I think your concern about the military is misplaced. We do not, and have not historically, live in a very militarised society. Yes, in the past when the main business of government was the defence of the realm, a healthy number of MPs with military experience made sense. But I think you’re using it here as a proxy for people who have pragmatic real world experience of leadership and decision making under severe stress (which is not particularly true of peace time soldiers). These are important qualities. In today’s society identifying people who have them is not easy. Mountaineers. Explorers. Risk sports enthusiasts. Maybe. The truism about hard times producing good men probably applies.
I am happy to debate the level of military expertise required - it’s all my subjective opinion. I hope having a framework helps. You make a great point about hard times. Unfortunately we seem to be drifting into a collapse and no one in government has realised (or at least is prepared to admit) how bad the situation is now.
I think they simply and literally do not know - they no longer reflect the broad masses, their life experience is incredibly narrow, and their interests are all aligned with the status quo. The current system simply cannot change itself.
I’d also say it’s interesting how the quality of our politicians and politics seems to have declined as the generation who fought in the last war retired and died off.
I think your concern about the military is misplaced. We do not, and have not historically, live in a very militarised society. Yes, in the past when the main business of government was the defence of the realm, a healthy number of MPs with military experience made sense. But I think you’re using it here as a proxy for people who have pragmatic real world experience of leadership and decision making under severe stress (which is not particularly true of peace time soldiers). These are important qualities. In today’s society identifying people who have them is not easy. Mountaineers. Explorers. Risk sports enthusiasts. Maybe. The truism about hard times producing good men probably applies.
I am happy to debate the level of military expertise required - it’s all my subjective opinion. I hope having a framework helps. You make a great point about hard times. Unfortunately we seem to be drifting into a collapse and no one in government has realised (or at least is prepared to admit) how bad the situation is now.
I think they simply and literally do not know - they no longer reflect the broad masses, their life experience is incredibly narrow, and their interests are all aligned with the status quo. The current system simply cannot change itself.
I’d also say it’s interesting how the quality of our politicians and politics seems to have declined as the generation who fought in the last war retired and died off.