Defining Surrender ... and making it stick

[TheCurmudgeon]

Survival may take precedence over liberty in most cases, but strong religious convictions may trump survival at times. Besides this scene from The Life of Brian, two examples come to mind. But, neither fits the original proposition as I understood it. The two examples are the Jewish Revolt against Rome by the Zealots, and others, (66-70 AD) with the famous last stand at Masada, and the subsequent revolt led by Bar Kochba (132-135 AD). Perhaps some of the 7th-12th Century campaigning by the native population against Byzantines, Moslems and Mongols of various varieties that occurred in the historical lands of what is now NE Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan might also count as a refusal to quit regardless of what the central authority did. However, again, this does not really fit the original scenario. The fighting was conducted by monarchies or aristocracies, and, as with the Jewish Revolts, the reasons for fighting tended to be related to religious differences or to oppressive taxation by a conqueror.

Actually, they fit very neatly into the scenario, but religion is an interesting hybrid of identity and something else that I haven't quite figured out yet. In a society built on common identity with loyalty to a single leader (or ideology) then death of combatants and even civilians is easier to tolerate as long as the group and its leader survive. It is not about the individual, it is about the group.