OT: Galactic sterilisation

[President_Elect_Shang]

I was going to get my degree in Psychology and after the move to Texas changed my mind back to History, I love the field although my wife has declared it a “Soft Degree”.

Why not mix the wine?

I would like to specialize in either the Hellenistic or the Roman “time frame”. But then I am sure you can appreciate the tie in. Don’t get me wrong I am not ignoring the Greek part of the picture. I have extra electives so I will most certainly look into the Geology aspect. I have decided to take an intro course to geology (by coincidence) this semester. You have a good point about that tie in, The Battle of Thermopylae.

[Fyron]

Originally posted by President Elect Shang:

quote:

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Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Those are rather crude and irrelevant definitions...

Three words and one link baby:

Merriam-Webster Online

http://www.m-w.com/home.htm

Look it up yourself.

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Dictionary definitions are almost always lacking in their definitions of complex terms.

[President_Elect_Shang]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Dictionary definitions are almost always lacking in their definitions of complex terms.

Sure, whatever you say, or convenient ones for that matter.

[Fyron]

Its interesting that you completely ignored the post and just focused on the aside...

Perhaps you need to stop looking at the military from the bottom up, and look from it from the top down. You will then be able to see other points of view on this issue.

[President_Elect_Shang]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Its interesting that you completely ignored the post and just focused on the aside...

Perhaps you need to stop looking at the military from the bottom up, and look from it from the top down. You will then be able to see other points of view on this issue.

Umm sure OK. It's amazing how you can pick and choose what you want. Can you define bottom up and top down, I don’t want to apply it differently than you. When I think of bottoms up I think of drinking.

[ January 09, 2004, 17:08: Message edited by: President Elect Shang ]

[Fyron]

Ok... try to think of the military as the military, not as the faces of the soldiers themselves. The soldiers make up the forces of the military, but not the ideal of the military, nor the decisions of the military, nor the overall purpose and goals of the military, etc. Just looking at the specific people in the military is looking at it from the bottom (the people) up (the abstract nature). It is focusing not on the military itself, but on people. Looking from the top down is instead focusing on the military itself. It is directly akin to saying that the tech supporters and the programmers working for Microsoft are evil people because Microsoft has some evil business practices. The people working those jobs do not necessarily represent or embody what is done with their skills overall by the company (and its top level executives). It is looking at the issue from the wrong angle.

As for your definition of military, it is most certainly not the definitions on m-w.com.

1 a : of or relating to soldiers, arms, or war b : of or relating to armed forces; especially : of or relating to ground or sometimes ground and air forces as opposed to naval forces
2 a : performed or made by armed forces b : supported by armed force
3 : of or relating to the army

Even from these partial definitions, it can be seen that "military" does not necessarily mean "the soldiers in the army."

[President_Elect_Shang]

I think what you are referring to is called the Department of Defense. AKA: DoD, that would be more accurate I think. As for the other side of your explanation I served for 11 years, and now my wife serves. With that said, and using an analogy since you did. It would be similar (in an analogy sort of way) to asking me to think that dogs are really cats and cats are really dogs. But it goes even deeper than that, what you are asking me to do is divorce myself from over a decade of first hand experience to substitute the concept of DoD for the concept of the military. Substitute a disembodied organization for a group of men and women that I know, that I served with, that I call my friends. If I stretch my understanding than I can see the point of view you are coming from, but I am sure you can appreciate mine? I will not undo what I have learned, and honestly since I have more first person experience I feel that you should at least give a few minutes consideration to revising your terminology. Not to say that I am telling you that you need to or even that you must. No, that would way out of lines for my beliefs, I would never dream of imposing my will on another. But simply that it would not kill you to try a little. As for my part I agree to ask others to clarify whether they mean DoD or military (the men and women) before I offer my opinion.