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Originally Posted by Flash Walken
Man likes agency.
Fighting for somethibg one believes in gives the tangible feeling of contribution, of altering society and your place in it.
That's why the military is increasingly a poor man's military. People with agency in our society just do something else.
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I disagree. I bet the poor men in our military are more satisfied and happy than the guy working at a law firm or Microsoft.
Man is the only species who gets bored in the best environments. It is one of our species' most pressing mysteries.
See Walker Percy, the great Southern novelist below:
Quote:
Why is it that no other species but man gets bored? Under the circumstances in which a man gets bored, a dog goes to sleep. Thought Experiment: Imagine that you are a member of a tour visiting Greece. The group goes to the Parthenon.
It is a bore. Few people even bother to look - it looked better in the brochure. So people take half a look, mostly take pictures, remark on the serious erosion by acid rain. You are puzzled. Why should one of the glories and fonts of Western civilization, viewed under pleasant conditions - good weather, good hotel room, good food, good guide - be a bore?
Now imagine under what set of circumstances a viewing of the Parthenon would not be a bore. For example, you are a NATO colonel defending Greece against a Soviet assault. You are in a bunker in dowtown Athens, binoculars propped on sandbags. It is dawn. A medium-range missile attack is under way. Half a million Greeks are dead. Two missiles bracket the Parthenon. The next will surely be a hit. Between columns of smoke, a ray of golden light catches the portico. Are you bored?
Can you see the Parthenon?
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