Jackie: As always, your perspective on all this is invaluable. Heart-felt thanks for taking the time to lay all this out. VMI ought to pay you handsomely as an ambassador at large for the Institute! That you do this on your own time because you obviously love the school is quite a testimonial to VMI. Same goes for you Bruno. As a parent, I thank you both.
Rat riot
- Thread starter pennak
- Start date
HMQ
5-Year Member
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2010
- Messages
- 107
This event has had me pondering the fine line that cadets and soldiers have to walk when living in a world where they must follow orders, yet are sometimes faced with situations where their inner compass leads them to deliberately disobey orders to do what they believe is right.
Case in point: Marine Corporal Dakota Meyer requested permission several times to go into the ravine where his fellow Marines were pinned down in a Taliban ambush. He was ordered to stay in place. He made the decision to defy the order and rushed in, repeatedly, saving many lives. I’m sure you all know that he was very recently recognized for this heroism with a Medal of Honor.
“Bing West, an author and former Marine who met Mr. Meyer in Afghanistan and covered his valor in a book, “The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy and the Way Out of Afghanistan,” . . . framed Mr. Meyer in an elemental way – as a noncommissioned officer who refused to sit back and listen to other men die.” (NY Times, Sept. 2011)
Now, I am in no way trying to elevate rat riot behavior to that of Corporal Meyer’s valor in battle. The parallel I’m seeing here is that there is this push and pull between enforcement of strict regimental rules, and fostering of the warrior “gung-ho” spirit. Clearly, any opportunistic bashing that may have occurred during the recent rat riot is completely unacceptable. But I think the ethos of the so-called “tradition” of rebellion, while not officially sanctioned, has its underpinnings in a Corps and military culture which values (and depends on) this spirit of derring-do. The challenge within these institutions is how to harness the beast without breaking its spirit.
I wondered about that too. A corporal disobeys a direct order and yet receives the Medal of Honor because he defied that order and truly heroically saved lives that would have been surely lost all the while his pleas for support were ignored. One cannot help but stand in awe of Corp Meyer. One cannot also help but wonder what in the hell was wrong with those in command The Medal does the Army credit for recognizing that those in command screwed up here.
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2008
- Messages
- 270
First, I want to thank everyone who has tried to maintain perspective and keep an (relatively) open mind throughout this discussion. My primary concern is for the Institute to be understood. Not everyone will appreciate it, but at least they can try to understand.
The key to understanding it is this simple—yet profound—truth: "Everything about the VMI system has been designed and developed over the past 172 years to turn boys into men." One classic book about the VMI experience has an eternally appropriate title: "Drawing Out the Man."
Margaret Mead, an (admittedly controversial) anthropologist who dedicated much of her career to researching traditional gender roles and expectations in different cultures, explained it this way:
Basically, if what Mead postulated is accurate, women are feminine simply by being who they are, but masculinity must be proven.
At VMI, masculinity is proven through the rigors of the Ratline, the egalitarian rank structure, mandatory boxing and wrestling classes, the VFT, the one-strike Honor System, and probably half a dozen other real challenges that are really designed to see if you've got what it takes to become a true man.
It's also why every pickup game of basketball, football, and ultimate frisbee turns into an impromptu wrestling match.
In an effort to prove that they have what it takes, the rats try desperately to impress the upper classes by rioting.
In order to see if the rats have what it takes, upperclassmen decide to fight back—hard.
That's how stuff like this happens. It isn't right. It's terribly misguided. It deserves to be handled severely, to ensure that it doesn't happen again. But we have to recognize and appreciate the sentiment behind it all.
Having spent four years in one of the last bastions of masculinity, here's what it boils down to: Boys will be boys, but at some point they have to learn to take it like a man. So they endure more sweat parties and RDC functions. They march their PTs and serve their confinement. And then they get back up, straighten their giglines, and march on.
Trust me, I'm still very cynical about the VMI system. But I've learned to embrace that cynicism. It has become the lens through which I see the Institute not just for what it is, but for what it can and should be.
Even in cynicism, there is idealism. In my idealistic cynicism, I believe that through the process of how this riot-brawl has been handled, several boys came just a little bit closer to being men.
Never say die.
-jmb-
PS... If you try to get me started on how women and femininity fits into the equation, it will become a post much longer than the last, and awesome pre-writing for the book I've often considered writing. Suffice to say: one title I've considered for the book I'll write someday is "Drawing Out the Man... Even When It's a Woman."
The key to understanding it is this simple—yet profound—truth: "Everything about the VMI system has been designed and developed over the past 172 years to turn boys into men." One classic book about the VMI experience has an eternally appropriate title: "Drawing Out the Man."
Margaret Mead, an (admittedly controversial) anthropologist who dedicated much of her career to researching traditional gender roles and expectations in different cultures, explained it this way:
Basically, if what Mead postulated is accurate, women are feminine simply by being who they are, but masculinity must be proven.
At VMI, masculinity is proven through the rigors of the Ratline, the egalitarian rank structure, mandatory boxing and wrestling classes, the VFT, the one-strike Honor System, and probably half a dozen other real challenges that are really designed to see if you've got what it takes to become a true man.
It's also why every pickup game of basketball, football, and ultimate frisbee turns into an impromptu wrestling match.
In an effort to prove that they have what it takes, the rats try desperately to impress the upper classes by rioting.
In order to see if the rats have what it takes, upperclassmen decide to fight back—hard.
That's how stuff like this happens. It isn't right. It's terribly misguided. It deserves to be handled severely, to ensure that it doesn't happen again. But we have to recognize and appreciate the sentiment behind it all.
Having spent four years in one of the last bastions of masculinity, here's what it boils down to: Boys will be boys, but at some point they have to learn to take it like a man. So they endure more sweat parties and RDC functions. They march their PTs and serve their confinement. And then they get back up, straighten their giglines, and march on.
Trust me, I'm still very cynical about the VMI system. But I've learned to embrace that cynicism. It has become the lens through which I see the Institute not just for what it is, but for what it can and should be.
Even in cynicism, there is idealism. In my idealistic cynicism, I believe that through the process of how this riot-brawl has been handled, several boys came just a little bit closer to being men.
Never say die.
-jmb-
PS... If you try to get me started on how women and femininity fits into the equation, it will become a post much longer than the last, and awesome pre-writing for the book I've often considered writing. Suffice to say: one title I've considered for the book I'll write someday is "Drawing Out the Man... Even When It's a Woman."