I disagree. Although I wasn't a military spouse or in the service, I worked on base for 7 years and saw a lot of things that made me think military service is essentially the ultimate cult.
They:
* break you down in boot camp to build you up in their image, with their values (esp Marines)
* force you to accept teachings that are demonstrably false (source: friend went to nuclear engineering school, nearly got kicked out for pointing out flaws in how they taught nuclear theory).
* control where you live, where you sleep, what you eat
* indoctrinate you (onboarding at my base was literally called "indoc[trination]")
* bestow status for pleasing the leaders of the cult (the career game)
Personally, I think the indoc makes service members believe lives and national security are on the line. Anymore, I believe the biggest threat to our country (and thus the lives of those who protect it) is ourselves.
I don't disagree this can be effective, but strongly believe the military is a cult.
They do what is necessary to prepare people for battle.
It seems to me hippies who see the biggest threats as internal are always a product of a secure environment. I suspect such attitudes don't thrive in places with war on the ground. America has never had a major invasion in terms of amount of land invaded. We seem particularly prone to this idea that war happens elsewhere and is not a real and serious threat.
There are many different schools of thought within military academic on what it takes to prepare for battle. The current implementation is one that leadership currently thinks is best, although I bet we agree that the military suffers from a lot of historical baggage that would not be included if we were engineering an entirely new system from scratch, optimized for the current world.
Regardless, my comment wasn't intended to be judgemental, I apologize if it came off that way. I just wanted to point out the similarities between effective cult leadership and military indoctrination, but should have been more clear that I was speaking more academically.
They:
* break you down in boot camp to build you up in their image, with their values (esp Marines)
* force you to accept teachings that are demonstrably false (source: friend went to nuclear engineering school, nearly got kicked out for pointing out flaws in how they taught nuclear theory).
* control where you live, where you sleep, what you eat
* indoctrinate you (onboarding at my base was literally called "indoc[trination]")
* bestow status for pleasing the leaders of the cult (the career game)
Personally, I think the indoc makes service members believe lives and national security are on the line. Anymore, I believe the biggest threat to our country (and thus the lives of those who protect it) is ourselves.
I don't disagree this can be effective, but strongly believe the military is a cult.