Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

There's a lot of military fetishing in America but it's just a job. There's nothing special about people who become soldiers: they aren't stronger, they aren't braver, they aren't more patriotic, they don't deserve special recognition and respect any more than other jobs; but for a nation based on liberty, using a draft to force people into killing other people and potentially being killed, special treatment was part of the deal. However, now there is no draft, people make their own choice to join the military, and the rewards are commensurate enough without additional societal advantages. Those are mainly a holdover from the obligations created by multiple world wars in the last Century, and will probably eventually evaporate from an all-volunteer army.

But there's more to consider about the job of soldiering besides the obvious protection benefit; society gains in a subtle way from having robust and organized military jobs because for a lot of recruits, it's where they learn to take responsibility for their actions, learn to take instruction, learn a skill, learn self-sufficiency, and learn leadership. The military has a from those according to their ability to those according to their need sacrifice ethos; and soldiering is the very definition of a leadership hierarchy with unquestioned obeyance; making it ironic that this totalitarian Marxist institution is where so many people learn the essentials of liberty.