re: #156 Decatur Deb

When we would get trapped into analyzing ethical failures in the Army, we usually wound up at a truism: “The Army reflects the society it is drawn from.” The same is likely true of the many, varied, police forces.

For our sins.

About a month ago, religion counter-apologists on YouTube Jimmy Snow and Telltale Atheist tried to paint the military as a cult (Telltale uses the BITE model to score cults; he’s scored everything from the Catholic Church to the Republican Party on that scale).

They had a caller who allegedly was a Marine in Colorado claiming the military is a cult.

I wrote back to point out that wasn’t so and why; they did not return a response (which they claim they will do).

What I wrote:

Mr. Atheist and Telltale,

I found your chat clip with the Marine from Colorado interesting, on whether you considered the military a cult (it appeared to me you felt it was that way).

I wish to clear up things I saw in that clip.

I served in the US Navy for seventeen years enlisted (including time as a Navy Recruiter), until I became disabled. An example you used on the show was military personnel and veterans sometimes being poorly treated for disablements such as PTSD, and you placed the blame for this on the military.

This is misdirected blame. The military and the Veterans Administration spends its money and promotes programmes based on what the US Congress both tells it to do and how Congress funds them. If Congress fails to provide sufficient personnel, equipment, or money for programmes such as mental health or other disabilities because Congress considers them of less worth than say combat training or weaponry, then those programmes will be underfunded, underequipped, and understaffed. The military can only do what Congress allows it to do, and the same goes for the Veterans Administration.

The blame lies in who voters put in Congress and those congressmen and women’s priorities for the military. The military’s doctrine since the founding of the nation has been its subservience to the civilian government, which in turn is put in place by the voters. If the elected government of the United States says it will not fund a programme designed to treat PTSD for example, and a general or admiral says “Well too bad, we’re going to use this money you gave us for that instead of what you put in the federal budget,” at that instant you have a mutiny of the military against the civilian elected government. You don’t want the military making those decisions, military dictatorships rarely turn out well for civilian populaces.

If you are unfamiliar with him, there is a retired Navy Intelligence officer on Twitter named Jim Wright (he goes by the handle Stonekettle). He frequently notes “if you want a better nation, be better citizens.” We don’t have Trump as President because the military turned out en masse to make him President. That’s on all the voters, the overwhelming majority of whom are civilians who never served in the military.

You also brought up the idea that some military personnel or veterans might go around thinking “well, we’re better than you because you are a civilian.” I believe you can find that sort of culty attitude in every profession, group, religion, or clique of people everywhere in the world throughout time.

What concerns me more is the way civilians treat military personnel with that sort of deference. Think the phrase “thank you for your service.’ A huge number of veterans hate that phrase and wish civilians would not use it. (I prefer “welcome home” myself.) The endless fetishization of the military comes from civilians.

Consider how many military observances there are on the federal calendar. There is the birthday of each military service, Memorial Day for those fallen in battle, Armed Forces Day for those serving in the active and reserve forces, and Veterans Day for those who served in the past, all listed in the US Flag Code. There are also military observances in the US Flag Code such as VE Day, VJ Day, and Pearl Harbor Day. Those days were designated by the civilian elected government, not the military.

Now compare those to days to honour civilian services. Is there a Peace Corps day? A peacemakers day? A Diplomats’ Day? Teachers’ Day? Doctors’ Day? Where is the clamouring from voters to honour the peacemakers and giving them federal holidays? Is the cult the military, or the society at large which fetishizes military service?

You also brought up the idea you could enlist under one presidency (such as Obama) and end up serving part of your enlistment under another (such as Trump). The thing is, one doesn’t swear or affirm to uphold the President. One swears or affirms to uphold the Constitution and the orders of the officers appointed over you. Those officers are appointed by the elected officials of Congress, not the military. Additionally, officers swear to carry out their duties with no mental reservations, thus may resign their commission at any time. (An enlisted person in theory could be drafted and have a whole lot of mental reservations about military service, thus they are not held to the standard of “no mental reservations.”)

A military member is obligated to disobey an unlawful order by law as set forth by the elected government. Military personnel receive training on what constitutes lawful orders.

Unlike a religious cult such as Heaven’s Gate or Jehovah’s Witnesses, the rules for the military are laid down in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a set of laws passed by the elected Congress which governs all military behaviour. The same UCMJ also lays out the rights of military personnel and how they should be treated if they break one of the articles in the UCMJ. Punishments or admonitions are not arbitrary or capricious. The articles are crimes in the UCMJ, some of which have no equivalent in civilian law (such as forcing surrender, contempt for government officials, or sleeping on watch) due to the nature of military service. Unlike a religious cult where the leaders can arbitrarily punish a member for a perceived infraction, military law requires following the rules of evidence and procedure of a courts-martial as laid down by the elected civilian officials of Congress. They are similar to civilian courts in that manner. That is vastly different than a cult, unless Congress writing laws and voters electing representatives and senators constitutes a cult.

Does the military change a person if that person is in the military long enough? Sure. Does Microsoft change a person if they work for Microsoft long enough? I would argue the same. Change is part of life, regardless of the path one takes; lack of change is stagnation.

Finally, you noted in passing that dying in following orders is potentially part of military service. It is also part of fire brigades, police forces, physicians and nurses dealing with new and deadly outbreaks of disease, race car driving, skiing, &c. Putting your life on the line for a goal you consider important is not new to human culture, and is not evidence of a cult.