Unfortunately I seem to not be able to find the article now (maybe someone else will have more luck), but a few days ago I stumbled across this info. 28% percent of Americans hold a positive view of the federal government, while 78% hold a favorable view of the military.
Does anybody else see potential for some serious ruckus in this fact? Just how viable is a civilian federal executive in the long term in a climate like this? And it is totally the politicians own fault for constantly pandering to the military and elevating it.
I could be way off here, but I guess that when people think of “the government”, they think of obese politicians in Gulfstreams above Washington, D.C.. Yet when they think of “the military”, they think of the innocent boy next door who is now risking his life somewhere in the Middle East.
I presume that they wouldn’t be be too fond of military bureaucracy or military government either.
But it could also be an American exceptionalism thing. After all, the warrior culture is quite big over there I hear.
Yeah a lot of those questionnaires is just framing.
There’s a pretty well known clip that goes like this:
Do you think we are spending too much on illegal aliens? Yes
Do you think illegal aliens should have access to medical care? Yes
Schooling? Yes
Welfare? Yes
So how are we spending too much on illegal aliens?
Most Americans have a positive image of the military, since their image of the military consists of hardworking, young grunts putting their lives at risk for their country. Most Americans have a negative image of the government, since their image of the government consists of bureaucrats at the DMV and incompetent politicians.
I have recently had a personal struggle to answer the question your statistic suggests:
“Ought libertarians as individuals have a positive view of career military individuals?”
What do you say of the successful military career of a long-time friend in a high-ranking military position?
Or perhaps even what are the possible repercussions (social, legal, physical, mental, economic or otherwise) of doing or saying other than positive re-enforcement?
Is this the ‘ruckus’ you refer to?
Or is it perhaps more to the point to ask, “Ought anyone value military individuals differently than political individuals?”
People hold a positive view of military because it represents a good shift away from the rat race of life. A military career gives many people the room for bringing out the innovations they want, especially since brilliant engineers and scientists back in the 1940s-1960s in the US were of military background, while also letting them do something that is more immediately beneficial than studying in college and graduate school for several years, instead of starting to work and learning what working is like. Outside of that, people feel that their marketable skill is put better on military, because it requires just physical ability from them.
Military is a creation of statist coercion.
But face it - a free man always make his choices based on what is best for himself, and the peacetime military represents an ideal direction for the free man, based on his incentives and constraints. I mean, hell, he could otherwise go through the long and endlessly rigorous and selective procedure to apply for statist jobs like law and accounting - jobs which only exist anyway because of the cost of government compliance, and do not necessarilly represent marketable skill despite the hard efforts it takes to become one. I mean, lawyers who do not reach the absolute best end up at the bottom of the ladder as far as pay and work goes, and they only do it because of their altruistic desire to protect the ideals of the state. Is that how a free man should be?
A future military coup for example. Wheter over or covert.
It by no means makes it a certanity, but in a country like the US this sort of attitude is certainly one requirement for it.
I could belive that but for the fact that I think this sort of sentiment is widespread even beyond the US. In almost every country with a strong military the populace just adores the prestige of it.
In my opinion it is not about with imagining the military as made up of the people next door. I think it has to do with the same reason people have a positive opinion of the US basketball team around the time of the olympics. It flies their colours and is seemingly much better than all the competition.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we (the USA) became a military government in a few years. Look at how much influence thugs like Betrayus (excuse me, Petraeus), McChrystal, etc. have. Our military has doubled in size in the past decade. When shit hits the fan, their going to be the ones with the most guns and most lust for power. The Second American Revolution will be very difficult indeed.
Now I haven’t been around that long. I’m about 20 years old… but I can say for certain that people in our country have a hard on for the military. They might not accept military rule but they certainly don’t mind them doing stuff we don’t know about and stuff like that.