A particular challenge is integrating a new type of solider into the culture:
This is part of a broader challenge confronting all Information Age militaries: How to make room for those who fight with a computer mouse, not an M-16. Will traditional warriors--men with shaved heads and hard bodies--continue to run things, or will nerds with bad posture and long hair, possibly even women, assume greater prominence? Two Chinese strategists write that “it is likely that a pasty-faced scholar wearing thick eyeglasses is better suited to be a modern soldier than is a strong young lowbrow with bulging biceps,” but, even if that is true, reordering any military along those lines presents a far more profound and problematic challenge than questions about which tank or helicopter to buy. As Eliot Cohen writes: “The cultural challenge for military organizations will be to maintain a warrior spirit and the intuitive understanding of war that goes with it, even when their leaders are not, in large part, warriors themselves.”
But I think that's only half the challenge. The real problem will be injecting a "warrior spirit" into the geek culture.
My experience is that the pasty-faced scholars have little or no interest in a military career. Maybe it's because they perceive the military culture as hostile them, so changing it may help that. It's a bit of a cliche to break the male population down between geeks and jocks, but it true that somewhere around junior high school, most boys end up on one path or the other. The jocks come to dominate the school culture; the geeks stew and plan their revenge.
BTW -- I sometimes think this is behind a lot of the visceral hatred of Bush even before he exposed himself as incompetent. Sure, the jocks might rule high school, but that's where they would peak. The geeks would be rewarded for their diligent work and assume the reins of power. Then this smirking son of a president who shrugged off his duties early in life claims recovery and repentance and gets elected (or selected if you're in a particularly bad mood) to be president. It ain't right...
Clinton hatred was slightly different. I think a lot of Clinton hatred is that he got away with things that a lot of us wish we could get away with it. You weren't supposed to be able to smoke pot, screw around, and become president. Most of us chose one path or the other, and most of us who chose the prudish route still didn't come close to becoming president. But Clinton got to eat his cake and have it, too. It ain't right...
It's all high school stuff...
In any instance, I'm not sure how the military could go about making a military career attractive to geeks. I don't think money would do it, and it would risk alienating the jocks they still need.
Maybe the geeks need to be sold on the idea that military strength is what makes their geek culture possible. I confess I'm not entirely convince of it myself. Boot teased that his next post will address the importance of military strength. I look forward to it.
7 comments:
hey john.
take a look at the popularity of MMOPRPGs. there is plenty of warrior spirit amongst the "nerd" culture. it just tends towards the orcish or elvish warrior spirit.
reintroduce sword-play and plate armor to the battlefield and you'll have the geeks a-clamoring to sign up.
My experience is that the pasty-faced scholars have little or no interest in a military career. Maybe it's because they perceive the military culture as hostile them
Hostile to them maybe, but not to Elgthar, level fourteen J'Darkian berserker! Maybe it would work if they made pointy wizard hats part of the uniform for certain soldiers.
Of course, it might also be a just shout-out all of the Fighting Keyboarders out there reading.
K
Damn twiffer, you beat me to it.
That's a good point -- the challenge is not so much about infusing a warrior spirit as it is channeling the fantasy warrior spirit to the actual military
my power is beyond your comprehension, foolish mortal! now bow before me, lest i incinerate you with my level 30 fireball spell.
i think the solution is to give our enemies free (introductory) subscriptions to everquest and WoW. then we can fight all our battles there (plus make money once we get 'em hooked and start charging them).
really, it's win-win for everyone this way.
Maybe the geeks need to be sold on the idea that military strength is what makes their geek culture possible.
John, you've got it backward:
Actually, it's the jocks that need to be sold on the idea that geekdom is what makes military strength (and the cultural realities as well) in a technological age possible.
If anything, it's about who can do without whom.
Besides, the idea itself is facile. Most geeks outgrow their outward geekdom once they get out on their own. So who are we really talking about here?
Another hole in this particular one is that you're all working under the assumption that only geeks play games.
Gaming is not solely the province of the pasty, hairy-palmed basement dweller anymore. Your jocks are playing Halo. So are their girlfriends. And so is their mom. ;)
If I had to staff my own Browncoat army, I personally know three guilds worth of people on WoW, a clan on Guild Wars, and a few sundry squads here and there in MechAssault and Chromehounds that I could pick out a core cadre of organized, disciplined people who know how to work together. Those skills are the same whether it's with fireballs or frag grenades.
That said, there is something to be said for the physical realities of being a soldier. Brawn is not that hard to find. What's harder to get is the basic sense of your own power and an ingrained and unconscious sense of working as part of a team. And I've not seen a consistent, large scale way outside of a that nearly concentration-camp grade of physical and mental readjustment that comes from Boot Camp that works.
Unless you want to start raising them from Jr. High like the Spartans, that is.
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