Didn’t God Give You Brains.”

 

If battles in a war were like the score of a sporting event, the Battle Agincourt fought in 1415 would be as close as the term “whitewash” would get. The battle essentially saw 6,000-8,100 Englishmen take on a larger army of French of around 25,000 (including of servants.) By the end of the battle, 6,000 Frenchmen, who were mainly from the nobility lay dead, whereas only 600 Englishmen died that day. The result was so dramatic that in Shakespeare’s version of events, the King ended up dedicating the entire battle to God and making it an offence punishable by death to boast of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1ZJTwmiw2I&list=RDV1ZJTwmiw2I&start_radio=1

 

 While Henry V was an undoubtedly religious man and the results of the battle were seemingly miraculous, the evidence that later day historians would suggests that this was not so much a miracle granted by God but the development of a new era of man’s development. The French army was filled with knights or the “elite” of warriors. They were heavily armoured and rode on horse. It was a case of the knights were the main show and everyone else was a side show.

Whilst the English did have the King and the Duke of York, this was an army made up primarily of peasants, or the type of people who ranked so low on the medieval scale of things, butchering them was a sport of sorts for the knights. However, these peasants were armed with a peculiar technology that evened the score – the longbow which allowed them to hit people at a distance and they could load their arrows very quickly when compared to the cross bow.

There are two very clear points to this battle. Firstly, the key lesson is the question of arrogance. As is often said “Nemesis” is the natural consequence of “Hubris,” or “pride” before the “fall.”

The knights simply assumed they would wipe the floor with the peasants. It had been that way in medieval battlefields for the longest of times. Knights were dedicated warriors who had spent the better of their life training for the battle. The peasants by contrast were barely able to feed themselves. As far as the French army at Agincourt was concerned, there was no reason to suggests that this wouldn’t be just another day on the “playing fields.”

This assumption was held so strongly that nobody bothered to question whether the peasants had anything up their sleeves. In this case it was a new technology that evened the odds. No point being fully armoured and on horseback if you got hit by an arrow whilst you were a couple hundred metres away.

Sure, certain opponents may appear weak but sometimes those who appear weak end up developing tools that help them even up the odds. We talk about martial arts and which style gives you the best hand-to-hand combat. However, as much as a martial arts fan hates to admit it, no martial art has to date been able to beat a firearm.

The third point that this battle teaches us is that miracles are often based on getting the basics right. In the case of Agincourt, the French didn’t have the basics on their side whereas the English did.

We have become so hooked onto the idea of sudden miracles that too many of us end up falling for promises of miraculous cures or instant fortunes. I’m not saying that luck doesn’t have a role to play in things but depending on luck alone is usually a guaranteed way to stay broke and often sick.

Just look at the number of people who cue up outside the lottery every single day. The facts are thus – you have a higher chance of getting struck by lightning than you do of winning the lottery. Apparently, the odds being struck by lightning in a lifetime are around one in 15,300 whereas winning a power ball in a lottery is one in two hundred million. If anything, it’s more plausible to fix the odds of getting struck by lightning and winning a life altering sum on that bet than it is to win the power ball. Yet, despite these obvious points, people still line up to spend their savings on lottery tickets and it goes without saying that the people who play the lottery often are usually from the less enhanced social classes. This is all before you consider the fact that those who beat the odds and win, usually end up broke.

The most secure form of wealth is pretty boring and unsexy. Leaving aside Bill Gates’s formula of getting stock options in a dominant tech company, wealth accumulation is usually is the simple strategy of living below your means and putting your extra funds in something as boring as a mutual fund paying less than 10 percent a year. Takes time and requires work but it actually works.

The same is truth of health. Everyone is looking for a magic pill that will cure them of this and that and whilst medical science has been miraculous. We do much better now than we did in the dark ages. However, pills can only go so far. I think of my fellow diabetics who take their pills but refuse to move and continue drinks (booze and soda). Good health is as simple as moving a bit more, sleeping properly, getting sunlight and not pumping shit into your body.

Changing your lifestyle has a very record track record of actually working. Far better than pills. Yet people continue to buy all sorts of pills promising to enhance their health and vitality whilst screwing over the basics. All credit to Cristiano Ronaldo for telling everyone he drinks plain water and not Coke (even if that remark was bad for Coke share price). Scientifically true – Ronaldo is still playing competitive football at the age of 40, the age of looking a nursing home in the world of professional sports.

Miracles are called that for a reason – they are miraculous. Real results are found in getting the basics right. I think of a Malay taxi driver who once said his community has cast him as “not believing in God,” when he talks about his personal financial planning. His retort is “God gave you brains.”