Where are the Knights?
All credit to Arpitian Lance
Go read him: https://substack.com/home/post/p-188572548
Where are the knights, the riders bold,
Graceful and gallant, questing far?
Would they now weep, to see the mold
Massed on Man’s arms and mounting bar.
These men who sought the furthest star,
These men who formed the stories known:
Great Rodion, Hiero-boyar,
St. George who scorned the Dragon’s own.
Hector faces Achilles alone,
And Godfrey gains earth-heaven’s gate,
And David on his pipes makes groan
For Caesar heeding not his fate,
And Alexander, truly great,
And Judah smashes Ba’al’s stone,
And Charlemagne rebuffs the hate,
That Saladin curves to a hone,
Richard parries, he overthrown
By one swift arrow, John will mar.
King Arthur lost to Britain’s throne
And chivalry’s sheen darkens to char,
Sancho has lost his mad Czar,
And Tristan lost his fair Isolde.—
Mansoul is left asking each scar:
When now the King, white rider bold?
Rather sad, eh.
Based
The early Romans believed military service was a function of the elite - it was a social order that formed after throwing off king's and tyrants.
The Ordo Militaris rose out of central authority and religious conviction in 1053 after over 4 centuries of defeat. They were resisted for centuries in the Holy Land, Iberia, and Northern Europe.
The Cossacks rose in the absence of central authority based around shared voluntary social order of militant individualism submitted to a particular faith and religious conviction in opposition to a known threat. They were resisted by established powers on all sides.
These are not the only examples. They show knights and defefenders of society do not come from one model. Nor do they rise quickly. The modern knight will come from people disconnected from central control, who retain the ability to think and act with conviction. That conviction to act will rise parallel to opposition and resistance.