Gwynne Dyer's wonderful documentary about war shows US Marine recruits at Parris Island waking up for their first morning of training. Among other things, they are made to chant:
"...highly motivated, truly dedicated, rompin' stompin' blood-thirsty kill-crazy United States Marine Corps recruits, sir!"
Wow. Volunteer military, so I guess they knew what they were getting into. I wonder if they could get conscripts to scream that kind of thing. I think I'd rather risk embarrassment and discomfort than say such a dreadful thing. But I'm 38. Maybe twenty years ago I would have. Would have been poison in my mouth, or would there have been an animal thrill?
Dyer also wrote a book with similar themes, and one chapter describes boot camp in detail, about how strategic the chants, trials and humiliations are: they want to make young human beings capable of dreadful things. The chapter is available here.
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