Only when Hitler struck Russia did the world’s so idealistic Communists decide Nazism was naughty. Besides, it cost 30 Million lives to kill Hitler. A mercenary could have done it with one bullet costing less than a shilling.”
“But we won didn’t we? It was the right thing to do, and we won.”
“We won, my little darling, because the Russians and British and Americans had more guns, tanks, planes, and ships than Adolf. That’s why, and that’s the only reason why. If he had had more, he’d have won, and you know what? History would have written that he was right and we were wrong. Victors are always right. There’s a nice little adage I heard once: ‘God is on the side of the bigger battalions’. It’s the gospel of the rich and powerful, the cynical and the gullible. Politicians believe in ti, the so called quality newspapers preach it. The truth is, the Establishment is on the side of the big battalions, because it created and armed them in the first place. It never seems to occur to the millions of readers of that garbage that maybe God, if there is one, has something to do with truth, justice and compassion rather than sheer brute strength, and that truth and justice might possibly be on the side of the little platoons. Not that it matters. The big battalions always win, and the ‘serious’ press always approves, and the grazers always believe it.”
The Dogs of War- 1974