Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by vandyswa 564 days ago
A nice limited hangout. Within the suspended reality field of the current USA military, the loss of a warrior culture must not be addressed. In fact, hidden. You are richly rewarded to place emphasis on almost anything else.
2 comments

How many years did you serve? Because this is not a problem I saw in twenty years in uniform.
Ya I would assume those already recruited into the military have a warrior mentality.

But the article is talking about recruiting first from the general public. American men have very much feminized over the past 50 years.

I remember back how the high school seniors at my school in 2002 had mustaches, were smoking cigarettes, they looked like full grown men.

Something has changed. I think a social premium on safety also results in a poorer recruiting class in the U.S.

If it's fifty years of feminization, and seniors 22 years ago had mustaches and were smoking cigarettes, just think what us knuckle-draggers were doing in the class of 1973. (Only a few guys smoked cigarettes, and apart from one beard-growing contest one year, facial hair was not permitted.)
Why would any modern military want a warrior culture? Warriors fight for personal glory, not maximum operational effectiveness. E.g. a warrior culture would never use drones to their fullest extent, despite their demonstrated effectiveness, because killing people via drone isn't glamorous. Modern militaries want soldiers, not warriors. Consider the idiom "soldier on". A single warrior beats a single soldier, but soldiers scale much better.
Man, all this agile/servant leader bullshit can work in the Sillicon Valley, but try that shit while covering from Russian artillery fire.

And no, Warrior Culture has nothing to do with your prejudiced view, I'd die for my former brothers, because they would die for me. I would never do the same for anyone in my scrum team.

You capitalize "Warrior Culture", so I suspect you're using it in some jargon sense. I'm talking about the plain English meaning. The distinction between "warrior" and "soldier" does not preclude great feats of bravery from soldiers, and your motivation is probably the most common one. Here's an example of warrior culture (lowercase): dueling. Militaries stamped it out for good reason.