I know many people have invested their lives in the belief that the military is virtuous. Often literally. It thus seems to them like a personal insult when someone questions the merits of their alleged service. The soldier's identity is so tied to the military that many reject even the slightest possibility that they might be in the wrong. I wrote a post a few days ago observing that many veterans who are proud of their service fighting for freedom are also the first in line to celebrate arbitrary authoritarian prohibitions and regulations. I conjectured this is due at least in part to military training and culture. This is no hasty pronouncement. I grew up in a conservative household, and was strongly pro-military and pro-police in my youth. I joined the Young Marines instead of the Boy Scouts, and was proud of that tangential connection to the service. In short, I did not reach my present position on this subject lightly.

Some of you will disagree with my views here in a civil manner. Some will agree wholeheartedly. And some of you are just as psychologically weak as the most easily triggered, snowflakiest SJW, and will denounce this as treason and cowardice. The usual response to criticism from this last group is name-calling, insults, and empty slogans about "protecting and serving," "love it or leave it," and "but men fought and died for your freedom!"

Yes, some soldiers fight and die. People fight and die for a lot of things, and under a lot of flags. That doesn't make it noble. The threats to my freedom aren't in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Bosnia, the Korean DMZ, Yemen, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Panama, Somalia, Uganda, and who knows where all else the military has been deployed on peacekeeping missions in my lifetime. The threat is in the halls of the capitol, from the people who pay the military and order their deployment. The people who sent troops who killed student protesters at Kent State, disarmed civilians after Hurricane Katrina and are now threatening to forcibly disarm Virginian gun owners.

The denouncement of dissent from military members and their supporters only reinforces my impression that the military operates like a cult. A cult with guns that can, has, and will use jack-booted authoritarianism while they proclaim to defend freedom. Their god is the State, their icon its flag, and their salvation its growth. Their enemy is liberty.

Think that's hyperbole?

Military recruiters tend to pad the truth or outright lie about what the contract entails. Boot camp isolates the recruit, imposes a harsh schedule, and explicitly seeks to break down the individual psychologically through verbal abuse and arbitrary disciplinary actions. He wakes up on command, stands in formation, sings a hymn, and recites a prayer to his sacred emblem. He marches to chow, and then eats a communal meal on someone else's arbitrary, short schedule, or starve. Then drill. Individual failure means group punishment. Horizontal enforcement is encouraged. Obedience is rewarded sometimes, and failure, dissent, or disobedience is punished harshly, sometimes when it hasn't been committed in the first place.

The recruit is trained to worship the rank structure. More bars and rockers? Obey. Shiny metal bits? Obey harder. Shut up and do as you're told without question. Or else. He learns a jargon that is gibberish to the uninitiated. Of course, most specialized fields have jargon, technical terms, and slang, but the military adds to this a symbolism and mythology. Like a secret society, you're jumping through hoops in order to be granted the honor of joining at the lowest official rank instead of being a mere prospect or aspirant. This is classic cult conditioning. "But it's to prepare troops for the battlefield chaos," you say? Bullshit. It's to ensure the conscience can't kick in under any circumstances whatsoever when they receive their orders. They're trained to live their lives on someone else's schedule, follow someone else's rules, obey someone else's orders, and just shut up and do as told.

Do you believe we mundane civilians take our liberty for granted, and you deserve respect because you wore a uniform? Anyone not in the military is presumed inferior, undisciplined and weak, right? How does your obedience to superiors and capacity for violence on command demonstrate virtue? Sure, the military has codes of conduct, military law, and rules of engagement. But orders come from the brass, and the brass gets their orders from the politicians, and the politicians are undeniably corrupt bastards who lie, steal, and cheat their way into power. There hasn't even been a nod toward a congressional declaration of war since World War II, and yet we have been subjected to the Korean war, the Vietnam War, Gulf Wars I & II, and innumerable other military interventions around the world. What happened to the oath to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic? No, soldiers obey the domestic enemies and make excuses when they break the rules that are supposed to restrain them. Because that is who pays them.

Oh, right, some of you think I am the domestic enemy because I question the legitimacy of your system. Those who challenged my prior post have demonstrated that cult trait to a T. That alone should prove my point that the military is no friend of liberty.