1. he wouldn't fit doug's stereotype of cold-blooded killer 2. he doesn't worship militarism 3. tells jokes about shrubya being stupid 4. is a scrawny kid who doesn't pick fights if he can help it. 5. thinks of himself as a repuplican 6. and yeah, basically was looking at a pile out doo having dropped out at 16, getting his vocational equivalent and then facing nothing but $10/hr jobs. 7. they thought by joining he'd get a better assignment. 8. military also sold him a big huge bill of goods and the kid, like a lot of 18 year olds buys it.
i think people forget how much men are expected to be something because they have a decent paycheck coming in. more than anything else, this is what it means to be a man. women are taught that they are defined by their relationships. (go surf for awhile and notice how many women have email nicks "joeyandjohnnysmom at yahoo.com. joeskim at hotmail.com petersmithswife at hotmail.com.
if you have no propsects for being a somebody, somebody someone looks up to or admires, then where else to you feel you have some purpose in life -- if you're a man?
if you want some respect, rather than being shat on, cursed at, sneered at in your job as burger flipper, auto mechanic, lawncare worker, etc. where would you find it in this world?
and, if you went to school and were treated as, basically, someone who'd never amoutn to much or go to college, on of those' kids, you're tracked into vocational programs that reinforce your feelings of stupidity, that you hate school, and that you don't like to learn and don't want to.
every where you turn, the jobs that never used to req a diploma, do. there aren't many crafts these days. etc. etc.
not surprisingly, people go into the military.
if i the kind of 18 year old I was and facing my current job prospects, I'd join in a flash, war or none.
At 04:46 PM 11/30/2005, Charles Brown wrote:
>Choice is significantly socially constructed, and choosing joining the
>military probably is more socially constructed than the average choice,
>since putting yourself in danger of being killed should go against the
>instinct for self-preservation. ( See Durkheim on suicide). That is , the
>natural choice is not to "join" combat.
>
>Socalled choosing to join during war with likelihood of going into combat
>and choosing to join not during war are two different things.
>What section of the current combat soldiers chose to join after the war
>started or when it looked very possible or imminent ?
>
>The vast majority of the population is working class, so a representative
>sample of the population in the military would be working class.
>
>Charles
>
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