Does being part of military make you 'right wing'?

[PMedMoe]

I don't remember who said it (Winston Churchill, perhaps?) - and I'm too damned lazy to look it up right now - but this quote kind of encapsulates what you are driving at:

The quote has been attributed to many (and in many forms):

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=374518

http://www.geocities.com/unmark/unquote.html

 

[Roy Harding]

The quote has been attributed to many (and in many forms):

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=374518

http://www.geocities.com/unmark/unquote.html

Thank you.  I knew that if I was lazy someone else would do my research for me.

Regardless who said it - it remains apropos to some of the posts in this thread.

Roy

 

[tango22a]

One of the first things that I learned on promotion.... Things NOT to be discussed in the Mess: Women, Religion, or Politics.

tango22a

Though this Rule sometimes falls by the wayside!

 

[The Bread Guy]

mellian

I was always against extremes and propaganda of any sort, preferring to actual facts and letting people in general to figure out for themselves. Even when going up against the police during protests, I see them as human beings like the rest who are only doing their job, and tend to bump heads with some folks in protest movements in regards to that.

It's also possible that as you learn more, you're seeing the world in shades of grey instead of black and white, which is a good thing, too.

 

[Bass ackwards]

Cough Cough....since when did soldiers of the right not express their political views when serving???

You heard of the little war that was fought, against a bunch of fellas that were right wing, eh?  Happened in the forties, look it up.

You mean the National Socialists ???

 

[the 48th regulator]

You mean the National Socialists ???

Yes  National Socialists ,


The cute name that was used to hide the Fascist (Far right of the spectrum) ideology, to a population that was witnessing an ever growing concept called Communism, which was supposed to be the epitome of  Socialism which both lie to the left of the political spectrum, just before Anarchism...

I see your Google is kinda working....click on a few more of the Wikipedia links. 


dileas

tess

 

[mellian]

Erm, marching, screaming, waving signs and disruption pretty much are extremism and propaganda, no?

In comparison to the idiots that run around destroying windows and spray painting anarchy signs everywhere, and throw rocks and shit at the police? Not so much.

Yet, I usually avoided doing the screaming and waving signs, always preferring to be at the front and help coordinate, while making sure everyone is safe.

 

[mellian]

Anarchism tends to be on a separate spectrum.  Left and Right on one line, Community/Collective/Dictatorship/Centralization and Libertarian/Decentralization/Anarchy on another. 

The cute name that was used to hide the Fascist (Far right of the spectrum) ideology, to a population that was witnessing an ever growing concept called Communism, which was supposed to be the epitome of  Socialism which both lie to the left of the political spectrum, just before Anarchism...

I see your Google is kinda working....click on a few more of the Wikipedia links. 


dileas

tess

 

[OpieRWestmrR]

I think many civilians have trouble understanding how military folk can hold strong and divergent political views but be perfectly happy functioning within a (necessarily) authoritarian system that gets the job done.

There's lots of proof soldiers are politically eclectic. The example that springs to mind is the 'Khaki Election' of July 1945 in the UK. Winston C's Conservatives lost to Clement Attlee's Labour Party in a landslide - Labour got a 145-seat majority, 49.7% of the popular vote, most of the swing coming from the serving military. That's in an election two months after VE-Day.

The result panicked the Conservatives but eventually the pundits realised soldiers could think for themselves and preferred Labour's national reconstruction program for Britain. The preference wasn't permanent: Winnie was PM again later.

 

[Dennis Ruhl]

Yes  National Socialists ,

The cute name that was used to hide the Fascist (Far right of the spectrum) ideology, to a population that was witnessing an ever growing concept called Communism, which was supposed to be the epitome of  Socialism which both lie to the left of the political spectrum, just before Anarchism...

I am not sure about that.  If we are talking the left or right of economics, the Nazi's were on the left,  While industry was left in the hands of capitalists, it was tighly controlled by the government.  Nazi Germany was kind of like Sweden with death camps.

Anarchists are left but Libertarians are right?  I don't get it.

Does radical right wing mean ethnocentrical nationalism?  The Soviets killed as many as 20 million non-Russians in their egalitarian state.

I don't know that the terms left and right wing are particularly helpful in making any generalizations.

 

[the 48th regulator]

Anarchism tends to be on a separate spectrum.  Left and Right on one line, Community/Collective/Dictatorship/Centralization and Libertarian/Decentralization/Anarchy on another. 

Very good point, which many have argued that the spectrum is actually a circle, with Anarchism being the link closing the circle from the extreme of both ends.

dileas

tess

 

[Roy Harding]

Very good point, which many have argued that the spectrum is actually a circle, with Anarchism being the link closing the circle from the extreme of both ends.

dileas

tess

I dimly recall the circle diagram from some course or other I needed to take when taking university courses through distance learning.  It made sense to me, and SEEMs to be applicable when attempting to understand political labels.

As someone else has said in this thread (Denis Ruhl, I think) labels are slippery concepts - and generally inaccurate.

If one were to apply a label to me they'd have a hard time.  In the case of individual rights and freedoms - I can get along with a "Libertarian".  In the case of government interference with the market place - I'm happy to be called a "Red Tory".  When it comes to socialized medical care - you'll find me happily camped amongst the "socialists".

Labels are dangerous - they are black and white concepts in a world of grey.

 

[Kat Stevens]

As my dad used to say about his political leaning; "If I'm in a room with 100 people, and I have more money than any of them, I'm a hard capitalist.  If I've got less than any of them, I'm a devout communist."

 

[chris_log]

I find most people I've run into keep their political views to themselves, if for no other reason then they are too busy to sit around and pontificate on politics. A bit of a change of pace for me (I love to argue and talking politics is like a heroin injection for me).

I wouldn't go around and advertise that you were an anti-war protest leader, however. I commend you for taking your views to the streets (if you were at the Bush protests...5 years ago or so in Ottawa I was in the group of people following the protest with pro-Bush signs and a police escort after we got death threats from the 'pacifist' protesters) but the anti-war slant would best be kept to yourself (although as I've found out there are some pretty staunch anti-Afghanistan views in the CF).

 

[Roy Harding]

I find most people I've run into keep their political views to themselves, if for no other reason then they are too busy to sit around and pontificate on politics. A bit of a change of pace for me (I love to argue and talking politics is like a heroin injection for me).

I wouldn't go around and advertise that you were an anti-war protest leader, however. I commend you for taking your views to the streets (if you were at the Bush protests...5 years ago or so in Ottawa I was in the group of people following the protest with pro-Bush signs and a police escort after we got death threats from the 'pacifist' protesters) but the anti-war slant would best be kept to yourself (although as I've found out there are some pretty staunch anti-Afghanistan views in the CF).

Why? 

If you check my posting history, you'll see that I was a Vietnam war protester - back in the day.

People - ALL people are welcome to express their views here, in a reasonable and non-inflammatory way.  It's called freedom of expression.

Isn't that kinda what the CF is all about?

 

[dustinm]

Why? 

If you check my posting history, you'll see that I was a Vietnam war protester - back in the day.

People - ALL people are welcome to express their views here, in a reasonable and non-inflammatory way.  It's called freedom of expression.

Isn't that kinda what the CF is all about?

I think the issue here is that a CF member (in uniform, or at least identifying himself as a CF member) who may happen to hold radical views and gets himself into the mainstream media may "colour" the
media's opinion of the CF as a whole.

While it is entirely appropriate (and I would assume encouraged) for CF members to hold and express opinions, I believe there is a time, and a place for it.

 

[chris_log]

Why? 

If you check my posting history, you'll see that I was a Vietnam war protester - back in the day.

People - ALL people are welcome to express their views here, in a reasonable and non-inflammatory way.  It's called freedom of expression.

Isn't that kinda what the CF is all about?

By 'here' do you mean this website or the CF (I assume you meant the CF).

I understand fully that our great country allows for its citizens to freely and without prejudice express themselves, the CF to a lesser extent.

What I meant was, hitting a unit then regalling people with tales of your anti-war protests (who knows, some of them may have deployed) may rub some the wrong way (regardless if thats how you meant it). What I'm trying to say is that some of the OP's political views may not jiive with the 'culture' of the CF (despite most people keeping their views to themselves, I doubt many would appreciate working with someone who for years actively worked against what they do for a living) and would be best kept to herself. There are some views I hold that aren't appropriate to be expressed at work...so I don't do it even though, technically, I'm allowed to.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should is what I'm getting at.

 

[rod_barolo]

I sure hope that being in the CF does not make you right wing.  I am in the process of applying.

I had a fairly active political past and certainly not on the right.  I would regard Stephen Lewis as our country's finest living politician.

Mellian, next time ask your leftie friends if they think it is ok to chop off a women's head for teaching little girls how to read?  Sometimes, if you think that sh#t like that is wrong then you have to do more than watch a Michael Moore film.  To paraphrase one of my favorite lines that I got from Army.ca "It is not possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."  Were it not for all the liberals and socialist that joined the military, Hilter would never have been defeated.

 

[Roy Harding]

By 'here' do you mean this website or the CF (I assume you meant the CF).

I understand fully that our great country allows for its citizens to freely and without prejudice express themselves, the CF to a lesser extent.

What I meant was, hitting a unit then regalling people with tales of your anti-war protests (who knows, some of them may have deployed) may rub some the wrong way (regardless if thats how you meant it). What I'm trying to say is that some of the OP's political views may not jiive with the 'culture' of the CF (despite most people keeping their views to themselves, I doubt many would appreciate working with someone who for years actively worked against what they do for a living) and would be best kept to herself. There are some views I hold that aren't appropriate to be expressed at work...so I don't do it even though, technically, I'm allowed to.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should is what I'm getting at.

By "here", I actually meant on Army.ca - but the thought is equally applicable to the CF in general.

I believe the rest of your clarification boils down to common dog, not to mention common courtesy - whether in the CF or not.

For instance:  I'm not a religious man - but I don't throw that fact in the face of people who are.  And I CERTAINLY don't argue theology with Padre's.

I agree that many topics need to be left alone until one knows one's audience fairly well - and for that reason one should refrain from "hitting a unit then regalling people with tales of your anti-war protests ".


Roy

 

[Jungle]

Anarchism tends to be on a separate spectrum.  Left and Right on one line, Community/Collective/Dictatorship/Centralization and Libertarian/Decentralization/Anarchy on another.

Check out this site:
http://www.politicalcompass.org/
You can hit "take the test" while you're there.