He was not a day over 35; actually, he looked younger to me; almost childlike. He rattled off everything they had brainwashed him with in the military. Yes, brainwashed.  Do you actually think young men would go into combat if they were not convinced it is fun and glorious?  Really, I do not think we have come all that far from the Romans who would say sometime early in their service “dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” (“It is sweet and beautiful to die for one’s country”) The hard part comes after the combat.  Maybe some painful wounds, treated by an overextended medical system, but the memorized ideology remains.  The young and impressionable repeat what they have been told so often that they believe it.

“The military teaches self-discipline.  It is a fine preparation for the working world.” Wrong.  It teaches following orders, stamping out individual ideas and initiatives like so many cockroaches who have dared to enter the kitchen.  They could appreciate if you find a faster way to process internal paperwork.  They neither encourage nor reward the kind of initiative that makes entrepreneurs, a pretty good way to rise like cream. Read more on So You Expect A Job?…