The economy is bad according to her? But, we still have basically full employment with the unemployment rate at 5%. So, she must have not pulled this out of her ass, but out of someone's ass that she never even met because it is just so positively fucking stupid. Dammit, I fucking hate people.
"Are these people signing up because they are patriots?"
Probably not. There are very few idealists out there who love their Country so much they'll die for it. Probably outnumbered by people who joined PETA because they loved animals more than humans. And, of course, there are exceptions.
I think the generation that felt so strongly about it are now mostly in nursing homes, or like my Dad and all my uncles and cousins who served, dead.
The commenters at "ASS", including some ex-military, mention a lot of reasons for joining up, one is the lack of well paying jobs in the private sector. That is not to denigrate the persons who do enlist, but I don't see the sense in us inferring they're great "patriots".
I've known dozens of veterans of both World Wars and Korea, and few I can recall, volunteered due to a surge of patriotism.
One fellow, Air Force veteran, said it was the bombing of London that inspired him to join up. As he said," the idea that they were deliberately bombing civilians just made me so goddamned mad"....He served four years in the Air Force.
My dad and his best friend both joined up as soon as war was declared. They both said it was because they knew everyone would have to go eventually, and they figured the best jobs would go to the first to join up.
A metis fiddler who I knew well, served in the Italian campaign, joined up out of a sense of adventure, everybody was taking part, and he didn't want to be left out.
My uncle, who ended up a career officer, enlisted at 15, but was spotted by someone who knew him, and kicked out. So, he went to another Province, and they accepted him, and he spent the war in an Armoured regiment, and got the shit shot out of him. I asked him once why he joined up, and got a familiar reply, " everybody wanted to be in on the Great Adventure".
The military recruiters were busy extolling the superiority of the Commonwealth military, and assuring everyone who'd listen that it would be a short lived adventure, as chances were pretty good they'd whip the Boche or the Japs, by Christmas.
Anyway, I do tend to ramble on, but my point was, real people usually don't do things for the reasons the authors of novels or the hyped propagandists of the print media claim.
I guess you could say it was a sort of patriotism, but not the classic "give me liberty or give me death" patriotism we were taught about in school, but which I've lately found in short supply among the peasants, (us).
I tried to join up when still in high school, and a sensible recruiting sergeant told me to come back when I'd graduated. My older brother, a military veteran, coached me for the interview, and verbally prodded me until I finally came up with a patriotic reply for the always asked, "why do you want to join the Army?"
As he yelled at me,"it's because I want to serve my Country", dammit!
Oh.
dmorris - you just ramble on any time you like. You're ramble was waaaay more interesting to me than Pauline's so-called "writing". Better-written, too.
That's "your" ramble ....
dmorris-You have made a clear point, I get what you're saying.
It just riles me when I hear limo libs pointing out the reasons people join the military are because of lack of brains or a bad economy. After all, there can't be ANY other reason.
But you pointed out several reasons in 4-5 paragraphs, so, as I said, your point is well taken.
Two Dogs--I know, I know, I feel the same way sometime's. That ignorant slut got me going too.
Mayor, Steamboat, the people in the MSM are so different from the people who join the military, they might as well be from a different planet.
Basically it's the Arts students and faculty versus the jocks and engineering types, in college.
In the late 1960's, when I attended Vancouver City College, the anti military movement was just getting started, very few around campus. Within a few years the numbers grew, but I found most of the activists had no idea about the PEOPLE who comprise "the military". I listened to mostly long haired activists scream about monstrous murderers and fiends in the military, while I had to laugh quietly, and sometimes not so quietly, as they spewed utter bullshit.
My Mom's two brothers were career Army and RCAF officers at the time, and they were my heroes, decent, honest and proud Scotsmen, and very typical of the career Canadian military of the time. They were the type of guys to whom any intelligent person would trust the safety and security of their Country.
I used to dispute the activists picture of the men who served, but was always shouted down by rabble rousers who had no idea whatsoever about the real men who were our military, just this extreme caricature perpetrated, and perpetuated to this day, by left wing journalism school graduates.
Ernie Pyle would be rolling in his grave.
Of course people sign up for various reasons. The "classic give me liberty or give me death" patriot gives an embellished connotation of the term.
A patriot is one that is loyal to their country.
There are patriots from my era that were GIs by a draft lottery, and unfortunately, some left their names on a granite wall in DC.
As the recuited mature through experiences and achievements they usually leave with a better sense of patriotism than when they entered.
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