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Having independent thought is hard to control in making a force of people. To have a force, an army, a unit of people, they have to respond predicatively to all

by sosuke 12y ago

Having independent thought is hard to control in making a force of people. To have a force, an army, a unit of people, they have to respond predicatively to all commands. If you put together a force you must believe without doubt that they will follow your command. Police are selected and conditioned accordingly. The military does this as well, training people to kill, and be killed. In previous engagements having people think twice meant death of themselves or others. You had to condition your units to run out into bullets, one after the other, until you made enough of an advance to kill the enemy or die trying. I don't worry about average intelligence officers, but I do worry about average intelligence commanders, judges, and people in control of these forces. When you join they army they will always place you in the position that most suits your psych test, or will even reject you if needed. How is this different? Don't become a cop, become a detective, become an FBI agent, become a judge, or public defender and volunteer firefighter.

nishonia 12y ago
What you are describing might be true of other countries, but that isn't the way it works in the US. You aren't too far off on the military training issue, immediate obedience to orders is incredibly important - at the lowest ranks. The US military has an extremely long institutional memory, and over a couple hundred years they've figured out a way of doing this that works pretty well. The conditioning for immediate obedience to orders and illusion of immortality wears off after a couple of years, right around the time that personnel start picking up rank and assuming positions of responsibility over others. So by that time they won't be charging any machinegun nests, they'll be in a position to order others to do so - at this point it should be clear to you why filtering out intelligent people is a bad idea :) The conditioning wears off, but you can't fix stupid.
- sosuke 12y ago
  I think you're right, and as someone else said the commanders, chiefs and detectives are promoted, not hired in, which makes limiting intelligent hires a terrible plan for longevity.

by sosuke 12y ago

nishonia 12y ago

What you are describing might be true of other countries, but that isn't the way it works in the US. You aren't too far off on the military training issue, immediate obedience to orders is incredibly important - at the lowest ranks. The US military has an extremely long institutional memory, and over a couple hundred years they've figured out a way of doing this that works pretty well. The conditioning for immediate obedience to orders and illusion of immortality wears off after a couple of years, right around the time that personnel start picking up rank and assuming positions of responsibility over others. So by that time they won't be charging any machinegun nests, they'll be in a position to order others to do so - at this point it should be clear to you why filtering out intelligent people is a bad idea :) The conditioning wears off, but you can't fix stupid.

sosuke 12y ago
I think you're right, and as someone else said the commanders, chiefs and detectives are promoted, not hired in, which makes limiting intelligent hires a terrible plan for longevity.