America’s love affair with uniformed men is problematic
economist.com
economist.com
Going to a Baseball game is like visiting a military base - recruiting ads play of the big screen before the game, during breaks various service people are honored (the last game I attended it was a random technician who had been in the Navy for 20 years. Good for him; but not something I expected to cheer about in a stadium). A large proportion of the audience is made up of military personnel as well. My impression is that the military has a huge marketing budget and basically owns baseball, effectively a huge government subsidy for owners of the teams.
Even in wilder society, every third person you meet is either currently serving, served at one stage, or worked for one of the large companies with government contracts to supply the military.
Guys, it is not like this in other countries. In fact it is creepy and weird, but I don't see it changing anytime soon. The military is so ingrained into America's economy and culture that de-emphasing it would be a huge change.
I am not a total pacifist - a military is a handy thing to have around. But the US is crazy in this regard.
Causing 300 million people to carry on war (forever) with the rest of the world (7-8 billion people) sucks.
Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. We should worship that instead of the murderous and dishonest military machinery.
Perhaps not, but we could choose differently w/respect to what they're tied together with. For example, the wall-full of soldier-portraits at the local Walmart could come down and be replaced with portraits of, and accolades for, the countless teachers and social workers and community volunteers who have given us so much. But no, they're not worthy, not in America.
The size of the US military and the society's focus on it is in large part what allows other countries to ignore their own. Other countries have simply outsourced a secondary function to someone else for whom it is a core competency, making everyone more efficient.
It seems you're from the UK, in which case you might want to consider the extent of the UK's involvement in that "constant aggression" that you're talking about.
Take the tech sector for example. Silicon valley wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the military and it's research.
The US has an outsize military because, for most of the past century, it has taken on the role of being the primary defense force not just for itself, but for countries all around the world.
> Guys, it is not like this in other countries. In fact it is creepy and weird, but I don't see it changing anytime soon. The military is so ingrained into America's economy and culture that de-emphasing it would be a huge change. I am not a total pacifist - a military is a handy thing to have around.
I'm sure it's not like this in New Zealand, but comparing US military culture to New Zealand's military culture isn't at all meaningful. New Zealand has the same population as Brooklyn; given that alone, it's not going to be a dominant sovereign military force on the global scale anytime soon (and that's ignoring its history and geographic location).
That's not to say that I'm a fan of much of what the US military does, but it's rather off-base for foreigners from other NATO and MNNA countries to criticize the US for its military, when they're far and away the outsize beneficiaries of it.
I beg to differ. The US has been on the offensive side of things far more than they have ever been on the defensive side.
With that said (and I've worked at a defense contractor as my college internship a decade ago) the name is intentionally misleading. Most reasonable people wouldn't support the "foreign war budget" but "defense"? What person would be against defending your country!?
I'm from the UK, and I too have found the cultural US norms around military service creepy and weird.
The culture surrounding the military in the US is intrinsically linked to both its size and its importance on a global scale (which are two distinct factors). There is no military power in NATO or MNNA more powerful than the US military. So it would be surprising - and honestly dangerous - for it not to have a culture of visibility in its own country.
> I'm from the UK, and I too have found the cultural US norms around military service creepy and weird.
Personally, I find nothing creepier and weirder than the relationship the UK has with its own military actions. In the US, we may not always like or approve of our military engagements or decisions, but we're certainly aware of their prevalence and significance. Having a visible military culture makes it rather difficult to forget that - both the good and the bad.
The UK outsources much of its defense interests to NATO (read: the US), and of the rest, does a bang-up job of keeping them out of the public eye. Not in secret, mind you - just quietly enough that Brits forget about their own country's responsibility in ongoing armed conflicts to this day, let alone historical ones.
That's one way to phrase it. Viewed from a different angle, the US loved competing in proxy wars against the USSR, continues fighting proxy wars against Russia (currently in Syria) and destabilizes the middle east to keep contracts for it's defense industry coming
You think that other NATO countries - the UK, France, and others - didn't support these as well? It's not like the US is going into Syria against the wishes of France and the UK - both have sent in their own forces as well, coordinating military strikes along with the US.
It's extremely hypocritical for people from NATO and MNNA countries to criticize the US for military actions that their own countries backed, especially the ones that they are themselves actively involved with.
Why? It's not like you're obliged to agree with everything your government does.
It's also a social program of sorts.
Part of the allure of the military is a middle class lifestyle and access to employment opportunity outside. Millions of people would be unemployed if they weren't in the military or supporting military functions indirectly. I grew up in a small town... 20% of my class of 80 went into the military. If you live in many areas, your options are essentially truck driving or the army.
Something is wrong with this logic. Why are you free to "not be a fan" to certain things about the military but it's "off-base" when other people aren't fans either?
I think it's an important point that most Americans now are less likely to have served and more likely to not know a veteran in their personal life. The military industrial complex might seem expensive but actual veterans are almost a rare breed.
First of all, that third one is sort of weird to lump in with the previous two. Secondly, but most importantly, less than 1% of the US is currently serving and less than 10% of the US has ever served. So "every third person," even as hyperbole, is just wrong.
What percentage of the population does this add to the total ?
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/nation/2015/11/06/Departmen...
Apparently, it falls under the "recruiting" category in their budget.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of...
The U.S. military has an advertising budget of about $670 million. That's a lot, but the U.S. is a big country, and that amount doesn't even make the military a top 20 advertiser (it spends 1/3 of what #10 Samsung does).
We'll we've got the anthems before a game in Europen sports too. But all this "support our troops" and the "be part of a big flag" thing left a bad taste in my mouth.
Even stranger if you are neither from the US or England and should partake in a show of patriotism for countries you don't really care about.
I’ve seen advertisements for military service in most EU countries heck airfrance used to have panflets for friegn legion in their in flight magazine the only reason why I’m using past tense is because I haven’t use them for like 5 years so I don’t know if it’s stil the case or not.
Maybe it is one of the effects of losing two world wars (and beeing a neutral country), but I've never seen "support our troops" or something like that in person before.
There are some kind of army ads (I hardly see ads), some athletes are part of the army (so they earn some money and can train) and that's it in Austria.
For me there is a difference in showing an ad to "join the royal marine commando" and the expectation to partake in a "be part of the flag" / support our troops ceremony before I see a sports match. But most likely I am just a little more sensitive than most in this regard.
It's not as clear cut I think.
The first thing you'll see getting off the plane in Brussels is the military in full get-up, with guns that look like they'll blow your limbs clean off. You will find them patrolling in the city centers of many cities as well. This reminded me of my trips to the middle east and North Africa. I have never seen this in the US.
I have never seen a military parade on the 4th. On Bastille Day, in Paris, the military will parade and drive their tanks down the streets and it will be broadcast on national TV. You're supposed to get all mushy when the foreign legion remains as one when leaving the traffic circle, the commentators will remind you.
I've seen a whole bunch of flag worshiping in Barcelona and Spain on the news the last couple of weeks.
I don't necessarily disagree with you, but the jingoism you refer to manifests itself in different ways in other countries. I don't think it's a difference in kind, rather in degree.
My experience has been there is usually a presence from the local base if there is one but they are not the focus of the parade. Right in there with there between the Revolutionary War reenactors and the Boy Scouts.
Edit: Though one could argue that war reenactors are glorifying war and the Boy Scouts is essentially training camp to get boys interested in the military at a young age.
We don't have a national police/gendarme and are very against the thought of forming one. Just look at the mess of jurisdictions that the FBI and ATF have, let alone any other agency. You'd have to re-write the constitution to get one.
Our states really are sovereign in their own rights. In Colorado you can smoke as much weed as you like, but you can't even ride a bike if your BAC is over 0.05%. In Texas, you can drink in the car as long as you are 'sober'. California has some pretty strange laws over water rights and property tax. Pennsylvania won't allow you to buy liquor in certain counties on Sunday. The laws here are very strange comparatively.
Each state has it's own 'army' in a kinda, sorta, not really, but yes really way. Navies differ, but Wyoming seriously wanted a battleship for a lake of theirs.
Slavery is it's own mess of evil, but also demonstrates how different the US can be. We had a war over that one, still managed to keep on humming, kinda.
Our second amendment is also insane to foreigners except the Swiss. Some states think it's fine, some don't. There's a bit of a spat going on right now over it, what with the massacres and all.
We sure do love our flag though, that is true. Many people say that's because we are so diverse, we need something to keep together. I say it's the English language, football, and American Idol. Oh, also the racism. That seems to 'help' too.
Also, we've never had sustained conscription here, like in South Korea, Italy, Austria, Israel, etc. Only ~7% of us have ever served in the armed forces in any way. I couldn't find easy numbers for other countries, but that 18-20 year old male conscription laws would skew the percentages higher, I'd think.
Based on my own stay in the USA a number of years ago, and I don't mean this in any bad way, the dollar has a primacy in American culture that isn't so matched in other countries.
What I'm describing is something more subtle than "money" or "wealth" which are pretty much universally human, but that the dollar as a fundamental unit of exchange of worth is universally regarded as a fundament. The faith that Americans have in their currency, regardless of social class or ethnic background.
Not true. See, e.g., http://www.texasdwisite.com/dwi-blog/2014/november/can-a-pas...
But to be honest every culture has it's weird thing. In a few countries where I have traveled pilots are highly respected individuals, upon landing the cabin breaks into applause and praise - in America though that's just something you don't do unless something really bad happened mid flight.
When I lived in the US I also found that policemen and firefighters enjoy a very peculiar status there. Usually the answer is "but they put their lives on the line". However that I find true for a whole lot of other occupations as well (e.g. coal workers, prof. athletes, (war) reporters and many more) so it's not a unique characteristic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_workers_killed_in_th...
They should have come out against the invasion of Iraq or the campaign to destabilize the middle east after that.
Why now that we're beginning to disengage from the world? It's a bit strange to see some dissonance: on the one hand they don't want America to disengage from the world on the other hand we're too in love with our military.
This isn't "The Economist" coming out with anything. This is Lexington, a long-running column in The Economist. In journalism, columnists do not reflect the opinion of the publication's editorial board, and columnists receive much greater leeway with their content editorially than other reporters or op-ed contributors would.
The current author of Lexington has only been writing it since 2012, when the previous author died in a car crash. The previous author was, among other things, the foreign editor for The Economist who covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Military worship is pretty ridiculous and the mega advertising budgets for an "all volunteer" military turn public events into spectacles of propaganda.
But when multiple generations of post-WWII western civilians have lived extremely cushioned lives, when compared to the other 2/3 of the world, a lack of understanding of the sheer sacrifice of wartime military service is inevitable. There's a reason that the vast majority of active-duty and veterans lean right wing, and it's not because of "lack of education" as the more snooty people on the left would have us believe.
Another is that the military is a large group of people who have seen the manifest benefits of the Second Amendment, in that they have witnessed what happens in countries where only a small portion of the population are allowed to arm themselves. Since much, if not most of the the American left is adamantly anti-2A, backed by fear-mongering, left-leaning journalists who are comically uninformed about firearms, it makes for a huge political rift.
1. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/opinion/myth-spitting-vie...
There is also the trend to make military "cool". I think this has led to a lot of cops wanting to be Navy SEALs and acting accordingly. When I look at the cops in my town they have a little bit an occupying force mentality instead of acting as part of the community.