Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

chrisseaton.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 608 posts

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#151

Post by monocasa »

scandox wrote: post #24
advisedwang wrote: post #7

The author glosses over my biggest question "Who might you have to fight?" with a informative "Queen’s enemies." Might his squadron be called in to quash civil disturbance? Sent to the next Iraq? Is it reserved for defending the UK from invasion?

> At RubyConf 2014 someone in the lunch queue asked what I did before I was in tech and asked me if I enjoyed killing babies when I explained. To some extent your question is in the same category as the above. It decontextualizes the situation entirely. He lives in a democracy. He obviously believes that society is less worse than some visible alternatives. He therefore believes he can fight on its behalf based on wh…

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/98018...

The royalty is still very much in charge in the UK, actively using their constitutionally protected veto power over new laws.

It's only in the vaguest sense a democracy.

Edit: At least read the article. There's documentation that all new law including simple amendments gets passed by the royal family before being voted on, and the royal family asks for major changes of both removals and additions to these laws. Having a monarch who has to sign off on all law and actively participates in the writing of that law is not a democracy, full stop. As a british subject, you are only allowed the laws that the queen thinks you should have, demonstrably, by the uk government's own documentation on the matter.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#152

Post by barbazoo »

simulate-me wrote: post #90
toomuchtodo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't a positive. It is a tragedy that these services (education, healthcare) are difficult to obtain without military service in a supposedly developed country.

Plenty of developed countries have compulsory military service (South Korea, Israel, Switzerland). If anything, we're lucky that it's a choice.

A quick search determined that at least in Switzerland and South Korea, there is an avenue for conscientious objection, so I wouldn't say that "military service" is mandatory there. Even in Israel there seem to be plenty of options to get around military service.

I recommend the Wikipedia articles about "Conscription in ".

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#153

Post by AdrianB1 »

vkou wrote: post #104
AdrianB1 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the services people should be entitled to and who should pay for it? I am just curious how this works.

We already pay for most of those services, it's just that right now, we often get to pay twice for them, in both the upfront dollar cost, and all the non-dollar suffering that untreated medical issues, chronic homelessness, and generational crime cause.

I thought it is healthcare, education (enumerated) and maybe others. Now I am even more confused.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#154

Post by jnwatson »

scandox wrote: post #24
advisedwang wrote: post #7

The author glosses over my biggest question "Who might you have to fight?" with a informative "Queen’s enemies." Might his squadron be called in to quash civil disturbance? Sent to the next Iraq? Is it reserved for defending the UK from invasion?

> At RubyConf 2014 someone in the lunch queue asked what I did before I was in tech and asked me if I enjoyed killing babies when I explained. To some extent your question is in the same category as the above. It decontextualizes the situation entirely. He lives in a democracy. He obviously believes that society is less worse than some visible alternatives. He therefore believes he can fight on its behalf based on wh…

You can simultaneously believe in democracy and believe that ceding one’s moral agency to the whims of the populace is immoral.

We’ve had several recent examples of absolutely tragic uses of our military might. Voluntarily putting oneself in a situation where you have to “kill babies” or face serious consequences is itself immoral.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#155

Post by Tepix »

howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #107
basisword wrote: post #62

>> I originally joined the British Army full-time after finishing my masters in computer science at Bristol in 2007. At the time, the campaign in Afghanistan was in full-swing, and the campaign in Iraq was still running. All my peers were going into office jobs in London but I still wanted more fresh air at that point in my life. I just cannot understand this mindset. "I wanted to see the world so instead of taking a…

> a bit of invading. The world doesn't work the way you wish it did. Atrocities are prevented and security is maintained through action and credible deterrence. This requires men and women willing or conscripted into service. Would be great if none of this were necessary, but it's simply not how the world works and there is ample historical evidence of what happens when a country lowers its guard. As I type this Germ…

There is ample historical evidence that having an army to send into war makes the world less safe, not more.

If the US army in particular had a clear conscience, why would the US oppose the International Criminal Court in The Hague? Telling your soldies that their war crimes will go unpunished is a great way to invite them.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#156

Post by [deleted] »

brimble wrote: post #97
toomuchtodo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't a positive. It is a tragedy that these services (education, healthcare) are difficult to obtain without military service in a supposedly developed country.

The US military is largely a blue-collar jobs program that lets you opt in to service in exchange for something resembling standard European social benefits (retirement, healthcare, housing, education). Which sucks for a bunch of reasons, including that some are excluded from eligibility, but it's what we've got. That's obviously not the whole reason we have a military, or even close to it, but it's become a big part…

[deleted]

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#157

Post by exdsq »

ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #109
HL33tibCe7 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guess he like's his big time Major pay I doubt pay is a factor for the author at all. A quick look ( https://apply.army.mod.uk/what-we-offer/army-reserve/army-re... ) reveals Majors in the reserves make £135/day, which is frankly nothing compared to what the author would earn in his job at Shopify.

Well presumably he gets paid at the normal active duty rate when he’s called up, or whatever the UK equivalent is.

When you join the reserves you have to go through basic infantry training (you can't just go straight to Sandhurst like if you went into the regulars). You're paid £40.13 per day at the moment (I think I was paid something like £30 a day when I went through it a decade ago). I don't think anyone goes in for the money - I've made a days training sat on the toilet after lunch at my last contract gig.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#158

Post by uxp100 »

freedomben wrote: post #94
basisword wrote: post #62

>> I originally joined the British Army full-time after finishing my masters in computer science at Bristol in 2007. At the time, the campaign in Afghanistan was in full-swing, and the campaign in Iraq was still running. All my peers were going into office jobs in London but I still wanted more fresh air at that point in my life. I just cannot understand this mindset. "I wanted to see the world so instead of taking a…

Your privilege is showing. Most people can't afford to take a month off, let alone a year. Paying for world travel is out of the question.

That makes no sense in context on the author's statement, which was essentially saying, I did this because I wanted to, NOT because I had no choice.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#159

Post by monocasa »

voakbasda wrote: post #46
watwut wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Afaik, soldiers don't get to choose. The queens enemies is pretty much good description, because his guess is as good as yours.

Every soldier has the choice whether to follow or disobey an order of dubious legal/moral consequence. If you are asked to kill babies, you sure as shit had better say "no". As a species, there is broad agreement that "just following orders" is not a defense for committing crimes against humanity.

> A lot of people talk about Mỹ Lai, and they say, 'Well, you know, yeah, but you can't follow an illegal order.' Trust me. There is no such thing. Not in the military. If I go into a combat situation and I tell them, 'No, I'm not going. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to follow that order', well, they'd put me up against the wall and shoot me.

~ Lawrence La Croix, a squad leader in Charlie Company in Mỹ Lai

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#160

Post by AdrianB1 »

Cederfjard wrote: post #145
abduhl wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re just complaining. The world exists as it does now and broad generalized complaints like yours are often used to support positions which actively harm those you purport to help. Say we take away the military on-ramp to class mobility. What can we do for those trapped in poverty whose only ticket out was enlistment? Your answer should be focused on what we can practically do as the world stands now, not in your…

Higher education funded through government spending is not a utopia, it already exists in many places and would not be prohibitively expensive for the United States if there was a will.

Try it first, then compare. I had free college, it was mostly a waste of time for everyone. It was not a bad college, it was the best in the country, the others were worse.

In many cases you get what you pay for. In my case it was approximately zero. From what I hear from new hires, the quality these days it's worse, they are mostly diploma factories.

Post reply on HN