--- Travis Fast <tfast at yorku.ca> wrote:
> anything. So sure in a country where everyone
> except the top 10% and
> bottom 10% are called middle class it is hardly
> suprising that you have
> a middle class army.
This is a valid point, but I still think that the belief that Army recruits are mainly the "duped" or "coerced by the lack of opportunity" poor is basically wishful thinking of the populist left that is quickly becoming an endangered species and is grasping for straws to maintain its central myth of the oppressed and coerced by the ruling class masses in spite of the ample evidence to the contrary.
I worked with the Army recruits in a training facility for about 6 years in the 1980s and I did not observe any difference between them and the population at large. If anything, I found them on average better educated and more intelligent than the average "Joe Schmoe," although my sample was biased by the fact that these were mainly intelligence or special forces trainees. But they still compared favorably to an average undergraduate student.
The main reason these people volunteered for the service was a promise of manhood and adventure associated with the service. Some of these folks I met were upper middle class (parents earning six digits) most other - middle or lower middle class, I hardly recall anyone being underclass. They joined mainly to "prove themselves," to "get the experience," "make it on their own, without parental tutelage," earn college tuition assistance without going to debt, or even to "serve their country." I did not hear anyone saying that he/she had no other opportunities. In fact when I mentioned that old liberal canard, people would just laugh - they did have other opportunities, they could get student loans, they could get other jobs, but they chose to join the service, because they saw it as a better alternative. I have no reason to belive otherwise.
I do not think that 9/11 changed much in that respect, if anything, the appeal of adventure, proving one's manhood or serving the country is even stronger now than it was in the 1980s.
Wojtek
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