We're All in the Army Now
Radley Balko | April 5, 2007, 10:32am
Robert Wright, who wrote a terrific book that changed the way I look at just about everything, wrote recently in the New York Times that America would be...well...I'll just let him say it:
In fact, the whole, larger stereotype — that the military is a right-wing institution, best viewed with skepticism if not cynicism by the left — is way off. Growing up in, or at least amid, the Army helped make me a liberal — not because I reacted against my environment, but because I absorbed its values. If all of America were more like the Army, it would be a better country.
This is really a chilling passage. The Army is complete and utter totalitarianism. When you enter, you're stripped of all individuality, then built back up into a proper, orders-taking, unquestioning drone. Dissent is punished. At the onset of your career, all facets of your life are dictated to you. Whatever the state orders of you—even if it orders you to your death—you're trained to comply willingly and with vigor, and to never question the validity or morality of the order.
Wright thinks this would be a good model for the rest of society. So long as all that coercion is used to instill good, liberal values in the citizenry. By enforcing conformity, for example, the Army is at least making everyone equal. And equality to a leftist like Wright is the height of a virtuous society, more important apparently than any concept of personal freedom. Oh, and the Army gives everyone health insurance. And you apparently never hear the n-word.
If this is what's become of modern liberalism, we're in heap big trouble.
I'm not an anti-military libertarian. I think it's necessary, and I think there are times when it's necessary that we use it. When used properly—to kill people and destroy infrastructure—it's marvelously good at what it does (it's not so good at building liberal societies from sand, rubble, and ethnic strife, but that's another discussion). But that is what the military is for. It's for destroying things, including large quantities of life. The values Wright so admires—and the procedures the military uses to instill those values—are emphasized because time and experience has shown that those are the values most conducive to the military's mission. Which—at risk of repeating myself—is killing people and destroying their countries.
Wright values egalitarianism, access to health care, and economic mobility. Fair enough. I understand that he likes the Army because those things seem to be plentiful there. But it's telling that he neglected to acknowledge the wholesale surrender of rights the Army requires of everyone who enlists in order to achieve them.
Your Good Buddy Johnny Clarke | April 5, 2007, 11:46am | #
Hmm, I was in the army Infantry in the late 80's, so my experience is dated...
Nevertheless, back then, individuality wasn't a desired quality. I had an enraged Lieutenant Colonel explain, in no uncertain terms, that my concept of interior design was not going to be allowed in *his* barracks. This was at my first duty station, not Basic, and I wasn't putting up anything offensive or "liberal hippie". It all was within the posted rules and regulations, but he just didn't like my choices, so it all came down while he watched. That was that.
Hmm, if you stepped outside without your "headgear" the first person who outranked you would have you doing pushups for, oh, until they got tired. If you went on sick call you were treated like a lazy, shamming parasite and there were certain times, say, prior to a deployment, where you were ordered not to be sick. Period.
If your wife got too many speeding tickets on base, your career would suffer. I had a friend who was ordered to stop his wife from driving...take her car keys away, whatever, they didn't care, but she was not to drive. I guess, in the military, you own your wife. That's a progressive philosophy.
Strangely enough, I saw no reason to re-enlist.
Now, if you think it would be great to live in a society where others have that sort of control over you, there is a recruiter who'd love to talk to you today. Immediately.
Oh, and as for not hearing the dreaded "N-word", well, that's a laugh. It was thrown around quite a bit, just not by caucasian soldiers.
Jim Bob | April 5, 2007, 9:41pm | #
During my time in the Air Force (eight years total, six years active and two reserve), I was given a great amount of responsibility over technical matters and a high degree of autonomy.
This was after my long-ass training phase was over, of course, but when I got to the operational Air Force I was making critical judgment calls on technical and complex equipment almost immediately. Believe it or not, the entire military is not a place where craggy sergeants scream orders all day and check for dust on the floor with a white-gloved finger. There's more important stuff to worry about.
Of course there were standards to be followed, especially for young junior enlisted personnel, but as soon as one hits E-4 they tell you to go live off base. Have your own place. Come to work in the morning. Go home at night. Your time off is your own. That was the Air Force, which I why I can't wait to get my commission and get going again.
Deployments were a different story sometimes, but the sense of teamwork, camaraderie, and the feelings of pride and accomplishment I had at the end of a long deployment (including two tours in the bad place) have stayed with me. Sometimes life was hard, but never was it bad.
I am not a robot, Balko. Your view of the military seems to be one that considers that the entire apparatus is made of cybernetic killing-machines from some vivid Spartan wet dream. I assure you this is not the case, at least not from my experience.
My new career in the military will involve healing the sick and caring for the injured, and I couldn't be more proud of that.
blogimi Dei | April 6, 2007, 1:37pm | #
I have been an Information Technology professional for the last 18 years. 11 of them were in the Navy. So sorry, I am a motivated individual.
Back in 1999, as a First Class Petty Officer I just woke-up. I then decided to move OUT not UP. And my quality of life has improved exponentially, because I was able to get away from dumb fucks like you.
Enjoy all of your family separation. You are prolly one of those lifer fucks that says things like “sure, yes, my family comes first,” while you are on the other side of the earth.
I did my “fruit loops” already; sounds like you are doing yours. Just don’t act like the military is a wonderful place. Its not.
Would you wish for your children a military life? If so, then you ARE the type that belongs in the military.
Oh and since I DO have my Constitutional rights back, like my right to free speech, FUCK YOU, YOU OFFICER FUCK. Go enjoy your career.
Here is another one, for all military persons that have ever shit on someone of a lower rank, FUCK YOU TOO.
All you officers getting that?
Believe me, being a civilian again is WAY better that being under the UCMJ control of dumb fucks like you. Ahhhhh FUCK YOU again.
Feels good. Do you miss your Bill of Rights? Fuck Face?
If I could see you in uniform I would say it right to your fucking face.
The UCMJ will not always be there protecting you boy.
blogimi Dei | April 6, 2007, 2:02pm | #
Oh, and "mustangs" are usually the most fucked kind of officer...
Sorry. I have been there. USS Ranger. USS Constellation.
Worked for the sorriest piece of shit to ever wear an officer’s uniform.
LCDR Rob Loeh, Convicted Drug Dealer (highest ranking Naval officer to be busted for dealing drugs) would say things to me like "there is time enough for sleep when you are dead, petty officer!"
Military officers have a captive audience; so every 'bright idea' is a good one to those dumb fucks. They have never ending enlisted assets to do their bidding too.
Oh Shit! I am sorry.
The military, and its lifestyle are grand social experiments. It is a great life, go Navy, go Army, go Air force, go Marines, and go Coast Guard.
I must not know what I am talking about. There are never any people in positions of authority that shit on lower ranking individuals in the U.S. Military. Never ever.
It’s all just a bunch of fun, like the Boy Scouts.
Please send all of your children.
And I love the reasoning: Because this guy talks so much shit he MUST have been a shitbag in uniform.
Completely wrong. I advance and excel at every fucking thing I do.
Please continue to attack me AND my arguments. I can definitely take if from dumb fuck officers like you guys.
LarryA | April 7, 2007, 2:31pm | #
When you enter, you're stripped of all individuality, then built back up into a proper, orders-taking, unquestioning drone.
True. And very soon thereafter you are taught how to give orders of your own. You learn that if you are the senior officer or non-com present it is your responsibility to take charge and do what has to be done. No excuses. No “let’s form a committee and come to a consensus.” Commanders are responsible for everything their units do or fail to do.
For most problems encountered in a democracy, of course, these are terrible problem-solving techniques. But when the shit hits the fan, for instance when you find yourself in the middle of a street full of wrecked cars and bleeding people, you need the bastard who once wore stripes to step forward, not the civilized business school graduate.
Dissent is punished.
Bitching is a military art form. Try making comparable gripes in a civilian organization.
By enforcing conformity, for example, the Army is at least making everyone equal.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Nowhere are you less equal, and nowhere is it more obvious. Look at any soldier’s uniform, and if you can read the insignia you have his rank, job title, current assignment, education, and service history.
Whatever the state orders of you—even if it orders you to your death—you're trained to comply willingly and with vigor, and to never question the validity or morality of the order.
When the order is “Enter the continent of Europe and wrest it from control of the enemy,” nothing else will work.
Wright thinks this would be a good model for the rest of society.
Absolutely not. But there are military/warrior virtues that society needs. One example is responsibility for your own actions. “This is your rifle. When the enemy soldier comes if you haven’t kept it clean and learned how to hit the target, you won’t get a do-over.”
My backstory? Four years in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University, four years active duty as an infantry officer including Ranger School and Vietnam, RIFed during the post-Vietnam cutbacks, returned to graduate school and several civilian careers while serving occasional reserve duty.
It’s amazing how differently, and more successfully I approached school after military service. It’s amazing how naïve some of the professors were. It’s amazing how many people think a dry room, soft bed, clean clothes, and hot meals are necessities of life. It's amazing how many people think regular sleep is a necessity of life.
I have a plot for a novel. The premise is that for some reason the U.S. initiates universal military service, two years training directly after high school. The story is what happens when the first cohort enters college.
All this is not to say the military is any more perfect than any other aspect of society. As an organization any military, and particularly the U.S. military, face two insoluble problems.
First, much of any army’s time is spent without a job to do. That is, armies are designed to make war, and most of the time there isn’t one. However, particularly in modern times, you can’t mothball your forces and count on having time to gear up before it’s too late. So the army spends most of its time in garrison, training. That's where most of the bullshit creeps in.
The second problem is that the civilians controlling the army don’t always use it appropriately. So the military gets tasked with impossible missions, missions it’s not trained or equipped to do, and missions with so many artificial restrictions its hands are tied.
So I suppose my summation is that, no, the military is not a good model for a free society, but everybody needs a little experience with it.
Because sooner or later, the shit hits the fan.
