Posted on Dec 11, 2017
People like to say the military isn't a social experiment, but isn't it?
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I've always been of the opinion that the military is perhaps our countries greatest and longest running social experiment. Start at the very basis of the military. Can you take a group of young, inexperienced boys, and convince them its in their best interest to obey an order than could get them killed instantly? Can you get them to become one cohesive unit, and not 40 individuals? Can you get them to recognize the objective is the most important thing?
There are also the cultural experiments that have occurred. Long before integration was uniform across the country the military showed that white, black, yellow, red, brown and any other colored men could work side by side. When the war was over they went back to a country that was 10 years behind them in terms of social advancement.
The military has pushed forth some of the biggest advancements in history, the telegraph, the phone, the radio, the vehicle, the plane and the helicopter just to name a few all became common or became better than what they were almost overnight to facilitate war efforts through out our history.
To be honest I only thought of this because of the transgender question arising in the military today. Im not going to give my opinion about that because that's not the point of the post I know there are lots of variables in the arguments being made on both sides that make sense, but when people say the military isn't a social experiment I have to respectfully disagree.
There are also the cultural experiments that have occurred. Long before integration was uniform across the country the military showed that white, black, yellow, red, brown and any other colored men could work side by side. When the war was over they went back to a country that was 10 years behind them in terms of social advancement.
The military has pushed forth some of the biggest advancements in history, the telegraph, the phone, the radio, the vehicle, the plane and the helicopter just to name a few all became common or became better than what they were almost overnight to facilitate war efforts through out our history.
To be honest I only thought of this because of the transgender question arising in the military today. Im not going to give my opinion about that because that's not the point of the post I know there are lots of variables in the arguments being made on both sides that make sense, but when people say the military isn't a social experiment I have to respectfully disagree.
Posted in these groups: 
Military History
Military History
Posted 7 y ago
Responses: 11
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IMHO, the military is like sports , Cub, and Boy Scouts, and other worthwhile groups to be members of, just the military is a little more intense, and builds long lasting character.
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It is a complete social experiment. Think about it. Years a go, no women. Then they allowed women to serve and now they serve just as openly as men and we are better for it. Same for every other aspect of society. Women werent allowed on submarines, then they were and it was all fine. Look at the media as well. Transgendered entering the military freely now. No big deal. Just part of the social experiment to make the military as precise of an example of society as possible.
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SPC David Willis
Exactly, its important to remember all the previous integrations of race and gender were met with speculation that it would weaken our force, and so far there hasn't been an extended period of conflict where our military was to blame for not having the desired outcome. Any failure has been at the feet of politicians, not those fighting.
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Using constants to direct the exponential growth of the dependent variables SPC David Willis
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