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Quote of the Day: The Military Gets Woke
“The commanding staff of the army and fleet soon divided into two groups. One group tried to stay in their places, tuning in on the revolution, registering as Social Revolutionaries. Later a part of them even tried to crawl into the Bolshevik camp. The other group strutted a while and tried to oppose the new order, but soon broke out in some sharp conflict and were swept away by the soldier flood. Such groupings are so natural that they have been repeated in all revolutions. … In the long run the majority of the old command were pushed out or suppressed, and only a small part reeducated and assimilated. In a more dramatic form the officers shared the fate of those classes from which they were recruited.
“An army is always a copy of the society it serves—with this difference, that it gives social relations a concentrated character, carrying both their positive and negative features to an extreme.”
—Leon Trotsky, History of the Russian Revolution
Recent examples of inappropriate behavior, from retired generals and admirals speaking out publicly against President Trump, to active-duty service members reacting publicly to criticism of the continuing feminization of the military (i.e., new uniforms for pregnant war fighters) by a prominent member of the media, prompted insightful comments from Victor Davis Hanson. He reminded me of Trotsky’s descriptions of how the Russian military transitioned from defenders of the regime to revolutionaries, so I thought I’d share one here.
Published in Group Writing
Thanks.
Can those in the military file hostile work environment complaints and law suits?
Meaning this, for me (and maybe for A.):
This observation of Trotsky’s puts the daily news about the pathetic efforts of that first group in the military–those who are trying futilely to re-establish their formerly secure place in society by signaling their commitment to the mad woke revolutionary cause–into perspective. It wasn’t the historical course of history for military men just in his revolution or in ours; it is the natural course for every revolution.
I think at least at present, there is a significant difference.
The Czarist army was a conscript force debilitated by years of combat, poor leadership and faulty logistics, it was ripe for the promise of “Bread, peace and land”.
American forces are volunteers, primarily from the working class and the middle class. They are well paid, well fed and well trained. They also, for the most part, represent traditional American civic virtues. To SP4 Jones, tank mechanic in the motor pool, what fads espoused by the high muckey mucks in DC are irrelevant. At least until the day the Biden Administration starts assigning political officers to each company.
I was speaking of the woke top echelon only.
I was lucky enough to work, for 20 years, in an environment where disagreements among management (and there were many, some of them quite sharp) were resolved behind closed doors, a decision was made, and then we call came out with smiles on our faces and got behind implementing whatever it was that had been decided, even if that thing wasn’t something we privately supported, or even if it was something we’d actively spoken against. A manager who did anything else, or who tried to pick off the “troops” (it was a hospital so I’m speaking metaphorically) to cement her own power base was either disciplined or outright fired.
The current environment, wherein all the dirty laundry, and every disagreement, is hung out to dry on social media, and then people spend as much time as they need to trying to move the popular needle in one direction or the other–mostly with input from the uninformed or those with their own ax to grind–is utterly poisonous. And never more so than when it’s taking place among the upper ranks of the military. Should the need ever arise, it’s hard to imagine all these folks suddenly getting on the same side, getting out the same hymnbook, and starting to kill people and break things in the service of a common good. Because apparently they don’t believe there is one. (Maybe they think they’ll be able to win hearts and minds by tweeting their way to victory.)
I hadn’t thought about it in those terms, but that seems right to me, on all sides.
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This is the Quote of the Day. Our sign-up sheet for April is here and there are several days still available. We welcome new participants and new members to Ricochet to share their favorite quotations.
Another ongoing project to encourage new voices is our Group Writing Project. April’s theme is ‘April’s Showers Bring….‘ If you’re looking to share your own thoughts rather than those of others, please sign up for Group Writing too!
America doesn’t’ have “classes.” We aren’t British or Indian.
It’s rare for the extremely wealthy to join the military. Military leaders come predominantly from families that are not extremely wealthy, and their rise in the ranks allows them to be among the nation’s most powerful leaders. They get to those lofty positions through merit, not class nor wealth.
I know an ex-Air Force F-15E Eagle driver. He dropped bombs and performed close air support in both sandboxes. A fantastic guy who embodies the fighter jock ethos and professionalism, but not an over-inflated ego.
Eventually, he rotated into a training role – as the best ones do. Once he saw a mission statement over the doorway that had more to do with diversity and not how to be the best war fighter he said to me: “The Air Force is for some people, but it isn’t for me anymore.”
He flies for FedEx now.
You may be sure that FedEx has the exact same pious posturing about diversity, and that the ex Strike Eagle driver gets his annual/quarterly/monthly/weekly dose of Goodthink delivered via FedEx corporate email/messaging.
We don’t have a class system. And I’m not arguing that officers and senior NCOs advance based on class or wealth. Pace Napoleon, every American soldier carries a marshal’s baton in his knapsack.
It’s just a pet peeve of mine when people use such language to describe our country, common as it is.
America has a ruling class. It’s not an endogamous class like the European aristocracies. Yet. Some data show that it’s becoming one.
True, but at least now the Eagle driver doesn’t have to worry about a career-ending bad OPR because he didn’t participate in the current Air Force groupthink. He can now just read FedEx’s diversity message, smile, and pitch it.