General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The problem of our military worshipping culture [View all]llmart
(15,681 posts)Very well thought out.
My son works in the defense industry. He is extremely bright - identified as gifted when he was in elementary school. He is responsible for writing the code for F16 fighter jet simulators. Does he put his life on the line for that? No. However, what he does in some way helps to keep fighter pilots safe and gives them the latest technology and trains them on the latest technology so that their jobs are a bit safer.
What he does requires a skill set that is in very short supply and it truly takes an intelligent person to do what he does. However, we tend to forget about all the other people who help the military behind the scenes.
It can be quite dangerous to glorify the military ad nauseum which we certainly have done in recent years. I agree with a prior post that said it may just be from the guilty complex we have left over from Viet Nam.
I believe that every single young person in this country should do mandatory service of some sort, not necessarily military, after they graduate from high school. And yes, we need to honor those members of the Peace Corps just as much as the military.