人生行路 — The Journey of Life

Speaking of Hitler, The news world is all over Will Smith right now for comments he made concerning the good intentions of Hitler. Roger Kimball looks to have the best wrap-up that I’ve looked at. In essence, the possibly disturbing part of his comment is not the historical truth that Hitler thought he was doing good things, but that it needs “reprogramming.”

To put this into a Navy perspective, our current policy for extremist behavior/attitudes is simply to kick the individual out. Other than occasional GMT training, not much is said about extremism. Addressing of general attitudes, however, does have to be addressed on a regular basis.

Thus comes into play a challenge to freedom of thought in the military. Unlike within the general public or at a university (one hopes), we do reeducate. We expect sailors to harbor certain attitudes, but where is that limit? Do we stop at honor, courage, and commitment, or do we go farther in? And how far do the core values go in in the first place?

Perhaps more importantly, are the core values valued at all levels rather than being something dictated from on high?

To be investigated further…