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Plus the weekly digest with new Army ads, Jocko Willink self-improvement tips, and more
Welcome to my weekly digest for November 10, 2023, with the best articles from around the web and a roundup of my recent writings and appearances.
US Army Gets Desperate for Recruits
This new ad the Army posted on Twitter shows that they are getting desperate for recruits. It features 100% white guys - which probably required some type of top level approval to green light - in a traditional military setting.
The one serious leverage point red America has over the system is to stop sending its sons to get their legs blown off in our government’s illegitimate and immoral wars. Joining the military can be a good move for some young men, but don’t be fooled - the US military today is very hostile to the values of conservative men.
Best of the Web
Daily Mail: 'Porn Dem' Susanna Gibson LOSES in Virginia - A Democratic state legislative candidate in Virginia who was revealed to have a sidelight streaming sex acts online for tips lost her election bid - but just barely. It’s another example what I’ve been writing about about how there are no more traditional moral standards in public life.
After Babel: Do you know where your kids go every day? - A Zoomer explains her generation’s malaise to older generations
WaPo: Millennials aren’t having kids. Here are the reasons why.
NYT: China’s Male Leaders Signal to Women That Their Place Is in the Home
Rob Henderson: How I Read
New Content and Media Mentions
I was mentioned in the American Book Club, at American Reformer, and at Christ Over All.
On this week’s podcast, John Seel joins me to talk about cultural engagement in the negative world.
Paid subscribers can read the transcript.
You can subscribe to my podcast on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
New this week:
How Then Shall We Live? - American Christians need to figure out how to respond to the emergence of the Negative World
Pursuing Ownership in the Negative World - My new book offers ideas on living in the negative world for families, institutions and mission
Post-Script
Here are a couple more of those Jocko Willink short videos with self-improvement advice.
This first one is about how if you want to see change, you need to make change in what you are doing. This is very good advice, though neglects the Christian perspective on God’s sovereign action. Everything changed for Saul when Christ showed up in his life on the road to Damascus, not because of anything he did himself.
Here’s another good one.
Thought I'd share this: recently spoke with a younger Millennial evangelical (about a decade younger than me) who recently got out of the Army (enlisted). Deployed to Syria and Afghanistan but sounds like more time in Syria.
He tells me Syria was not a just war. There were no good guys. We shouldn't have been there. He remains troubled by atrocities committed by groups the US is helping.
His advice is DO NOT JOIN THE MILITARY and if you feel you must, DO NOT JOIN THE ARMY ESPECIALLY. He has thought a lot about the recruitment crisis, attributes it to some causes we're familiar with, but others that don't get mentioned as much:
1. He personally hates Woke but doesn't think that's the real issue and it didn't really affect his experience. He thinks Woke is emblematic of the fact that the people on top are inept bureaucrats with an HR mentality who don't care about the mission OR the men. In his view, Woke recruiting ads, dangerous levels of black mold in the barracks, and the atrocious care at Walter Reed Hospital all have the same principal cause.
2. He thinks Army is worse in this regard than the other services, though they're all bad.
3. He thinks that this quasi-peacetime/COIN Army is the worst of all worlds for recruiting. He thinks some men want to be in a peacetime Army, march around, polish monuments, and get college paid for. Some want to be in a wartime army and kick the ass of the designated foe. No one wants to be in an Army where you still sometimes get shot at but no one knows what the point of any of it is.
4. The pay and benefits aren't worth it. See also point #1 -- the state of things like Army healthcare and housing, which are technically part of the "comp" package, but the old-timers he served with told him they have deteriorated a lot relative to yesteryear.
I'm glad the book deal has gone through. Can't wait to read it.
I have a question about the "illegitimate and immoral wars" reference. In your opinion, how should the US have acted after 9/11?