Uzique wrote:
jord wrote:
Sisco wrote:
I´m with Viktor on this one. I can´t speak for America of course, but in Germany/Austria service is somewhat less helping your country than civil service (which is the alternative). But no one admires those, who chose to feed old bed-ridden people, clean them up or drive people in wheelchairs to the theater or their families.
There is a certain glorification going on with the military. No doubt, the institution itself is good, you take a lot of shit but you get much in return, but I just can´t and won´t understand the admiration people are getting, just for signing up.
I myself was in a situation where I seriously considered joining the armed forces not too long ago, despite having them turned down as draftee to become a civil servant.
Well it seems it varies for country to country and from each individual. I don't have an all encompassing respect for everyone in the military, far from it. Anyone who choose a combat role when they have other options I admire though. Someone who joins and goes and becomes a logistics driver or a HR and finance person I wouldn't really call a soldier.
the whole idea of 'respecting' somebody for joining the armed forces really pisses me off. as ive discussed with you here before... the average recruit to the uk army is an absolute fucking yob-layabout with no other opportunities in life, anyway. and this whole bollocks about respecting their 'bravery'... nobody asked them to do the job, no particular public consensus even wants the job fucking
done in the first place. sorry but i refuse to 'respect' someone because they decided to join the army instead of passing more than 5 GCSE's in school. and as for this inherent 'valor' of soldiers... fuck that. nobody joins the military in our modern age out of some heroic or high-minded principle; people join because they need cash, they need something to do or because they just want a change in their life, period. people have many reasons for joining but this aint the fucking napoleonic era anymore... i respect you for it not one bit. each and every person to their own merit.
Like I said, I don't have an all encompassing respect for everyone in the military. There's rapists, paedophiles, useless morons, fat, power abusive NCO's, utter scum, etc that deserve the opposite of respect. I wouldn't like to generalise though, maybe a lot of people do join because they have no other options and if I were to speculate I'd imagine such people would choose a job path "in the rear with the gear". The tests for applicable job choices aren't hard here, even I got nearly the highest marks and was offered every single role in the Army and we all know how unintelligent I am. I admit that, mentally it's not hard to get into the UK military, whatsoever, physcially it is. Moreso than the majority of other military's. It does take some amount of effort to get to the standard, and some amount of persistance to carry out the application process over a year-3 years. So no, I don't think the average yob layabout does have that persistance and motivation.
Respect is earned on individual merits, sure. There are groups who are prone to receiving it quicker than others, ie Firefighters over Heroin addicts. Or Soldiers over Mcdonalds workers,. It's just human nature.
