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It's not the adrenalin rush, it's about brotherhood
Dear Sebastian: Saw you last night on Rachel Maddow where you said soldiers don't want to return to the theater for the adrenalin rush but that they want to return for the brotherhood, a sense of belonging. You continued to say that perhaps society could provide the this for our kids so they wouldn't have to join the military to have this sense of brotherhood and belonging. I have two boys ages 11 and 13 and want them to experience brotherhood and belonging, but not necessarily in the military. Sebastian, or any readers willing to share their thoughts, what organizations, activities, clubs, etc. exist today outside the military that would provide our boys with this sense of brotherhood and belonging they crave? It's hard to imagine anything close to the brotherhood experienced in the military. Thanks you. Dee.
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Permalink Reply by mouse on -
Hi Dee,
I have been thinking about this as well and realized that I know the smallest bit about this feeling from my years in high school spent in marching band. During my involvement, we were a 200+ person unit and one of the 5th best bands in the nation. We spent two solid weeks in the summer living in vacated college dorms, drilling from sunrise until midnight. Back at home, we practiced every single day for several hours, either in the heat of the summer or after school for hours. We learned drill, attention, parade rest, and looked to our Director and Drum Major for instruction. We competed almost weekly, sometimes driving hours to competitions. The sense of unity and of being One Entity was palpable and very addictive, especially in shows in the presence of others when we worked hard to be as sharp, robotic, meticulous, motivated, and full of pride and spirit as we could be. We waited our turn, sitting poised, focused, and silent in the stands while other bands were lax and joking and eating and drinking. We reviewed videotape afterward in order to improve our performances and sang motivating songs on the ride home to either celebrate or keep the faith, depending on how things went for us. Generally, we won during those years.
If we had been achieving something noble, the unity and the energy would have been far stronger. As it was, it was just band. (LOL) Still, 200 people simultaneously snapping to attention on the field, sucking in our breath with an audible staccato "hhhut", and having the crowd fall instantly silent was powerful.
Off the field, things were much different. The camaraderie didn't translate; it had its time and place.
Still, the energy created by a group of people all focused on the same goal is phenomenal.
(I've felt that in certain group meditations as well.)
Just my two cents!
Katarina
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Permalink Reply by AH Regier on -
How about instilling in them the joys that await them in sports, being part of the arts, doing well in school, so that they can start good companies that create solutions to our energy probelms....encourage them to become diplomats, peacemakers, providers? Impart on them that in spite of a consumer culture constantly aiming the collective capitalist gun straight at thier temple, making a lot of money and driving fast cars and getting obsessed by video games can be a little...alienating, to say the least. Tell them to be a good man is to be a good lover of life and people, and not just show brute displays of testosterone. Teach them that it is okay to question authority and hierarchy, espcially if the rules don't feel right and make little sense to the thoughtful mind.
just my two cents.
just my two cents.
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Permalink Reply by Sebastian Junger on -
Hi there, thank you for that. I'm a journalist so my role really is to explain rather than recommend...and i think sports are great, but the stakes are so much lower that I think they dont elicit the same responses as combat. Were it otherwise, i think history would be different.
SebastiaN
gracious kamikaze said:How about instilling in them the joys that await them in sports, being part of the arts, doing well in school, so that they can start good companies that create solutions to our energy probelms....encourage them to become diplomats, peacemakers, providers? Impart on them that in spite of a consumer culture constantly aiming the collective capitalist gun straight at thier temple, making a lot of money and driving fast cars and getting obsessed by video games can be a little...alienating, to say the least. Tell them to be a good man is to be a good lover of life and people, and not just show brute displays of testosterone. Teach them that it is okay to question authority and hierarchy, espcially if the rules don't feel right and make little sense to the thoughtful mind.
just my two cents.
just my two cents.
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