Knighthood: Crusades to Jihads. E.B.

The following viewpoint is not posted with any pejorative or close-minded intent. However, in reflection on Dr. Ribaj's thought-provoking project on "modernization", the presentation sent my mind on the quizzical trajectory of the historical kernpunkt of "knighthood". I find it only fair and suiting to raise the question, what happened to the knights? I do not embark this question from a linear sphere, wherein everything has a beginning and an end. Nor do I look to the past to render a clear and concise conclusion in regards to the disappearance of knighting, nor to their efforts, works, and traditions.

I look at the works and lives of the knights as an energetic imprint on the history of the world in which we live. I do not use the word "energy" for lack of a better word, because I believe that our imprints and our contributions [be they good or bad] do leave an energetic residue [be they verbal, written, studied, or forgotten] on history.

Thus, the knights-- men who believed in giving themselves to the higher power. Men who taught the primal and nearly savage mind to think, live, and exist past carnal instinct. The piety of their kind is something that is barely paralleled since their existence-- Being that Newton's first law states that energy can never be created nor destroyed, the moral of my question is [assuming their legacy is an energy], "do we still have modern day nights?"

Yes and No. No, we do not have a Sir. Lancelot or a King Arthur who gallivant the countrysides looking for dragons to slay and distressed damsels to save; however, we Americans are familiar with Zacarias Moussaoui and Bin Laden. These extremists, dare I say monsters, in the face of millions-- sometimes shine heroically in the light of others.

Although it is difficult, we must step outside of our boxes of anger to dissect and make this correlation. The knights, a pious and devoutly religious sector of the Middle Ages, in 1095, under the instruction of Pope Urban the II (if I am not mistaken) commenced their energetic assignment to re-win the Holy Land [Jerusalem], back from the Muslims. These men, with no intentions of hypocrisy nor biblical insubordinance commenced the slaughter of millions of people. Why? -- Because their doctrines of divinity were threatened.. (?) Perhaps.. However, is the rise of' modern Hegemony, the spread of capitalism, enforced democracy, lose liberalism, and Western ideology not perhaps a modern "threat"? Yes. the tables have turned-- and yes, knights have traded their shinning armor for bombs and turned their horses into speeding aircrafts headed straight for destruction..[ Be not alarmed, this is not a fear inducing piece] But, behind the disheartening aesthetic, is their a Kernpunkt? A nucleus of the conflict, or moreover, an answer to the problem?

The knights were doing what their conceived to be right-- Are the Muslim extremists doing the same? These men live as strictly as they can by the Qu'ran, which contains Islam's 5 pillars-- making these men presumably devout in their religion.. That correlation cannot be overlooked. But, what is the ultimate goal of the knights? [both past and present] no, it is not to deplete mankind, if that were the case, then we would not be here. The most exciting part about my question is that it has no answer. I cannot answer an abstraction of this magnitude with subjectivity, regardless of how rhetorical it may be.. But moreover, I do believe that the history that we all will embark vis-a-vis the pages of "Die Deutschen" will render a possible outcome to not only the energetic history of the past-- but also an outcome to our own history that is yet to come.


Singing off in the style of the late Mr. Vonnegut,
"well, here we are Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment, there is no why."