Sebastian Junger

American author, journalist and documentarian, most famous for the best-selling book The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea, his award-winning chronicle of the war in Afghanistan in the 2010 movie Restrepo, and his 2010 book War

“Brotherhood” - 11/17/2011

Transcript

They miss the brotherhood. Brotherhood is not available in civilian society. Friendship is. Friendship is a function of how you feel about a person.  What you do for a friend depends on how you feel about that person. If you don‘t like someone, you are not going to die for them. You probably won‘t even lend them ten bucks, right?  In combat, in this brotherhood, it has nothing to do with how you feel about the other person.  It‘s a brotherhood, and it has nothing to do with feelings.  It‘s a shared agreement, a reciprocal agreement.  I‘ll risk my life, and I know you will risk your life for me.  It has nothing to do with whether I pissed you off yesterday. What you don‘t want in combat is to wonder if the guy you upset yesterday is actually going to cover for you in a fire fight.  You don‘t want to have to wonder that.  That‘s how brotherhood works.  It removes those sorts of messy, interpersonal relationships from the agreement to all protect each other with your own life