CBC, CTV, Globe & Mail, Esprit de Corps, Veterans Affairs, Departmental of National Defense, Privacy Commission, Conservative Member of Parliament and Royal Canadian Legion.
CBC Book Club, Tema.ca plus many more. Further update tomorrow.
Wednesday 29 February 2012
Tuesday 28 February 2012
Training or Brainwashing - What is it?
I had an interesting conversation about this topic just the other day. The person expressed the view that; "If it's altering someones actions to prepare them for doing perceived good things, then it is referred to as training. If the goal is to alter someones actions to prepare them to do perceived bad things, then it is brainwashing."
The idea of altering the way people think therefore is accepted, it is just what it is used for. The second point is, by whose perception is it good or bad? Now we get to a common phrase: " If someone told you to jump off a bridge, would you?" This was usually a rhetorical question from a parent referring to your actions and your response of, "well he told me to do it."
Using this simple example, I can relate what it is like being in a profession such as the military. In response to the statement above, the soldier would not only say yes but usually, yes sir. Weird ah? Why would a perfectly normal human, (for all intentions military), jump off a bridge because he was told to and not give it a second thought. That is what they are trained / brainwashed to do. You don't ask why. You don't look for other options that may be safer. No, you just jump because you are trained / brainwashed into blindly following orders. When given an order, the person giving it is totally responsible for that order. The orders given to this person, is now responsible for the person below them in rank to follow that order and the ones below that person as well.
This is how the system works. Depending on what rank you are, is the amount of thinking and planning you can do. So, if your at the top (General), you do all the thinking and from there the system runs. If everyone follows orders as given, then the system works perfectly. If orders are not followed, then there is a total breakdown in cohesion. The entity is no longer working as one unit.
A simple example, your body. Your mind (General), tells your arm to move, it moves. If your arm starts moving all on it's own then....... you get the picture. Milgram did an experiment on why some normal people would do things they normally would not, just because someone told them to. Unbelievable? Look it up on Wikipedia and watch the experiment. More about this later.
The idea of altering the way people think therefore is accepted, it is just what it is used for. The second point is, by whose perception is it good or bad? Now we get to a common phrase: " If someone told you to jump off a bridge, would you?" This was usually a rhetorical question from a parent referring to your actions and your response of, "well he told me to do it."
Using this simple example, I can relate what it is like being in a profession such as the military. In response to the statement above, the soldier would not only say yes but usually, yes sir. Weird ah? Why would a perfectly normal human, (for all intentions military), jump off a bridge because he was told to and not give it a second thought. That is what they are trained / brainwashed to do. You don't ask why. You don't look for other options that may be safer. No, you just jump because you are trained / brainwashed into blindly following orders. When given an order, the person giving it is totally responsible for that order. The orders given to this person, is now responsible for the person below them in rank to follow that order and the ones below that person as well.
This is how the system works. Depending on what rank you are, is the amount of thinking and planning you can do. So, if your at the top (General), you do all the thinking and from there the system runs. If everyone follows orders as given, then the system works perfectly. If orders are not followed, then there is a total breakdown in cohesion. The entity is no longer working as one unit.
A simple example, your body. Your mind (General), tells your arm to move, it moves. If your arm starts moving all on it's own then....... you get the picture. Milgram did an experiment on why some normal people would do things they normally would not, just because someone told them to. Unbelievable? Look it up on Wikipedia and watch the experiment. More about this later.
Monday 27 February 2012
The Canadian Legion
I got a call today from the Legion. They wanted more details from me. The very kind person I spoke to had asked if they could use my case as a possible example.
I thought for a moment about some of the things I had done on behalf of this country. Some being: Having the Honor of being the pilot who flew the "Unknown Soldier" back home from France. Having been the only heavy transport aircraft in the air right after 9/11. I was flying the Airbus from Trenton to Gander filled with supplies for those stranded passengers stuck in Gander. Flying the PM, Prince Charles and a multitude of media, Troops into and out of those nasty places. I have done famine relief, volcano relief. Rwanda, both Gulf Wars and the Congo amongst one or two other things.
I of course said yes!!! Again, please make me the "poster child" for how they treat our Veterans. I assured them that they could use any detail from my case K6705156, if it would help even one other Veteran. I had to keep everything to myself before because of my Agreement. After that I kept quiet, out of respect for the Military Institution and Veterans Affairs. I was hoping that behind closed doors, they could finally do the right thing. No such luck.
An old pilot friend once told me; " If you stop smacking your head against it, it will stop hurting!" Such was my situation. It was obviously too much to ask of them to keep this quiet and have this mess cleaned up, "in house" so to speak. Sad.
I thought for a moment about some of the things I had done on behalf of this country. Some being: Having the Honor of being the pilot who flew the "Unknown Soldier" back home from France. Having been the only heavy transport aircraft in the air right after 9/11. I was flying the Airbus from Trenton to Gander filled with supplies for those stranded passengers stuck in Gander. Flying the PM, Prince Charles and a multitude of media, Troops into and out of those nasty places. I have done famine relief, volcano relief. Rwanda, both Gulf Wars and the Congo amongst one or two other things.
I of course said yes!!! Again, please make me the "poster child" for how they treat our Veterans. I assured them that they could use any detail from my case K6705156, if it would help even one other Veteran. I had to keep everything to myself before because of my Agreement. After that I kept quiet, out of respect for the Military Institution and Veterans Affairs. I was hoping that behind closed doors, they could finally do the right thing. No such luck.
An old pilot friend once told me; " If you stop smacking your head against it, it will stop hurting!" Such was my situation. It was obviously too much to ask of them to keep this quiet and have this mess cleaned up, "in house" so to speak. Sad.
Sunday 26 February 2012
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