09-26-2012, 10:02 AM | #31 |
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: Creating Military Culture From Scratch
Any organisation is made of people, and people bring their memes with them. If most of the people that formed the organisation were not infected by hazing and bigotry memes (and are actually infected with memes of justice and civil rights), and there were no or few carriers of these memes already in place, then those memes are much less likely to entrench themselves in the organisation.
Given the amount of memetic engineering Justicarians underwent during the development of Self-Awareness 2.0, it's safe to say that they eliminated bigotry in their ranks. The Zemplari Troops were formed after that. In contrast, most militaries were formed back when sexism and racism and homophobia were par for the course, and, as somewhat conservative organisations, make maintaining those memes easier (e.g. Don't Ask Don't Tell). Don't get me wrong: Zemplari is not a fuzzy-nice group. It's just that they direct their energy at actually fighting enemies and solving problems, not picking on their own. |
09-26-2012, 10:08 AM | #32 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Creating Military Culture From Scratch
One big difference I can see is how war will change when managing an interstellar war. When you get to the level posited by some sci-fis you have to assume numerous "World war II's" going on at once between the same empires on different planets.
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
09-26-2012, 10:43 AM | #33 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Creating Military Culture From Scratch
Quote:
I really can't see exactly the same easily disproved prejudice existing worldwide for untold thousands of years.
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison Last edited by jason taylor; 09-26-2012 at 10:54 AM. |
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09-26-2012, 10:46 AM | #34 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Creating Military Culture From Scratch
Conversely, in a sci-fi setting where you either have power armor or robots doing the fighting, excluding women from the ranks that fight starts to make less and less sense. Whatever your (thread derailing) feelings on the source and justifications of bigotry in a military, the OP has room to come at the question from another direction, and it does make for an interesting difference to current militaries.
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09-26-2012, 10:53 AM | #35 | |
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Re: Creating Military Culture From Scratch
Quote:
A culture made of species which has identical racial templates for both sexes, contraception is cheap, reproduction is routinely done in exo-wombs, and sex essentially doesn't matter outside the bedroom, will not suddenly develop a bias even in a profession where in other cultures it is common. |
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09-26-2012, 10:56 AM | #36 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Creating Military Culture From Scratch
Quote:
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
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09-26-2012, 10:56 AM | #37 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Shropshire, uk
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Re: Creating Military Culture From Scratch
Quote:
My primary thoughts when including the caveat were the difficulty of establishing a distence between personel and higher leadership, something that friends with military backgrounds have always treated as desirable if not strictly nessecary, on a continuous scale of promotion and the degree of retraining needed in order to progress between NCO and traditional officer ranks. Actualy my second reason is probably less of a difficulty than I thought- various comonwealth reserve units promote from enlisted to officer on 10-12 weeks (in total) training. Regular units might use a more intensive course i.e. 10-12 weeks full time rather than over one to two years but the actual mechanics should be similar. I am actualy kicking myself for not including another item on the list namely non-standard or ad-hoc unit organisation particularly at higher (batalion upwards) levels. Last edited by Frost; 09-26-2012 at 11:40 AM. |
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09-26-2012, 11:33 AM | #38 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Creating Military Culture From Scratch
Quote:
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
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09-26-2012, 12:42 PM | #39 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Shropshire, uk
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Re: Creating Military Culture From Scratch
Quote:
As a real world example, consider that the Japanese Self Defense Forces have been operating on this basis since they were first formed as a branch of the national police in the 1950's. |
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09-26-2012, 04:40 PM | #40 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Creating Military Culture From Scratch
What about songs, marches or battle poetry? Can anyone make anything like that?
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
Tags |
brainstorm, military, military culture, military organisation, military organistion, military sf |
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