This just in: Sky is blue; trees, green.
Murdoc Online has some discussion and links regarding a WaPo article that makes the astonishing claim that poor kids enlist because- hold onto your hats- it's the best opportunity for them. The article reports that 44% of enlistees- presumably across all service branches- are from rural areas and also reside in zip codes where incomes are below the national average.
The firm that did the zip code study, comparing residency data to economic data to enlistment data, was conducted by the National Priorities Project, a "nonpartisan research group" in Northampton, MA. For readers unfamiliar with the area, Northampton is a town that celebrates diversity by stifling or ridiculing any thought to the right of Karl Marx. Everything that happens there is charged with politics and opinion; nothing is "nonpartisan"; you're lucky to get a meal there without being exposed to another fuckwitted conspiracy theory, or walk down the street without having to dodge protestors of some sort. You could always go to the NPP site and see the groups it links to (Greenpeace, moveon.org) if you think I'm making it up. I find the concept of their project fairly clever, and that's enough; don't blow smoke up my ass by telling me it's non-partisan.
So between this clearly partisan organization and the crack, fair-minded journalists at the Post, we get the vibe that the military exists as a vehicle to kill off poor people in a perpetual class war. Yawn.
Now, everyone associated with the Ministry knows I was active duty Army from 1989-1993. When I enlisted I was living in rural Massachusetts, so far culturally and geographically from true opportunity I might as well have lived on the Moon. It's a place where when the Wal Mart finally came, it was the biggest employment opportunity in the area since the paper mills closed in the '60s. It's a place where a good job is $12 an hour on first shift, with mandatory witholding of 1% of pay for a company retirement plan that the company doesn't contribute to. I know what it means to buy food at the corner convenience store with food stamps. I know what "welfare cheese" looks, tastes, and feels like. And even though I'm 1,000 miles away from the places in the WaPo article, culturally I'm their neighbor.
I know firsthand why young poor people enlist. It's the only way out.
Thinking back, of the hundreds of soldiers I was privileged to meet, and the dozens I was lucky enough to serve directly with, I think 44% of them being from rural nowheres was low. The list of servicemembers from Manhattan or Chicago's gold coast is pretty short, and even in my era I remember thinking that if we plotted all our hometowns on a map, and connected the points, that they would sketch borders around properous parts of the country. Most of the men I served with were from towns I never heard of in states I never really believed existed: Dullard, NY. Shitheel, MI. Huyuk, WV. Nowhere, NM. Las Vegas, NV.
It's too bad that the Post chose this moment to report this astonishing fact, that poor people compose a large portion of the services. If more of their writers had ever served in uniform, instead of jerking off at Columbia's journalism school for a couple years, they might have found out long ago that for alot of people in this country, the military is a viable, acceptable, even -gasp- honorable way to get where they want to be in life.
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My experience as an enlisted
My experience as an enlisted Marine Reservist (1989 -1995) from Massachusetts was little more mixed. At Boot Camp and subsequent training schools I met plenty of “economically disadvantaged” young men who joined for the job training and pay.
I also met many like myself who were from the upper middle class. We did not join for the pay (it was basically convenient drinking money). We joined because everything so far in life had been handed to us. We wanted a test to see if we could earn the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor on our own. Joining the Marines was a kind of protest against the soft, snobby, entitled circles we came from.
After 911, I decided to re-enlist in the New Jersey Army National Guard. There is an incredible mix of men – racial and economic - in my unit. Some are in it for the pay, free college, or eventual retirement benefits. Others keep stay out of a sense of duty. To be honest, I keep going because my fellow soldiers are my best friends and I get paid (a little) to do cool stuff with my buddies every month.
As I think back over my adult life, I can only name a couple of good friends who were not in the military at some point. This was not intentional but it’s certainly not random chance either.
Many of the older soldiers in my unit are successful enough in the civilian world that their drill pay makes little difference to them economically (my wife points this out to me when she asks why the hell I still do it). With possible deployments constantly hanging over our heads, remaining in the Guard actually represents a considerable economic risk these days – yet we stay.
Obviously you guys just don't
Obviously you guys just don't get it. It's so sad to see bright young minds rise up from dull poverty only to be stamped into like-the-others conformity in the press of the Military-Industrial Complex's recruitment arm.
You coulda had a shot at so much more than this, but those high collars (Bram) and head-constricting earphones (GL) seem to have cut the blood off from your brains. "Ooh! Ooh! War is good! Ooh! That Marx is awful! Ooh! Mao is worse than George Bush!
Please. You just fail to get it on every level.
If poverty is noble, going to war to escape it is ignoble!
Likewise, if this comment is no rant, its content is _______. Fill in the blank, if you can get steamy thoughts of artillery pieces out of your heads.
Now that I've trolled my own
Now that I've trolled my own site, I want to say honestly, seriously, and without a trace of clever ironic distance: thank you GL and Bram for committing to the defense of our country, no matter what your personal reasons for doing so were.
I've never been in the military and I don't really ever want to be in the military, but without people who do, we are all speaking Spanish-accented German and waking in the morning to salute the Emperor and the rising sun just before tuning in to "Good Morning, Canada, Eh!"
When were the Greeks and
When were the Greeks and later the Romans at their strongest? When they were relatively poor yeoman farmers serving in the Phalanx or Legion as their duty as citizens, they were unbeatable.
When they became spoiled, rich, effete city dwellers who hired foreign mercenaries to defend themselves, they fell.
GL: Thanks for the link!
GL: Thanks for the link!
Johno: That was a great rant, mister. And when it comes to artillery pieces, remember that it's the accuracy that counts, not the caliber...
Bram: The example of the downfall of the Roman military has been made quite a bit recently when someone suggests "farming out" to solve our recruiting woes. I think the reason that it's been made quite a bit is that it's spot-on.
Thanks Murdoc,
Thanks Murdoc,
It goes with the question: What does it say about a nation when their best military unit is a legion of foreigners?
The author of the article did
The author of the article did let something slip in at the end with the young man who wants to be a pilot – some people just want to be a Soldier (or Marine, Sailor, etc…) when they grow up.
My 5-year old son tells me he wants to be an Airborne Ranger because he likes Power Rangers and the running chant. If he still wants it in 15 years that’s fine – I’ve known many young men with similar dreams. If not, that’s fine too.