> This kind of post-Vietnam general-purpose anti-Military
> attitude (you really can't think of anything more
> dreadful?)
Sorry for the hyperbole. I'll try to be absolutely literal next time.
> I think it was an excellent presentation of how insular
> life in the military has become; in about one generation,
> military service has gone from something that was common
> throughout many walks of life to basically be confined to
> a "military class" -- and it's not an over-class, that's
> for sure. I don't think it's a reflection of the US at
> all; to the contrary, it has become a very specific and
> small slice of the US.
I think you are right that military life has become more insular, but that doesn't make it any less of the U.S. for that. I wasn't going for sociological exactness; surprisingly, there are no record-label CEOs or East Village hipsters on the ship. That's why "reflection" is a bad word, too metaphorical. It _is_ the United States. If anything, because of its lack of sociological correctness, and because most of its subjects are from the lower end of the spectrum, the couple of episodes I saw revealed more immediately the differences at work in the U.S.
> I found it very disturbing.
Why?