Suffering for the good of mother Russia

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=27cb50b1e1a7803c&cat=c08dd24cec417021

Suffering for the good of mother Russia

Stephen Dalziel
BBC Russian affairs analyst



Russian soldiers face traumatising experiences during conscription
"It's not important to me that you serve. It's only important to me that you suffer."
These words, spoken by a Soviet Army officer in the 1980s, remain true for many Russian conscripts today, according to a report by the international pressure group Human Rights Watch.

The report, called The Wrongs of Passage, makes sickening reading. It makes it clear that the ritual of organised bullying in the Russian Army - known as "dedovshchina" - has not only continued since Soviet times but has become harsher.


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Whoah!!!

[JuniorPlankton]

1. the scary part

is that about 100% of the population knows about it and accepts it as a part of the process.

[HereSince1628]

2. Unfortunately this is a common military state of mind; Abu Graib

is evidence of its existance in our own military.

"Reshaping" a person into an unquestioning, order following, subordinate is a process that requires creating circumstances with superior-inferior roles clear to both recipients and witnesses of the exercise of authority.

Abusing some prisoners reveals every prisoner's inferior position.
Abusing some recruits reveals every recruit's inferior position.

We have read of some of this sort of team member shaping in Bush's Whitehouse and Cabinet.

Historically bullying and "hazing" has been common in US Military basic training, ROTC programs, and military academies. Sometimes this has been severe enough to result in deaths of recruit/trainees.

Sometimes the practioners of the bullying method become channelized into this frame of leadership and become the type of overbearing martinets depicted by Hollywood (Robert Duvall in the Great Santini). I am confident someone is working on a screen play about the perps at Abu Graibe that will show the psychic development of small town/rural kids experiencing bullying in many stages of their lives and incorporating it into their own personalities as war criminals.

Although it might be possible to reshape individuals' relationship to authority using non-abusive techniques bullying behavior is always readily available because of its unfortunate presence as a common human characteristic.