Chapter Thirteen – Carl Phillip Gottfried von Clauswitz

Chapter Thirteen – Carl Phillip Gottfried von Clauswitz

“Carl Phillip Gottfried von Clauswitz was a coward lil bitch, and no I ain’t elaborating.

No notes.”

–Professor of Military History John B Mcbrea, 2051

***

“Alright, sit down,” Professor Rogers said.

I didn’t need to be told twice. Over the last few minutes, while we were doing jumping jacks at one end of the room, the teacher’s assistants were moving the mats off the floor where the seats were. Now the desks had unfolded and were back in their neat little rows.

I flopped down onto mine and let out a long breath. My heart was still pumping fast, and I could feel the wet slickness of sweat sticking to my back. The shitty gym shirt I had didn’t breathe well.

“Class will end in an hour. We’re going to alternate, going forwards, between long class-sessions where we focus on theory and discussions, and physical education at the end, and longer physical education sessions followed by theory,” the professor said. “Historically, this has worked relatively well. Even if you feel physically exhausted, that shouldn’t stop your minds from working, and the physical training post-lesson sometimes gives you time to think and meditate on what you just learned.”

I nodded. Yeah, I could get that. Not super fond of the idea of spending so much learning time as a sweaty mess, but I got it.

“Good, now that we’re all on the same page, let’s continue our discussion from last time. We talked about Sun Tzu, a strategist and military theorist of ancient China. Today we’re going to cover someone a little younger. Carl Phillip Gottfried von Clauswitz. Everyone who studies military history usually refers to him as Clausewitz alone.”

The professor turned to one of his TAs and gestured to them. They returned a moment later with a small fold-out seat that he sat on backwards.

“Clausewitz was a Prussian general and theorist whose work can honestly be said to have shaped modern warfare. He fought in the Napoleonic wars, a time much like the present where new technologies were changing the fundamental ways that wars were fought. He was a successful general, but more importantly, he wrote about his observations in a book whose name roughly translates to ‘On War’ or ‘About War.'”

Rogers rubbed at the bridge of his nose. I wondered if he had notes written on his augs or something so that we couldn’t see, or if he was pulling all of this from thin air.

“Clausewitz’s work is… honestly, kind of shit,” Rogers said. “It’s unfinished, filled with contradictory statements, and some of his observations are clearly biased. I’d still suggest reading his work, but do so with an annotated edition that includes the relevant historical context. Or at least watch a few docs on Prussian and the Napoleonic period. Anyway…”

He waves his hand through the air dismissively.

“The point is, Clauswitz wasn’t a perfect man, or a perfect theorist, but his work and observations on the facts of warfare serve as a good stepping stone for a modern understanding of warfare. War, in his view, isn’t a predictable science, but an uncontrolled and dynamic force shaped by humans. That means emotions come into play as much as technology and geography.”

I nodded along. Ancient dude wasn’t perfect. Got it.

“His ideas still influence modern military doctrine, corporate security, and most forms of asymmetric warfare. Interestingly, his ideas on warfare often fall flat in the face of the Antithesis. There’s a lot of what he said that can be applied to keeping humanity ready and willing to fight, but at the same time, the Antithesis don’t care for the psychology of warfare in a way that matters.”

The professor blinked a couple of times, and the screen behind him lit up. There was a picture of some guy on it. Or a picture of a painting of some guy. I had to assume that was Clausewitz himself.