Problem is, Rob, how do you get better vetting?
I became an Air Force officer – a second lieutenant -- in 1952. At that point most of the people I worked for were officers who’d been through WW II, which I’d narrowly missed. They’d been promoted because they could get the job done under difficult and deadly conditions. They knew what they were doing and they were able to do it. There was almost none of the crap Alan talked about.
But as time went on and the old heads retired or died the military became more and more politicized. One of the results was the emphasis on “body counts” in Vietnam, a concept that would be funny if it weren’t so despicable. I managed to get promoted because I could do stuff that needed doing, and could come up with solutions to some of the problems we faced. Finally, in 1972 the general I worked for pinned on my eagles and I became a full colonel. By the time I came back from my second Southeast Asian command the military was rushing to become politically correct. Women were being brought into the military in positions they weren’t capable of filling and were weakening our combat capability, but it was the politically correct thing to do, and our politicians figured we’d never again have to fight the kind of war we fought in WW II, so what the hell difference did it make? I wrote about that in http://www.russ-lewis.com/essays/womeninarmedforces.html.
Finally, as Director of Combat Operations in a SAGE center, part of a system that never sould have been built, I decided to retire as soon as I reached my maximum retirement pay point, and three years later did exactly that. I probably could have gone for my star, but it no longer was something that interested me.
The only thing that’ll lead to “better vetting” is an existential threat of some kind. In the meantime, politics will reign supreme.
That's a very illuminating essay, Russ; wasn't there any way of making it more publicly read - maybe in the press - or could that impact your own position in retirement? Maybe waves are not always the best remedy.
Political correctness regarding gender issues is so blindingly stupid that I can't really grasp how people don't see right through it; surely, daily human experience shows us that the gulf between the genders is massive, and that we should all be the happier for it? It's what makes the world go round.
I'm reminded of a current issue in the British media about demonstrations outside a school where kids around five years of age are being taught about LGBT (?) issues. Are they going nuts? Kids of that age should be being taught something relevant to their capabilities, not a pack of doctrinarian nonsense that goes way over their level and, possibly, creates premature interest in sex before they have the slightest idea what it is. Currently, a socialist MP is being rebuked by his party for standing, correctly in my view, on the side of the protestors who don't want that stuff filling their kids' minds. That the protestors visible on tv
appeared to be mostly Moslem doesn't help the public image, but I believe them to be right on this issue. And I'm no socialst! But hey, neither am I a Tory any longer. They both make me sick at their hypocrisy.
Personally, I believe that school is never the place for sex lessons; nobody ever gave me such lessons, but I always seemed to know what I needed to know at the time I needed that knowledge. Which seemed to be the norm with everyone else I knew. Neither did I meet any girl who didn't know how to get pregnant. Furthermore, what a helluva position in which to put a teacher in today's society, where classroom control hangs by a thread. Anyway, I heard one spokesperson on behalf of the "system" say that they didn't discuss sex, per se, in which case, what the hell could they possibly discuss with those babies that's relevant? Tell them that two dads or two mums is the way to go? Really? What a dangerous incentive to play games they should not even think about. If they think about it as adults, that's a whole other deal, and the hell with it, their problem, not a schoolteacher's.
Political correctness: the wilful messing with, and attempted engineering of life as it has worked perfectly well for centuries.
