Not even a little.Radalan said:You're joking right?
A country isn't an entity and even if one would make that comparison, you probably shouldn't do it with a lion and a zebra.
Oh **** son.kurczak said:The decline of the West in one sentence.Radalan said:Honestly though, I don't think volunteering to fight in a war should be a merit in today's society.
If mankind are to be under a government, they ought not be under a ****ty one just because the assholes were stronger.Radalan said:Honestly though, I don't think volunteering to fight in a war should be a merit in today's society.
Somewhat depends on where you are, but i would argue that blurred concepts of identity are a major difference. Am i french/german/belgian/british or european? Am i european, american, russian or part of a larger international society? Which of these matters most to me? While you will likely still find a majority that supports and identifies with the nation state, it would not be unrealistic to speak of a relative descend of relevance (in the western world, though arguably the islamic world is going through a similar process for different reasons).Weaver said:I am actually curious to hear more about "today's society" and how it is so different from yesterday's society.
Rallix said:You're talking about the grunts. Those men who go and kill because their government said so.
Now I ask what you take issue to. Certain individual conflicts that these men take part in, or the concept of a fighting man who thinks its in the best interest of his nation to go to war?
Right. Protection is usually coupled with taking risks and if you are doing it for others (i.e. your country), you need too strongly identify with that group in order to be motivated to take that risk. Or so goes the theory.Weaver said:No, no.. I'm curious to learn what societal changes made it unpopular to protect the sovereignty of one's country.
I agree that ethnic identities are much less important in modern Europe, but it is a somewhat irrelevant remark for Ukrainian conflict has nothing to do with ethnic strife anyway.
We were specifically talking about someone who volunteered to protect her homeland. And in that context your initial post was quite unambiguous.Radalan said:Well no, I'm not suggesting that volunteering to fight a war and having to defend what is yours are the same thing.
If no one in Eastern Ukraine had volunteered to fight against their western counterparts, there wouldn't be a civil war, now would there?
I (and Huntington) would argue that in the modern world we have much more massive and compelling rallying points than ethnic identity both on global and national levels.Duh said:Right. Protection is usually coupled with taking risks and if you are doing it for others (i.e. your country), you need too strongly identify with that group in order to be motivated to take that risk. Or so goes the theory.
Blurred Identity/ies -> Weak Group Dedication -> Less Volunteering/Less Military Spending