RE: http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,125000,00.htm

I would just like to say that, although I agree with most of what is said here, with the exception of career military folks, the military was never intended to be the "lifestyle" of most of the populace. It serves a purpose and most people are ready to return to "normal (rugged individualist)" life as soon as they are able. And the idea of competing navies sounds like a wonderful idea to me. Of course, there would need to be rules like in any game. But to have incentive to accomplish mission for the least amount of money sounds like a wonderful idea. My main problem with the government is that there is so little accountability as there is in the private sector. Competition is a good thing..we should exeperiment with this conept in the military..heh

To start this is nothing more than a opinion based of sterotyping and not fact.
The U.S. Military has people of all walks of life from all over our Great Nation.
Some Join to get away from the farm and small town with no oppertunity, some join to get out of the inner-city and the crime filled streets for a new start, some join for college money, some join for travel and experience, some join because they fell like they have no other place to go, but the one thing that stands is the Military has this way of taking 30 different personalities at a time and molding them into thinking as one and at the end of the day with all the diversity they see only one color, navy sees navy blue, army sees OD Green, air force sees airforce blue, and marine corp sees marine red, together they defend the red, white, and blue in this botherhood, the serve the same goal, it is called team work!.
Hippies serve nothing, they are people who think everyone owes them and in their anarchy way of life blame the government for their mis-fortune, I beleive in small government who answer to the people, not the other way around, and the people should support the soldiers, airman, marines, and sailors who defend our freedom.
To compare Hippies to military is just a lack of inteligence, hippies run and hide during war and do drugs like Clinton who smoked but did not inhail, military gives the ultimate price like McCain who was a 6 year P.O.W..
My comment is do not compare hippies to Military, hippies do not deserve such a comparison!

I think the article is very insightful. However CD Barlow (above) also makes some relevant points.
It probably prudent to emphasize that hippies disappeared about 35 years ago because the hippies themselves recognized how impractical their life styles were. Therefore, to CDBarlow, any hippies than did run and hide, did so many, years ago and bringing that up as a criticism ignores the authors arguments. Oddly, many past hippies are now integrated into companies that work for the DOD. The more disturbing comparison in my mind, because of it's accuracy, is one of the welfare queen. Let's face it, when your in the military, you get fed, a paycheck, a medical plan and a place to live, regardless of performace. Often, people who don't know what to do with their lives or are to immature to manage their own lives end up in the military.
This is not all bad.

When I entered the service I was unfocused and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. When I got out, I was extremely focused, went to college, got a degree and became a "productive" member of society. To this day, I felt that entering the military was the best thing I ever did. It allowed me some breathing space to grow up, decide what I wanted to do all with pay, medical benefits and a place to live.

The biggest difference between civilian welfare and military welfare is the latter doesn't encourage continued dependence. As much as the military did for me, I was happy when I was honorably discharged and allowed to build my own life.

Fleming makes a number of common fallacies in his column. I'll just touch on a handful of them here:

1) Libertarians regard themselves as rugged individualists. Wrong. In all my years of libertarian reading and writing, I have never seen a single person of any libertarian stripe refer to himself as a 'rugged' individualist. Individualist, yes. Rugged, no. Dear reader, please understand that use of the term 'rugged' is meant as a sneer in order to put you off of the movement before you ever really get started. By caricaturing libertarians, Fleming wants to subtly discount their arguments in your mind without actually arguing against them. Yes, there is an agrarian, back-to-the-land strain of libertarianism but they aren't hoping to shrink government just so they can start wrasslin' bears. They just want to live simply and keep what they earn. I'd love to see Mr. Fleming argue with that.

2) Libertarians are hippies. Got that, Mr. High-And-Tight? You're not going to let anyone call you a friggin' hippie, are you? RUN FROM LIBERTARIANISM AS FAST AS YOU CAN! And stop using hair gel or you're gay! In other words, similar to #1, conflating libertarians and hippies is supposed to scare you off of the idea.

3) Libertarians want people to die through deregulation. Because libertarians can see that the FDA and other unaccountable federal agencies that act as revolving doors between themselves and the industries they supposedly regulate (*cough*DoD*cough*), they want people to die. Never mind that there are scads of arguments in the libertarian literature that emphasize how non-profit, private industry groups would spring up overnight to act as standard-bearers and information clearinghouses in these deregulated industries. (FASB, anyone?) Nope, libertarians just flat want people dead. That's why I signed up, anyway. Incidentally, Mr. Fleming writes this with no apparent sense of irony, given that he works for a cabinet-level federal agency whose very reason to exist is finding the most efficient means by which to despatch human life.

4) Military folks see no distinction between civilian and military life. Here's how the argument goes: There is nothing remotely libertarian about the military. Therefore, as a serviceman, you cannot argue for the libertarian position in civilian life and be philosophically consistent. Let me ask you this: If you didn't know beforehand, did it take you any longer than your first 30 seconds in Basic to realize that you weren't in Kansas anymore? Why does Mr. Fleming think that military members, because they can't enjoy civilian freedoms while on active duty, can't legitimately argue for the libertarian position in civilian life? This is tantamount to saying that the founding fathers, because they were subjects of the king, could not legitimately argue for independence.

hey
I just want to say that I think you have made a very prudent comparison between the IDEAL of the military and the hippie. Both of their ideals lie in the fact that "get off my shoulder; I will do my own thing". It is as simple as "leave me alone". That is the basic principle. I feel that hippies, although even implicitly embracing the Left as the "solution", through John Lennon's embrace of Communism and through the Black Panthers and other Left/Black Nationalist groups, all they they were missing was ECONOMIC LITERACY. The hippies did not understand the concept of tradeoffs, scarcity, and costs. If they did, they would understand that all the LIBERTARIANS WERE HIPPIES WITH GUNS AND SMALL TAXES. Even Paul McCartney said in the ever-so psychedelic "revolver", "taxman", a tirade against the oppressive state and its taxes.

The military must learn that not everyone MUST be part of their culture and their ever so loved and highly admirable patriotism towards this beautiful country, and the Hippies must learn the fact that drugs aren't what make people peaceful and what spreads love, but it is institutions, the rule of law, private property (which anarchists hate, but think about it, WHO gave all the hippies the "FREE STORES" and all the free concept, free love et. al.?? It is not the oppressive government, but Private Charity, therefore private property and the selfishness of individuals wanting to give to others.
That is the hippie and military ethic. Please let me be myself. Please let me defend freedom the way I see fit, either by being on the front lines, or exploring my mind and showing these 'straight people' what being radical was.
Capitalism and the hippie ideals are intertwined naturally, since both call for freedom, and both want the same things,
ie. no homelessness, no starvation, jobs, innovation, freedom, healthcare, safe and healthy food etc.
Capitalism the way to do exactly that. We all want the same things, but understand that the free market is the best way of approaching the basic necessities of people, and giving people the freedom to do what they want, whether it be dropping acid, smoking marijuana, owning guns, starting their own business, joining their own militias, and giving salute to our beautiful country of freedom that burns and freezes night and day, the USA. PEACE, Love, and BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE. !!!!!!!!!!!!!