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Military readiness is organizing and preparing the military for success in the field. If members are unwell, then they need to be identified, and then treated.
by chomp 5y ago
Military readiness is organizing and preparing the military for success in the field. If members are unwell, then they need to be identified, and then treated.
Suicides are a big problem affecting unit readiness at the moment, as depression not only lowers the effectiveness of individual people, but the suicide also affects unit morale.
Not everyone is comfortable with seeking help, especially in the armed forces (due to a variety of reasons such as culture), so if there are more tools to visibly see these issues (like we would with standard medical issues), then that makes it much easier to open up dialogue with our soldiers, and begin treatment.
- oneplane 5y agoBut if the culture makes it hard, technology is hardly going to fix that, right? Culture is a human problem, not a technology problem. Technology is just a tool, and perhaps a force multiplier, but a change in culture?
- SllX 5y agoCorrect; but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any utility in new technology for improving our culture so long as the people using it want to do so.
- kelseyfrog 5y agoThat's where the real fun of it lies. Imagine you have at your disposal every tool to modify individual behavior, but no tools to modify social systems? What second-order effects result from solely relying on individual interventions? If there are ways that make people feel ok with the soul-crushing weight to social ills, is it right to employ them?
- mschuster91 5y ago> Not everyone is comfortable with seeking help, especially in the armed forces (due to a variety of reasons such as culture), so if there are more tools to visibly see these issues (like we would with standard medical issues), then that makes it much easier to open up dialogue with our soldiers, and begin treatment. And once again, we're seeing technology being attempted to use as a band-aid instead of fixing the actual problems - the culture of toxic masculinity that is not just in the mindset of the soldiers but also in almost all advertisements, the fact that many seek to join the military not out of their own will (e.g. to defend the homeland) but to escape poverty, or the fact that many get sent to the military by their parents either because of "tradition" or because they are seen as "rebellious" and the military should "fix them". Humans aren't cogs in a machine, and projects such as this are only one thing: another layer to make sure the cogs perform as required. Dehumanizing.
- chomp 5y agoSo, I disagree that this is a band-aid, because you can be depressed without realizing it. War is brutal, and people are subjected to a wide range of emotions that can manifest consciously or subconsciously, so some people in-tune with their thoughts may have issues without realizing it. However, with regards to the rest of your comment, there is a population that sees toxic masculinity as just traits of normal masculinity, with all of the problems that comes with. The fixing of actual ingrained cultural issues is a culture war that only recently picked up, and is not going to resolve anytime soon. Meanwhile, there are people that are suffering who do not understand that their (to them) desirable identity traits are causing them harm, and potentially do not understand that they are going though depression. I do agree that it is depressing that soldiers are treated as fungible, but mental health is probably the only place where you're going to see humanity injected into the armed forces.