Where is this War?

"While in Rome, do as the Romans do."

That really stuck to me while on the way back from running errands. I was toying ideas in my head when the discussion on education level came about. The question is, "Why do we group the enlistees according to their highest education level?"

You would see the JC graduates in the same batch as the diploma holders. And in the Army, they are considered the leaders batch. Whereas on the other end of the scale, we have ITE graduates, NITEC or Higher NITEC students, and dropouts etc. Why? Why is there a need to distinguish at this perspective? Conversations with my friends around have yielded a negative look towards such a move. I quote a friend, "This is a sad reality fact of our society. Without paper (certificates/diplomas), there is nothing much to say. Personally, this highlights how we are just pawns in war."

Pawns in war? Interesting.

I guess what he was trying to say was that whoever decided this believed that if you have a piece of paper on you, it means that you are 'better'. The matter of fact is that when you are out there, no matter what, it does not matter what/who you are or were. As long as you are pointing the rifle at the right direction. THIS should be the factor for "pawns in war". I guess the redeeming fact, if any, is that each and everyone is equal. Everyone will be on equal footing. We will all start from scratch. We are all naked.

Roll in your arguments. You might involve the need for swift decision making and robust planning as part of being in the Armed Forces. And I definitely agree that not everyone has that edge when it comes to such scenarios. I've detailed it before. These snap moves require a certain kind of discipline, a certain kind of skill set and ultimately a certain kind of experience. And these requirements are mostly fulfilled at higher education levels. It is not a matter of how much they have studied. This does not make them better.

JC-Poly students are not better. They are just better equipped.

If given the same amount of exposure and lessons/modules, everyone can achieve a similar result. I always have this firm believe that what makes you is not the things you fill yourself with. It is what you are surrounded by. Take a look at the Asch experiment: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asch_conformity_experiments) It's an interesting read on how we are simply greatly influenced by the things around us. Look, we are adaptable beings. So it is no surprise here.

But in the Armed Forces, we seem to take this finding to a whole new level. It might as well cause a great divide of our forces. The thing is, we do not need to separate. We do not have to resort to this method of labelling those who are better equipped and those that are not. The way I see this, it creates a negative vibe that the Armed Forces are nothing but a business model. Where is the pride? Where is the glory? Where is the camaraderie of the fighters?

But then again, why do we need fighters when there are no more fights to fight. Why do we need to prepare for war when there are no more wars?