Your profession has no "ethos" because your profession follows orders. It's practicioners seldom question the rational behindnthe orders and virtually NEVER refuses to obey them. You can argue whether or not unquestioning obedience of orders is good or bad and to an extent soldiers are in a no win situation...obey or be court martialednand jailed, and if by obeying you violate as an individual social prohibitions you can still be incarcerated. But as a whoe the military is just a willing tool of violence wielded widely, indiscrimanently ans without conscience.
When and ONLY when soldiers refuse to fire at "Kent State's", refuse to go door to door confiscating arms ANYWHERE ala Hurricane Katrina....( FYI the rights listed in the BOR including the right to own arms is a HUMAN right, not an American one and thus ANY time ANY where you violate that right you are acting the part of a criminal thug) no claim of ethical conduct can be made.
Soldiers, badgemonkeys, mercenaries.....with few and rare exceptions are merely willing tools of policy and only develop a conscience and appreciationfor human rights AFTER they retire and are forced to rejoin the ranks of " the average joe", a person with no privilege or special dispensation.
EVERY stormtrooper goose stepping through Berlin, EVERY guard in uniform at Auschwitz or Dachau, EVERY man in uniform, no matter what country he serves is certain that hisnisnthe just cause,that god is on his side and that HIS criminality, cruelty and abuses are committed for a special noble cause that makes HIS conduct exempt and righteous....and he is invariably WRONG. Because for a man in uniform to admit the truth....that he is merely the willing implement of a power broker or corrupt administration.....would force him to admit that for every act of vio!ence he performs another person sees the OTHER side....the one where the soldier is just a thug in a costume dealing out violence for the sake of cowards in suits who prefer to hire their killing out rather than do it themselves. Professional armies are invariably the willing tool of corrupt politics.....and professional soldiers are among the most self deluded people ever. I don't have to be an opera singer to be able to hear and recognize good vs bad music talent. Likewise, I don't need to have served to understand the delusion that professional violence dealers live withthat lets them rationalize their conduct as being acceptable merely because somebody in a position of power orders them to engage in that violence.People speak of the rationalization hamster that lives in women's heads.....that creature pales to insignificance when compared to the rationalization mechanism that exists in the mind of people who wilingly visit violence on others....strangers....for money.
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." - John Stuart Mill
"To have really lived, you must have almost died. To those who have fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know." - Scrawled on a bunker in Khe Sahn, RVN
Your profession has no "ethos" because your profession follows orders. It's practicioners seldom question the rational behindnthe orders and virtually NEVER refuses to obey them. You can argue whether or not unquestioning obedience of orders is good or bad and to an extent soldiers are in a no win situation...obey or be court martialednand jailed, and if by obeying you violate as an individual social prohibitions you can still be incarcerated. But as a whoe the military is just a willing tool of violence wielded widely, indiscrimanently ans without conscience.
ReplyDeleteWhen and ONLY when soldiers refuse to fire at "Kent State's", refuse to go door to door confiscating arms ANYWHERE ala Hurricane Katrina....( FYI the rights listed in the BOR including the right to own arms is a HUMAN right, not an American one and thus ANY time ANY where you violate that right you are acting the part of a criminal thug) no claim of ethical conduct can be made.
Soldiers, badgemonkeys, mercenaries.....with few and rare exceptions are merely willing tools of policy and only develop a conscience and appreciationfor human rights AFTER they retire and are forced to rejoin the ranks of " the average joe", a person with no privilege or special dispensation.
What exactly are the details of YOUR honorable military service?? Hmm? Hmmm?
Delete< cricket . . . cricket . . . >
I thought so . . .
EVERY stormtrooper goose stepping through Berlin,
DeleteEVERY guard in uniform at Auschwitz or Dachau,
EVERY man in uniform, no matter what country he serves
is certain that hisnisnthe just cause,that god is on his side and that HIS criminality, cruelty and abuses are committed for a special noble cause that makes HIS conduct exempt and righteous....and he is invariably WRONG. Because for a man in uniform to admit the truth....that he is merely the willing implement of a power broker or corrupt administration.....would force him to admit that for every act of vio!ence he performs another person sees the OTHER side....the one where the soldier is just a thug in a costume dealing out violence for the sake of cowards in suits who prefer to hire their killing out rather than do it themselves. Professional armies are invariably the willing tool of corrupt politics.....and professional soldiers are among the most self deluded people ever. I don't have to be an opera singer to be able to hear and recognize good vs bad music talent. Likewise, I don't need to have served to understand the delusion that professional violence dealers live withthat lets them rationalize their conduct as being acceptable merely because somebody in a position of power orders them to engage in that violence.People speak of the rationalization hamster that lives in women's heads.....that creature pales to insignificance when compared to the rationalization mechanism that exists in the mind of people who wilingly visit violence on others....strangers....for money.
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." - John Stuart Mill
Delete"To have really lived, you must have almost died. To those who have fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know." - Scrawled on a bunker in Khe Sahn, RVN
.....Uh, I ***NEVER*** asked you to "protect" me.
ReplyDeleteIf you can read this, thank a teacher . . . if you're reading this in English, thank a soldier . . .
Delete