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The military does not adhere to rigorous discipline because that is an effective way to accomplish general human endeavors. They do it because committing violence against other human beings is extremely difficult to get human beings to do. And when they do it, they are torn apart with post-traumatic stress disorders, depression, anxiety, and all sorts of negative effects. In order to be able to overcome the conscious brains prohibition on violence, soldiers must be trained so that their muscle memory can kill before their conscious mind can prevent them from doing it. And sticking to a simple routine with no allowance for individual diversity and the like makes it easiest to continue functioning in traumatic situations. These techniques don't work in any other human endeavor at all.

Star Trek takes place on ships and space stations, so let's consider the typical carrier battle group, which consists of at least one aircraft carrier, a deployed carrier air wing, and various support ships. In the course of its mission, the people of this carrier battle group will safely launch, control, pilot, land, and maintain high-performance jet aircraft from the deck of a ship; maintain and operate ship systems including computers, electricity, fresh and waste water, communications, and propulsion--which fairly often entails operating a nuclear reactor; feed, clothe, deliver mail to, provide comprehensive health care for, and maintain the fitness and morale of thousands of people at sea; and occasionally, sometimes, launch cruise missiles or carry out bombing attacks against land targets hundreds of miles away. Very few of the crew actually engage in anything close to combat, and those who do have distance and technological abstraction separating them from the effects of their actions. Tests have shown that naval aviators actually experience more stress landing on an aircraft carrier than in combat.

The purpose and applicability of naval tradition is not to desensitize people to killing; it's to coordinate many different people doing many different jobs to work together cohesively. And it is certainly directly applicable to a wide range of human endeavors. Of course, it doesn't entail "sticking to a simple routine with no allowance for individual diversity"--that kind of command-and-control structure was shown to be ineffective as recently as World War II, where the most effective militaries were the ones with the most disagreement, political infighting, and allowance for individual initiative.

You've got an internally consistent narrative, but it doesn't match reality, and while I could certainly get into a flamewar with you, it would make more sense for you to read some recent military history and modern military doctrine, get to know some veterans, and really educate yourself about this. There's kernels of truth in what you've written, but reality is always more nuanced than the simple, tendentious narrative you've constructed.



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