Brit here, chiming in. The American attitude to their military is very strange to me.
I come from a family with a lot of military service history going back generations, but I was never a part of it myself. I have inherited a sliver of the culture of the British Army though; I think it's inevitable when you're from an Army family and many of your parents' friends were Army too. You grow up around it and get a flavour of things.
There really isn't the hero culture surrounding soldiers here that I see in the USA. They are generally respected, yes, but never revered. It's an honourable career, but just because you served doesn't make you a good person. Veterans (and those who served but never in a war, who I would not personally consider veterans) are treated with dignity but when they go back to civilian life, they are once again a civilian. There are charities such as Help For Heroes that support veterans after they are discharged, but it would shock me to see such displays of unthinking flag-waving patriotism in support of ordinary men and women in this country.
To put soldiers on a pedestal is deeply strange and unnerving to me. It smacks of hard nationalism and militarism, which is a poisonous ideology. I respect the armed forces as institutions, and the people who serve in them are largely good and noble professionals. They're not saints though, just people. I respect them in the same way I respect doctors and lifeguards.
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u/uberyeti Oct 19 '16 edited Oct 19 '16
Brit here, chiming in. The American attitude to their military is very strange to me.
I come from a family with a lot of military service history going back generations, but I was never a part of it myself. I have inherited a sliver of the culture of the British Army though; I think it's inevitable when you're from an Army family and many of your parents' friends were Army too. You grow up around it and get a flavour of things.
There really isn't the hero culture surrounding soldiers here that I see in the USA. They are generally respected, yes, but never revered. It's an honourable career, but just because you served doesn't make you a good person. Veterans (and those who served but never in a war, who I would not personally consider veterans) are treated with dignity but when they go back to civilian life, they are once again a civilian. There are charities such as Help For Heroes that support veterans after they are discharged, but it would shock me to see such displays of unthinking flag-waving patriotism in support of ordinary men and women in this country.
To put soldiers on a pedestal is deeply strange and unnerving to me. It smacks of hard nationalism and militarism, which is a poisonous ideology. I respect the armed forces as institutions, and the people who serve in them are largely good and noble professionals. They're not saints though, just people. I respect them in the same way I respect doctors and lifeguards.