Hi JW,

Quote Originally Posted by J Wolfsberger View Post
I'm not sure that captures it. I believe it has to do with a sense of civic responsibility - a belief that membership in the group entails a responsibility to the group. That doesn't necessarily express itself through military service, it could also come out through the Peace Crops, volunteering for community service, foreign service, etc. However expressed, it derives from the acceptance of obligation to ones group.
I should have been clearer in my comments - I was only addressing the "genetics" side of the comment, not the cultural side. Really, this is just the old Nature-Nurture debate in a new form (I'm constantly amazed at how long this debate has been around ).

On the cultural side, I don't disagree with you although your description could be more inclusive . For example, I doubt that it is a simple as pointing towards the State - it probably comes in a hierarchy of my family, my kin group, my organization, my community, my state, my country,... I think Heinlein got it right in Starship Troopers (book, not movie!).

Quote Originally Posted by J Wolfsberger View Post
Today, the "popular" attitude is that the group (the US) is fundamentally evil, but occasionally does good. And the natural consequence is a lack of any sense of civic responsibility.
There is some evidence to support it and some to contradict it - I suspect that the attitude is probably closer to the ideal is fine, the mechanism needs fixing and many of the people involved are _______ (fill in your own expletive to be deleted ).