Veteran: Why do soldiers obey orders
Do soldiers obey orders because they must or because they want to? One of the earliest expression of rational thought begins when the person is a child. If ever seen a child refuse to eat, that refusal is rational thought. An adult may not consider the child's choice as rational, but from the child's perspective, the child uses free will to choose. Usually, something occurs to change need and the child will want to eat. The need/want paradigm is built into the mind and its the same for all people of all ages. Life skill changes the paradigm by the accumulation of permission-constraint conditions reflected as behavior. By necessity, military training implants the permission-constraint conditions into specific choices for must-do-will-do behavior. While leadership determines the needs of the command, the want-to follows orders is the soldier's will-do choice. Grip expressions like, "If I must, I will do it if I have to." are concessions for want-to. A sold...