I agree that there is an initial "wow" effect, but it is only temporary. Once the eye has a chance to scan it pretty quickly picks out which individuals are most desirable.
It's not the high minded heroism that we're all spoon fed, but it's much more plausible. We were just men who were willing to take risks for a steady paycheck, not much different from coal miners or bridge builders.
The ideological superstructure and post rationalization involved is amazing, though.
This trend was known when I went into the army in the early 00's.
If you had asked me in 2002, I would have taken this as evidence that the US military has become a respectable institution of intelligent professionals. I would have concluded that our military is the best in the world, and that this is one more sign of America's great system.
Today I see this as evidence that our economy is so broken, that men with bachelor's degrees have little hope of finding gainful employment outside the massive, bloated government industrial complex.
Military life is largely banal, family-shredding and dangerous work. 90% of the soldiers that I served with, when pressed, admitted that they joined up because they felt they had nowhere else to go.
I choose option 3 - the government has no business in marriage, period. Not to prescribe or proscribe it, tax it, reward it, license it, laud it, or wag a finger at it.
Both sides are wrong, because both sides want to violate one half of the twin rights of free association/dissociation. One would keep those who want to associate freely apart, but they are losing. The winning side would force, under pain of robbery and cages, others to support something they disapprove of, and will deny them the right to abstain at all levels.
Government has no more business in marriages than it has in baptisms.
Of course, now that I say that, it makes me wonder about the changes that we will see to gaming as 2 billion people join the internet over the next ten years... the narrative will surely shift in fascinating ways.
I agree with Moddox; be the change you seek. As more an more girls grow up playing video games with dad rather than (for example) watching the ball game, we will see more women invested in the medium, thinking in gaming terms, and creating content relevant to them.
Methinks this perceived problem will solve itself demographically, rather than by protest or argumentation. Many "social issues" solve themselves this demographically, though we are rarely patient enough to wait.
My brother and his gaggle of four toe-headed (extremely blond) children are constantly touched and photographed in Macau; the mere fact that he has four kids is also subject to astonishment. People hold up four fingers and look puzzled.
The ideological superstructure and post rationalization involved is amazing, though.
If you had asked me in 2002, I would have taken this as evidence that the US military has become a respectable institution of intelligent professionals. I would have concluded that our military is the best in the world, and that this is one more sign of America's great system.
Today I see this as evidence that our economy is so broken, that men with bachelor's degrees have little hope of finding gainful employment outside the massive, bloated government industrial complex.
Military life is largely banal, family-shredding and dangerous work. 90% of the soldiers that I served with, when pressed, admitted that they joined up because they felt they had nowhere else to go.
Both sides are wrong, because both sides want to violate one half of the twin rights of free association/dissociation. One would keep those who want to associate freely apart, but they are losing. The winning side would force, under pain of robbery and cages, others to support something they disapprove of, and will deny them the right to abstain at all levels.
Government has no more business in marriages than it has in baptisms.
Methinks this perceived problem will solve itself demographically, rather than by protest or argumentation. Many "social issues" solve themselves this demographically, though we are rarely patient enough to wait.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpJGkG1g-Lk