Filler 5/18 - 5/24, 2008.

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Boss Out of Town
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Re: Filler 5/18 - 5/24, 2008.

Post by Boss Out of Town »

Graybeard wrote:As for how you create elite soldiers, not being and never having been one, I have zero first-hand experience to go on. However, friends who've been through that did experience a tearing-down of identity and ego, before the regeneration of the self-esteem and confidence -- in a way tied to their country, service and unit rather than to their identity. The tearing-down process would be something I would consider "hellish," if only mildly so because of the knowledge that it isn't going to last forever. But a perpetual and overwhelming assault on your sense of self that shows no sign of ever coming to an end -- that, my friend, is pretty close to the ultimate hell-on-earth that I can imagine.
Aye, the hellish part of Sara's existance might be that she didn't want to be there any more, was too intelligent to simply numb herself into acceptance, and knew she had no way out as long as she lived.

A lot of military forces over the years have created elite soldiers by tearing trainees down and turning them into automotons, but it just doesn't work as well as the "Western" concept of re-building their individuality, as you note.

Max Hastings gives a chilling account of the traditional process in Retribution, his account of the last year of World War II in the Pacific. Like a number of Japanese writers, he blames a lot of needless pain and suffering in that time on a Japanese military system in which individual choice and conscience were literally beaten out of officers and enlisted men. By 1944, the men of talent could only watch as a cadre of dull-witted fanatics marched hundreds of thousands of men and women to their deaths, mostly because they didn't have the wit or courage to do anything else.

Along with the usual abuses, a Japanese cadet or draftee could expect to be repeatedly punched in the face during daily training. As one famous Japanese destroyer captain noted, the system didn't allow for the possibility of brain damage.
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mindstalk
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Re: Filler 5/18 - 5/24, 2008.

Post by mindstalk »

Though the case of Chris's father suggests that one *can* leave the monks. Just don't leak their time-secrets.

Perhaps more a case of Sara not having anywhere to go.
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Re: Filler 5/18 - 5/24, 2008.

Post by Slamlander »

DarkIntruder wrote:
Slamlander wrote:Nerve agent drills in Panama, with live nerve agent, comes to mind. We had two deaths in my training company, from that one.
Dude, what year was that? Was it even legal? Jeez, and I thought that the CS gas hut was bad. Fuck....
Let's just say mid-60's to early 70's and leave it there. They were careful to do this level of training out-of-country (Panama). Once exposed to the nerve agent, the soldier has three minutes in which to stab himself with the counter-agent.

Yes, it was legal. Soldiers are under the jurisdiction of the UCMJ while they are in, the Military owns you and they can do whatever they like, even use you in nuclear bomb blast testing, and they do not need your permission. If they want to send you to Iraq, butt naked, with only a pea-shooter, no peas, while prohibiting better personal armor or weapons, they can legally do that. Bush actually did the equivalent of that.
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Re: Filler 5/18 - 5/24, 2008.

Post by Graybeard »

Forrest wrote:
Michael Poe wrote:On a related note, time magic cannot actually extend a person's lifespan in any sort of major way (at least not past what other magics could have also done anyway). This is even one the three uses of time magic that the Ensigerum consider to be completely impossible. Traveling back into the past, and seeing more than about 12 hours into the future are the other two. Of course, these are the exact three things that Tsuirakuian mages keep trying to do with time magic and that’s way they usually kill their fool selves trying.
Ah, so that is why time magic research is banned in Tsuiraku!

To the wiki! . . .
I'm on it.
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Because old is wise, does good, and above all, kicks ass.
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Forrest
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Re: Filler 5/18 - 5/24, 2008.

Post by Forrest »

Graybeard wrote:
Forrest wrote:
Michael Poe wrote:On a related note, time magic cannot actually extend a person's lifespan in any sort of major way (at least not past what other magics could have also done anyway). This is even one the three uses of time magic that the Ensigerum consider to be completely impossible. Traveling back into the past, and seeing more than about 12 hours into the future are the other two. Of course, these are the exact three things that Tsuirakuian mages keep trying to do with time magic and that’s way they usually kill their fool selves trying.
Ah, so that is why time magic research is banned in Tsuiraku!

To the wiki! . . .
I'm on it.
Oh yeah, I forgot to do that. Whoops.

Thanks Graybeard.
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