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What specific kind of military do you get? The US military I was a part of was the most diverse group of men and women I have ever worked with in just any metr
by colek42 7y ago
What specific kind of military do you get? The US military I was a part of was the most diverse group of men and women I have ever worked with in just any metric you can find.
- tomrod 7y agoI believe parent commentator was making a claim to lack of philosophical diversity, and that a voluntary military is more prone to prefer war over diplomacy. I see the margin the parent commentator is trying to make, but feel it misses people who join the military to obtain gainful employment, get education, or numerous other reasons.
- klez 7y ago> but feel it misses people who join the military to obtain gainful employment, get education, or numerous other reasons. You're right. But I wonder what kind of "politics" they would adopt when needed if they didn't feel the rest of the army has one way of thinking.
- trentnix 7y agoThe issue you identify is a good reason why our system of government, which places an elected, term-limited civilian as the commander of the military, is extremely clever. We end up with an effective military, but have a counterbalance to a military acting as a hammer constantly looking for nails. The people involved are certainly imperfect (and some are more imperfect than others), but we're always just a few years away from a course correction if the electorate sees fit.
- goatinaboat 7y agoa voluntary military is more prone to prefer war over diplomacy. The military gets no say - wars are declared, or not, by elected politicians. What you say is only true in countries where the military runs the government.
- naasking 7y agoMilitary officers advise politicians. It seems silly to believe they have zero sway over political opinions.
- pintxo 7y agoI never saw it as „the military“ being more prone. But rather the general public. As in a voluntary military, they (their families) are likely not involved with the military personally. While having the draft ensures most everyone will be - on a family level - impacted by a war or peace decision.
- naasking 7y agoDiverse on many metrics I'm sure, except probably economic class.
- goatinaboat 7y agoWestern militaries for hundreds of years have been working class soldiers and upper or at least upper-middle class officers. The middle-middle class is very underrepresented. This is true even today.
- naasking 7y agoIs there a survey or study of the demographics? I'm genuinely curious about how it currently looks because I have a hard time believing the upper crust bothers with this sort of thing any more. Service just doesn't seem to carry the social weight it once did, and there are plenty of stories of rich kids dodging deployments and the like.
- civilian 7y agoBased on the data here, the grandparent is wrong. Maybe they were historically correct, but today the three middle quintiles of economic class is over-represented https://www.cfr.org/article/demographics-us-military https://www.cfr.org/article/demographics-us-military (Look for the graph titled "Neighborhood affluence for 2016 recruits")