As usual, you are on target here. The Military/Education complex increasingly strays from its remit just in what it actually does....the DEI drama drives it even further into irrelevance.
I would suggest that, one way or another, our country has always had religious tests for public office. In some periods, it was the overt “thou shalt be Protestant” test, but we appear to have gotten beyond that with the election of a president who grew up in an overtly Muslim environment, though I hasten to add that that particular push was made by the same Leftist polity that now demands that the religion of Diversity be the only acceptable one. And that same polity keeps pushing the definition of Diversity in a never-increasing divergent manner (think electronic input- output theory) such that chaos is the only foreseeable outcome.
This maddened social signal was never intended to make our country stronger, either internally or internationally, though that was always the advertised cause. Here I have to quote Gideon’s First Law of Sociology - “No one ever thinks of themselves as the bad guy”. As has been noted in this forum and others, every religious fanatic always believes they are saving their fellow citizens from a horrendous future in this life and the next. When we add to hat the reinforcing function of subjecting our offspring to a “smarter than thou, and better than thou” public school and college education, the result has really only one possibility. As we see at Carlisle, USNA, etc.
Like any large bureaucracy, the American military is prone to groupthink. Perhaps more so because following orders from superiors is so much more important than following directions from a civilian boss. The US Military would benefit from having an Army War College and other institutions where traditional doctrine is challenged by different viewpoints and there were many different perspectives presented. Historically, for example the US Navy would have benefitted from a better appreciation of how torpedos can be used during a night action before fighting in the Solomon Islands. Right now, Vladimir Putin probably has a much different view toward the use of tactical nuclear weapons, and it would be good for our senior military leadership to know how his perspective differs from ours.
Unfortunately, the only different perspectives likely to arise from this job posting are even more creative pronouns and brand new genders.
Here's a key point: "Each passing year our war colleges have been trying to be more like a college and less about war." All of the War Colleges and the Command & staff schools decided they wanted to be degree-granting schools (master's degrees). This requires accreditation by those organizations who oversee civilian colleges. And a big part of attaining accreditation is meeting a certain threshold of PhDs in your faculty -- which the military schools didn't have. So, off they went hiring PhDs. But by they time a person attains a PhD nowadays it's almost certain he/she/it is a hard-core Lefty. And that's where a lot of the poison started seeping in.
If the military schools would drop the obsession about granting degrees, they might jettison some of the PC crap and re-focus on warfighting.
One of the top goals of DIE policies is to exclude by dilution. For every effort is made to exclude anyone who holds a conservative point of view, and especially one rooted in Christianity. As supporting proof just notice the horribly lopsided ratio of campaign donation totals. Whole departments of higher education where zero faculty members donated to the (R) party.
The entire structure of soi-disant ‘higher ed’ is eating itself alive. To the extent that state government is becoming more conservative (in some places from school boards on up), Title IX and other lawsuits (see: Oberlin and the local bakery, for example) are hitting endowments, and big-donor alumni are mobilizing, maybe, the no-oversight party is drawing to a close. True, state schools are not yet heeding signs from their legislatures and private schools are dithering between love of money and fear of the freaks (the ones who aren’t true believers/truly stupid). The visible momentum is mostly in the wrong direction.
Nonetheless, the Gods of the Copybook Headings are inexorable, and universities are running out of other people’s money on all fronts. I’m confident of a sea change (heh) “gradually then suddenly” as we all reap the whirlwind of the narrative culture’s ratcheting insanity.
Declining university income is a reality already. Some legislators are looking to remove tax-exempt status; others at holding schools accountable for student debt for worthless degrees. With crashing stocks AND bonds in combo with crushing inflation and food & fuel scarcity, I am cautiously optimistic that clarifying moments are ahead. Frivolous inessentials will fall by the wayside. Institutional rot will be cleared -- or at least clearable by those with the will. I hope there is strong will to de-rot military higher ed as well when that window opens.
As usual, you are on target here. The Military/Education complex increasingly strays from its remit just in what it actually does....the DEI drama drives it even further into irrelevance.
I would suggest that, one way or another, our country has always had religious tests for public office. In some periods, it was the overt “thou shalt be Protestant” test, but we appear to have gotten beyond that with the election of a president who grew up in an overtly Muslim environment, though I hasten to add that that particular push was made by the same Leftist polity that now demands that the religion of Diversity be the only acceptable one. And that same polity keeps pushing the definition of Diversity in a never-increasing divergent manner (think electronic input- output theory) such that chaos is the only foreseeable outcome.
This maddened social signal was never intended to make our country stronger, either internally or internationally, though that was always the advertised cause. Here I have to quote Gideon’s First Law of Sociology - “No one ever thinks of themselves as the bad guy”. As has been noted in this forum and others, every religious fanatic always believes they are saving their fellow citizens from a horrendous future in this life and the next. When we add to hat the reinforcing function of subjecting our offspring to a “smarter than thou, and better than thou” public school and college education, the result has really only one possibility. As we see at Carlisle, USNA, etc.
Like any large bureaucracy, the American military is prone to groupthink. Perhaps more so because following orders from superiors is so much more important than following directions from a civilian boss. The US Military would benefit from having an Army War College and other institutions where traditional doctrine is challenged by different viewpoints and there were many different perspectives presented. Historically, for example the US Navy would have benefitted from a better appreciation of how torpedos can be used during a night action before fighting in the Solomon Islands. Right now, Vladimir Putin probably has a much different view toward the use of tactical nuclear weapons, and it would be good for our senior military leadership to know how his perspective differs from ours.
Unfortunately, the only different perspectives likely to arise from this job posting are even more creative pronouns and brand new genders.
"At no time in human history has a military or a nation prospered under such a structure. "
Amen (irony intended).
Here's a key point: "Each passing year our war colleges have been trying to be more like a college and less about war." All of the War Colleges and the Command & staff schools decided they wanted to be degree-granting schools (master's degrees). This requires accreditation by those organizations who oversee civilian colleges. And a big part of attaining accreditation is meeting a certain threshold of PhDs in your faculty -- which the military schools didn't have. So, off they went hiring PhDs. But by they time a person attains a PhD nowadays it's almost certain he/she/it is a hard-core Lefty. And that's where a lot of the poison started seeping in.
If the military schools would drop the obsession about granting degrees, they might jettison some of the PC crap and re-focus on warfighting.
One of the top goals of DIE policies is to exclude by dilution. For every effort is made to exclude anyone who holds a conservative point of view, and especially one rooted in Christianity. As supporting proof just notice the horribly lopsided ratio of campaign donation totals. Whole departments of higher education where zero faculty members donated to the (R) party.
The entire structure of soi-disant ‘higher ed’ is eating itself alive. To the extent that state government is becoming more conservative (in some places from school boards on up), Title IX and other lawsuits (see: Oberlin and the local bakery, for example) are hitting endowments, and big-donor alumni are mobilizing, maybe, the no-oversight party is drawing to a close. True, state schools are not yet heeding signs from their legislatures and private schools are dithering between love of money and fear of the freaks (the ones who aren’t true believers/truly stupid). The visible momentum is mostly in the wrong direction.
Nonetheless, the Gods of the Copybook Headings are inexorable, and universities are running out of other people’s money on all fronts. I’m confident of a sea change (heh) “gradually then suddenly” as we all reap the whirlwind of the narrative culture’s ratcheting insanity.
Declining university income is a reality already. Some legislators are looking to remove tax-exempt status; others at holding schools accountable for student debt for worthless degrees. With crashing stocks AND bonds in combo with crushing inflation and food & fuel scarcity, I am cautiously optimistic that clarifying moments are ahead. Frivolous inessentials will fall by the wayside. Institutional rot will be cleared -- or at least clearable by those with the will. I hope there is strong will to de-rot military higher ed as well when that window opens.
Don't forget the multi-cultural food trucks!