From: Mike (mikew12345@cox.net)
Date: Fri Jul 02 2004 - 19:37:18 MDT
>
> On Sat, 3 Jul 2004, David Picon Alvarez wrote:
>
> > > Because self sacrifice (not necessarily fatal) is the ultimate
> > > pleasure.
> >
> > I believe you will find out that if you ask a statistically
> > significant proportion of soldiers in modern history
> (mercenaries are
> > another story) they'd tell you they're not happy soldiering.
>
> Soldiers may be soldiers for more reasons other than a well understood
> choice:
>
> 1) They may need the money and signup for the military in peace time.
>
> 2) They may be recruited for a war with a serious misunderstanding of
> whats involved in real war. Rarely do any 'lofty' ideals
> surrounding
> the war survive actual combat.
>
> 3) They may have been drafted.
>
> However what matters isn't the experience of the war in #2,
> its the decision to 'self sacrifice' at the recruitment
> center, after that they are stuck. A suicide bomber may
> decide in the few instants after blowing themselves up before
> full death that this really sucks, but again its too late.
>
> However there are cases where one makes such a choice and its
> pleasure throughout. Some of the accounts by the Christian
> Saints of there punishment for good deeds includes this, not
> to mention that masochistic pleasure in general often
> includes this component. Enough that it overrides ordinary
> perception of possibly quite severe pain.
I believe most Army grunts will tell you they don't fight for the
political purposes, they fight mostly for their fellow soldiers in their
unit. When separated from their unit, most want to hurry up and get
back, because they don't want to let their team down. The desire for
happiness may figure in at some level, but it's covered with layers of
group dynamics, the desire to belong, one's responsibility to the team,
etc.
Mike Williams
>
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