But in practice the people are getting more complacent -- perhaps more individualistic, or more overburdened with livelihood concerns, and there's a massive clo

But in practice the people are getting more complacent -- perhaps more individualistic, or more overburdened with livelihood concerns, and there's a massive clout of PR to dissuade anyone from thinking that war is, actually, a bad thing. I'm thinking of "thank you for your service", and the general sentiment of sympathy for veterans. Surely they're not imperialistic red shirts fighting for an evil king supported by a bunch of robber barons, nor are they mercenaries fighting a runaway proxy war, are they? Though they do get paid to go overseas and murder foreign nationals, while the local branches of the government are putting the screws on us with more militarized policing, more surveillance, and less liberties, since there's an ever-growing world-wide network of anti-American sentiment, and the terrorists may be hiding in that house in the cul-de-sac. Not to mention a generally declining education system, coupled with rising groupthink, PC, and patriotism. With all these factors in effect, assisted by a ton of PR, joining the army to go kill for the industrialists isn't socially unacceptable at all -- it's a career choice, and there's no critical thinking available to either the aspiring soldier or their social circle to indicate any other possibilities. One would wonder how we burned through all that pro-American goodwill, if there was really anything to wonder about the whole deal.