(December 18, 2015 at 12:58 am)Cato Wrote:(December 18, 2015 at 12:46 am)Aroura Wrote: My husband, who has been in the military twice, says mostly they are taught to disdain civilians. Respect and honor are reserved for other service people only. Perhaps that was not true in the past, but is true of current training. This was a serious answer. If this is true, then this sort of attitude is unsurprising.
I'm certainly not challenging what your husband reports, but I don't recall any such lessons during my service. That said, I know first hand how the incessant drilling of espirit de corps results in an us and them attitude that exponentially strengthens the further away another group is from the unit.
This also was my experience. Its not that we were explicitly taught to disdain civilians, it was more implied that there was 'us' and there was 'them' and that's just how it was.
Personally, I have never thought my military service entitled me to respect from anyone. It's pretty much irrelevant to who I am today anyway.
SC's observations about being told how special we were is on point too. I thought it was bullshit even back then. A lot of the guys I served with were anything but.
