Transcribe
Translate
Timebinder, v. 2, issue 2, whole no. 6, Spring 1946
28
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
control the mass is NOT the difficulty - controlling the malcontented minority IS. No matter what restrictions, ethical codes, and ideals the mass is confined to, we shall always be finding in our midst a bloc of minds who fail to confine their activities to the so-called legitimate channels. Not only do they fail, they refuse to conform. They do not recognie limitation as a factor for individual development; they utilize every faculty in their beings, deliberately to ferret out these weaknesses of some given social structure and attack these with deliberately destructive intent. "Survival of the fit" seems their motto, and they intend to be fit. Theirs is a magnified jungle code; modified indeed by the numerical strength of their gregarious mass. No successful "democratic" unity can tell itself that war and corruption are disposable factors of small import. No democracy can hold a candle up to them in ability to strike these initials blows hard and fast; by its very nature, of course, any democracy cannot be efficiently organized until after the first blow has been stuck - against them. *********************************** ROBERT PETERSON, U. S. ARMY. Whitman has some good points, and my conclusions coincide with some of his. Any man should be able to go to college, and if the army and colleges get together on technical training, as they did with ASTP, a number of boys could get a college education and get reserve commissions or enlisted reserve in the army after graduation. The army needs a general overhauling, and the last issue of YANK, the army magazine that was discontinued at the end of the year, gave a lot of good ideas taken from letters written in. One of the best ideas was to make all the same as to dress and food, etc. Also they would have no break between officers and enlisted men, but have the ranks go right on up, and do away with direct commissions and such, except in such banches as the medics. The only trouble is that it's awfully hard changing a thing like the army, and most of the men who would like to chnage it are getting out, and won't do anything about it now. I think military training in the schools is a good idea, but it would have to be changed a lot to do any good. I had two years of ROTC in college, and it did not do me a bit of good. All we did was march and have parades. We didn't even fire a gun during the whole two years. We had no training of any kind that would even help towards being worthy of a commission. -26-
Saving...
prev
next
control the mass is NOT the difficulty - controlling the malcontented minority IS. No matter what restrictions, ethical codes, and ideals the mass is confined to, we shall always be finding in our midst a bloc of minds who fail to confine their activities to the so-called legitimate channels. Not only do they fail, they refuse to conform. They do not recognie limitation as a factor for individual development; they utilize every faculty in their beings, deliberately to ferret out these weaknesses of some given social structure and attack these with deliberately destructive intent. "Survival of the fit" seems their motto, and they intend to be fit. Theirs is a magnified jungle code; modified indeed by the numerical strength of their gregarious mass. No successful "democratic" unity can tell itself that war and corruption are disposable factors of small import. No democracy can hold a candle up to them in ability to strike these initials blows hard and fast; by its very nature, of course, any democracy cannot be efficiently organized until after the first blow has been stuck - against them. *********************************** ROBERT PETERSON, U. S. ARMY. Whitman has some good points, and my conclusions coincide with some of his. Any man should be able to go to college, and if the army and colleges get together on technical training, as they did with ASTP, a number of boys could get a college education and get reserve commissions or enlisted reserve in the army after graduation. The army needs a general overhauling, and the last issue of YANK, the army magazine that was discontinued at the end of the year, gave a lot of good ideas taken from letters written in. One of the best ideas was to make all the same as to dress and food, etc. Also they would have no break between officers and enlisted men, but have the ranks go right on up, and do away with direct commissions and such, except in such banches as the medics. The only trouble is that it's awfully hard changing a thing like the army, and most of the men who would like to chnage it are getting out, and won't do anything about it now. I think military training in the schools is a good idea, but it would have to be changed a lot to do any good. I had two years of ROTC in college, and it did not do me a bit of good. All we did was march and have parades. We didn't even fire a gun during the whole two years. We had no training of any kind that would even help towards being worthy of a commission. -26-
Hevelin Fanzines
sidebar
