Long Live Death!

“Viva la muerte!” someone shouted: “Long live death!”

This barbaric battle cry was uttered on 12 October 1936 at the University of Salamanca during a solemn ceremony on Spain’s “national day” (Día de la Raza) in the midst of civil war. Accounts differ as to whether or not the phrase was shouted by Spanish Foreign Legion General José Millán Astray (1879–1954) or by one of his military escort, but no controversy exists as to an utterance that followed: “May intelligence die!” he shouted.

The person at whom he was shouting was Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936), rector of the university and one of Spain’s most important philosophers, author of a major (neglected in the English-speaking and secular world) work of the Twentieth Century: On the Tragic Sense of Life in Humankind and its Peoples (my translation; published translations entitle the work The Tragic Sense of Life). Unamuno was both a republican politically (exiled from Spain 1924–30 for his republican views and activities, later honored for them) and a philosopher with deep roots in Christianity, Roman Catholicism in particular.

As the executive branch of the government of the United States seems to echo the words of the late legionnaire, I hear the voice of Unamuno crying in the wilderness: “[F]or a true Christian – if indeed a true Christian is a possibility in civil life – any issue, political or what have you, must be considered, treated and resolved with respect to the singular interest of eternal salvation, of eternity” (my translation).

This consideration seems to be missing from the mission of the “Christian soldiers” marching onward to spread death and destruction on the assumption that to wage such a war is just, that, per Aquinas, “the due authorities may also use the sword to protect [the commonwealth] from enemies without” and that “the cause must be just (those whom we attack must have done some wrong which deserves attack)” (Summa, 40:1). Although Aquinas does not so state, I believe it is just to draw the inference that the “wrong” referred to is a wrong done to us. As to the “unworldly” concern voiced by Unamuno, it seems obvious that neither the treatment nor the resolution of this political dispute between states allows the individual Christian any opportunity to take into account his or her eternal salvation, save in the instance that death in a foreign land may somehow be considered holy martyrdom guaranteeing salvation, a belief more often held by extremists of the “enemy,” or so we are given to understand.

The war instigated by the executive branch of the U.S. government is not a “just” war in either Christian or American terms. The constitutionally mandated declaration of war by the Congress is absent. “Silence implies consent” is not a principle set forth in the Constitution, nor does it provide justification for a usurpation of power. Any attempt to justify the actions of the executive branch of the U.S. government with an appeal to Christianity is wrong and should be seen as such by any individual who professes to be a Christian.

“To conquer is not to convince.”

Unamuno’s rebuttal to the general should serve as a reminder to the U.S. chief executive, his British counterpart and to Unamuno’s fellow countryman José María Aznar. He went on to add: “To convince, persuasion is necessary. And to persuade, what is needed is what you lack: Reason and Right.” This from a man who was a dedicated republican but supported a military uprising against the very republic he had helped to create, a man who had persuaded himself that a restoration of public order was necessary in a state he perceived as verging on anarchy, a man who had persuaded himself that the military could be trusted to uphold the goals of Spain’s then fragile democracy. Unamuno understood too late that he had made an error in judgment, but had the courage to admit it. Following the tragic confrontation with the barbarian, Unamuno returned to his home never to emerge again. Two and a half months later, he passed away on the last day of 1936.

“At times, to be silent is to lie,” Unamuno said. We should mark those words well. They are of far more value to the Christian or any other person of religious conviction than the words of the conquering general: “Long live death!”

We should shout down the enemies of the American Republic, regardless of where they are to be found, up to and including in the highest posts of government. We should take heart and shout down the advocates of force, the intellectual heirs of the rabid general and the cries of: “May intelligence die! Long live death!”

March 21, 2003

Timothy J. Cullen (send him mail), a former equities trader, lives in Seville, Spain.