Military Hazing and Race and Religion

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Check out Jeff Yang?s excellent Wall Street Journal piece on military hazing, especially in light of the recent incidents with Pvt. Danny Chen and Lance Corporal Henry Lew: Afghanistan Hazing Echoes ?A Few Good Men.?

Jeff interviews Lieutenant Dan Choi, who says:

?You now have a much less diverse army, one whose culture is very southern, very Christian and very white,? says military activist and former Army Lieutenant Dan Choi. ?And anyone who?s a minority in that culture has to accept that they?re an outsider if they want to survive, and try their best to fit in. If you?re different in any regard, you stick out. And the Asian saying applies: The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.?

I can definitely see this. The military requires conformity, and if you don?t conform because of race or religion, I can see how some soldiers may want to beat it out of you. It?s hard because military culture prioritizes conformity, while the population of the U.S. is diverse. I like the way Jeff also ends with the story about Civil War Lieutenant General John Schofield, who wrote Schofield?s Definition of Discipline, which all cadets who graduate from West Point and the Air Force Academy must memorize and recite by heart. Here it is in its entirety:

The discipline which makes the soldiers of a free country reliable in battle is not to be gained by harsh or tyrannical treatment. On the contrary, such treatment is far more likely to destroy than to make an army. It is possible to impart instruction and give commands in such a manner and such a tone of voice as to inspire in the soldier no feeling, but an intense desire to obey, while the opposite manner and tone of voice cannot fail to excite strong resentment and a desire to disobey. The one mode or other of dealing with subordinates springs from a corresponding spirit in the breast of the commander. He who feels the respect which is due to others cannot fail to inspire in them respect for himself. While he who feels, and hence manifests, disrespect towards others, especially his subordinates, cannot fail to inspire hatred against himself.

Related posts:

1. Gays in the Military
2. Army Psychiatrist Murders 13
3. The Death of Private Danny Chen
4. Literature and Religion: Podcast with Kobukson
5. CNN Heroes

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