An excellent piece, much recommended - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

aphclarkson.bsky.social • 29 days ago

An excellent piece, much recommended

American bushido, the obsession with lethality, warrior ethos, and tactical “merit” was the logical endpoint of an all volunteer professional military. But it’s bleeding into the rest of American society in increasingly unhealthy ways. My latest⬇️

Comments

aphclarkson.bsky.social•29 days ago

And it matches some points I made for World Politics Review in 2022 about one of the reasons US and European attempts to assist militaries in Africa so often end in failure https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/europe-helped-create-west-africa-coup-prone-militaries/

aphclarkson.bsky.social•29 days ago

This quote also reminded me of how I've also at times wondered how far Thomas Barnett's now largely forgotten "Pentagon's New Map" hype in the 00s contributed to the acceleration of America's strategic dysfunction

aphclarkson.bsky.social•29 days ago

In any case, @sodrock.bsky.social's excellent piece is just another data point for how Alfred Vagts's visionary work is due a revival
https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/for-russian-military-russia-s-culture-of-militarism-was-toxic/

timoconnorbl.bsky.social•29 days ago

Give citizen soldiers all the tools and training going; go in; do the job in as dull and professional manner possible; bring as many of the citizen soldiers as possible back home to go back to being citizens.

It’s been stamping all over “warrior codes” since Scipio Africanus was a boy.

ianford.bsky.social•29 days ago

This bushido nonsense has grown *because* of the American Exceptionalism on steroids that took off after the Cold War - despite vast military spending, US society/media/politics is trapped by the simplistic myth of "beardy macho special forces are the solution every problem" Total war is unthinkable

euantaylor.bsky.social•29 days ago

Throwing this out there: there are many times (sport, work, etc) where it is proven that better results are achieved from growing grassroots, expanding participation and not laying your eggs all in one basket. Yet, repeatedly, resources are competed over, creating a narrow group of the initiated.

magnusgustafsson.bsky.social•29 days ago

Finland’s former president Koivisto’s argument for universal conscription was ”you should not give guns to those who want them”

aphclarkson.bsky.social•29 days ago

cc @dsquareddigest.bsky.social @pwnallthethings.bsky.social

alonlevy.bsky.social•29 days ago

The IDF exists and commits war crimes perfectly fine with universal conscription.

padsky.bsky.social•29 days ago

It reminds me of some of my research into UK IC / miliary co-ordination in Ireland and perhaps even Russian equivalents in Chechnya. Where a group of professionals becomes isolated combined with a certain mythos and celebration of "lethality", bad things can happen. In some cases, very bad things.

bonenberger.bsky.social•29 days ago

It's an odd fit, American Bushido — Bushido, with its contempt for materialism and money, and its maniacal focus on personal honor manifested through military service to one's lord; America today, a creature of pure capitalism, transaction, and hustle grindset. These ideas cannot easily coexist

aphclarkson.bsky.social•29 days ago

Yet it's that jarring contradiction between supposedly embodying a warrior ethos while cashing in on it through Youtube, PMCs and MAGA that defines so much of the American cult of the SOF operator

bonenberger.bsky.social•29 days ago

But I read the piece and enjoyed it and it's true that Hegseth and his ilk are trying to bury the "citizen soldier" model once and for all; it's also true that codes and ideology that support despotism are and will be increasingly popular and that "warrior ethos" "lethality" are parts of that effort

welshrarebit.bsky.social•29 days ago

Impossible to read the Bushido piece without thinking “Prussia!” every minute.

lipstickscribbles.bsky.social•29 days ago

Couldn't this be summer up under, "war is politics by other means"?

Problem being the tactical nature of counting kills isn't remotely a direct swap for counting votes. Instead it's more like a messaging campaign that can turn off more votes than it collects.

owejessen.de•29 days ago

Ooof...

ian.spennys.world•28 days ago

Interesting, but it doesn't seem to touch upon the other strand that drives American folk hero culture, The Hunter.

Lots of literature credits American hunters with almost magical powers of tracking and hunting knowledge. This appears in movies too. You combine the two you get Rambo or Reacher.

migas1.bsky.social•29 days ago

America has a volunteer military because of poverty. Whereas bushido is an aristocratic ideal. Having been a conscript officer I can tell you that my NCOs and enlisted soldiers did their job because of camaraderie, not nationalism or machismo.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply