It was meant to be humorousOriginally Posted by DDilegge
Yes -- let our enemies beware!
No -- too little education or knowledge of foreign cultures
No -- modern commo moves authority up, not down.
No -- strategy has become too complex for NCOs to understand, let alone execute.
No -- some other reason, explained below.
It was meant to be humorous
I'd like to say yes, but modren commo leads to micro managing
I agree completely with point 1 in your post, Bill Moore. But be careful about comparing the strategic corporal to the Starship Troopers of science fiction. Remember, submarines and airplanes were science fiction not that long ago.
Also, I think the "dumbing down" of kids has less to do with computers and video games than with the education system that acts much the same as the military. Conformity is the key, and nowhere are students encouraged to seek out knowledge that they want just for the sake of learning. I have far more academic reading since graduating college than I have ever done before, just for the fact that I have the time and freedom to read what I want to learn instead of getting tired old classic novels and worthless algebraic formulas down my throat.
Classics
"...instead of getting tired old classic novels and worthless algebraic formulas down my throat."
Oh, I don't know. Dostoyevskii's The Possessed looks pretty relevant these days.
And certainly it is. If only that had been assigned reading. Instead we get crap like Ragged Dick and Flowers for Algernon. Middle school level books at the max, being taught in college. You should see the crap high schoolers are forced to waste their time on now.
Heh
"Instead we get crap like Ragged Dick..."
Resisting.....joke...too.....easy....
I agree, totally inappropriate for the college level. Or even serious H.S. courses in the honors or A.P. vein. I imagine these books are kept on reading lists because so many students have reading and critical thinking skills years behind their chronological age. A H.S. in an affluent area will have juniors reading Paradise Lost and Moby Dick while schools in an impoverished area - well - nothing comparable.
OTOH I retain a certain fondness for Flowers For Algernon - a good way to have younger students contemplate the nature of intelligence, perception, moral reasoning and so on.
How about A Message to Garcia as an example of the strategic lieutenant 100 years ago. That's what we're looking for in our junior soldiers now. And, believe it or not, we're seeing a lot of them.
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