What makes collectivism morally awful? We live in a society, dude
My central moral commitment is a pagan “the lesser yields to the greater”, and after supplementing my nerdy readings with real-world experience, I’m more than ever convinced that the world gets better to the extent this commitment is upheld and declines the more it’s neglected
One of the things that threw me was reading something about an Army guy in the sandbox wars and how in a roadside IED ambush some squadmate got shot and people ran out from cover to drag him safe even though that decision was statistically gonna be a net loss to the squad (like the sniper thing at the end of Full Metal Jacket)
And he was just… happy. That was a sign of how great the Army was, to him. And at home I’m just screaming like “WHAT ARE YOU DOING, AS SOLDIERS THE PURPOSE OF YOUR LIVES IS TO ACCOMPLISH A MISSION AND IF YOU ARE UNDERMINING THAT IN THE NAME OF LIVES WHAT’S THE POINT”
That’s literally why when I was considering I was thinking Army over USMC ‘cause the “leave no man behind” shit
(Which at some level has to be a reaction to the Mayaguez shit, just like how Top Gun was naval aviation unshaming itself. One of my petty speculations is the daisy cutter was supposed to be dropped on the forces to scuttle them, and the situation inspiried the prelude and climactic moment of the 1995 Outbreak)