Essays

Military ethics necessarily oppose most people's personal and/or civilian ethics and moral upbringing. The military's primary function is national defense. But most military training is geared towards rapid, concise taking of human life, destruction of property and assertion of presence by force into another nation's territory.

Harvard Professor of Government Samuel P. Huntington posed the question: "What does the military officer do if he is ordered by the statesman to exterminate the people of an occupied territory?" He observed that both, the soldier and the statesman, are free individuals morally responsible for their actions. He acknowledged that as a soldier, the officer owes obedience; as a man, he owes disobedience in following this order. Professor Huntington also stated that, except in the most extreme instances, it is reasonable to expect the soldier will adhere to the professional ethic and obey. He concluded that only rarely will the military man be justified in following the dictates of private conscience against the dual demand of military obedience and state welfare (44).

With this generalization in mind, let us look at the United States Military. It is the best equipped, trained, and deployable fighting force in the modern world. Despite today's record low strength levels and almost "overnight" realignment of missions within each branch, our military is still the most effective fighting force on the face of the planet. But what about the individual members who serve our country and who are prepared to go to war with very little or no notice?

The people who wear the uniform in service to our country are just that -- people! They come from diverse ethnic cultures, religious doctrines, and a spectrum of societal settings. Each is expected to abide by our nation's Military Code of Conduct regardless of upbringing or personal and religious beliefs. When people enlist in the military, they are required to swear an oath of enlistment or appointment (depending on the rank at which they are entering). Most have to make severe adjustments to their personal beliefs of right and wrong.

Prior to entering the service most people would consider the taking of another person's life as definitely wrong. But in the service, a portion of basic training is instruction in the various ways to kill your fellow human beings. This is chief among the many indoctrinations new service members undergo, and for many this presents the first ethical and moral conflict they face in the military. Those who cannot transition from civilian life to the role of paid assassin either find non-combative positions in the military or they are separated from the service for failure to adapt.

Soldiers who successfully make the transition and "learn" to live with the fact that they may have to kill a faceless enemy in the name of duty often use this to rationalize breaking away from other moral and ethical values. For example, it is easy for a soldier to rationalize that "if it is okay to kill my fellow man, then surely I deserve to smoke, drink, and womanize." Training a young civilian to become a soldier does not immediately make the soldier mature -- that is the role of the soldier's seasoned, professional leaders. But often these leaders only look for mission accomplishment and career advancement. Most soldiers are left to sort out moral and ethical issues on their own without a sufficient knowledge base or the maturity to do so.

Moral and ethical confusion and problems are not just a modern military problem, as shown by Professor Phillip M. Flammer, a former Air Force officer. He wrote that after visiting the United States in 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville noted that while democracies need armies, they inherently find these "troublesome." The nation and the army, Tocqueville wrote, have "opposite tendencies" which "expose democratic communities to great dangers." Flammer contends that the "opposite tendencies" between a political democracy and its armed forces are obvious. He states that democracies are oriented towards the individual with an emphasis on personal freedoms and is characterized by debate, attempted reconciliation between conflicting freedoms, and inefficiency.

Flammer states that the military, on the other hand, is necessarily group oriented with strong emphasis on rigid discipline and obedience. He further states it is also unavoidably authoritarian, if not totalitarian in approach, which means that it is a closed organization with its own jargon, expertise, customs, and justice system. Flammer contends that this makes it vulnerable to dangerous tendencies such as abuse of power, careerism, and over-concern for image. He says it is not suprising the military has had trouble maintaining its ethic at the best possible level. He also states that many in the military, in fact, seem to operate under the dubious assumption that criticism, even internal criticism of the highest order, is a form of disloyalty (163-164).

During my own military career, I experienced first-hand that internal criticism is considered a form of disloyalty. There were many times when my personal ethics clashed with my professional ethics and created internal conflicts that were extremely hard to resolve.

An example of one such conflict was being ordered by a senior officer to put my platoon at high personal risk by violating a live fire artillery zone. He ordered me to move my platoon into the edge of an artillery range to give my younger soldiers a "dose of reality and war." To do so would not only violate our safety guidelines, thereby constituting an unlawful order, but also present considerable unnecessary risk to my platoon. However, to flagrantly disobey the questionable order of a professional, senior officer went against every shred of my professional ethic and would probably have ultimately ended my career. I resolved the dilemma without being flagrantly disobedient, but the incident unfavorably affected my trust in my senior leaders. It also left me with the feeling that I had compromised my ethics by not refusing to obey the order instead of finding a way around it. I was not the most popular platoon sergeant in the battalion (at least not with this commander) after that, but I had preserved the safety of my platoon and the inegrity of my unit as a whole.

This particular form of ethical dilemma is not a unique experience in the military. Most people join the military right out of high school and therefore have not had the opportunity to study ethics and problem resolution. During basic training they are "programmed" to blindly trust senior enlisted soldiers and officers. During the first few years of their careers, most soldiers assume all guidance from their leaders is unquestionable. They cannot fathom that senior service members are all too human and are as capable as anyone of making inadvertent or intentional judgement errors.

The military pursues ethics training at the senior noncommissioned and commissioned officer levels, but only minimally at the junior enlisted levels. I personally believe that this inequity in ethics training during a career soldier's early years is directly related to the "zero defects" mentality that still pervades the U.S. military. Under the "zero defects" mode, training and inspections are rendered useless as evaluation and improvement tools.

For example, if you are a military personnel records clerk and your records are not in satisfactory condition when you are inspected, your rank and/or career are instantly in jeopardy as well as the rank and/or careers of your supervisors. Military inspections are not designed to be "pass" or "fail" situations. They are designed to evaluate and identify situations where increased attention, training, or more personnel are needed. The "zero defects" mentality promotes careerism and causes many soldiers to concentrate solely on passing inspections rather than on the more pressing needs of their unit and the military as a whole. Professional ethics require a soldier to strive for perfection in all career aspects -- not just in those that will be inspected.

Professor Gerald F. Cavanaugh, of the University of Detroit's College of Business and Administration, states that any human judgment is preceded by two steps: Gathering data and analyzing the data. Before any ethically sensitive situation can be assessed, it is essential that all the relevant data be on hand (806).

Due to the nature of their business, soldiers often do not always have the option or the time to gather and analyze data necessary to resolve some ethical dilemmas when lives hang in the balance. Therefore, previous ethics training would enhance a soldier's split second, ethical decision-making skills. Too often soldiers are held accountable for subsequent actions to these rapid ethical decisions they were not trained to handle. Especially when their actions vilate real or perceived ethics and values of political leaders. This is why I think it is imperative to begin ethics training for soldiers at entry level. This will help soldiers avoid personal and professional ethics conflicts as they arise. Young soldiers who receive ethics training would be better equipped to recognize and resolve their own future ethical conflicts with less stress and confusion.

To this end, the Joint Services Conference on Professional Ethics (JSCOPE) has published a website devoted to training military professionals of all branches in the study of relevant ethics. The site offers real life ethical conflict situations for study and discussion. It also offers links for further ethics study (Ficarotta, online).

Most military members can now take advantage of ethics training on the internet to better prepare them in conflict resolution. Today's military leaders should encourage, if not demand, their young soldiers receive ethics training throughout their career.

Huntington, Samuel P. "The Military Mind," War, Morality and the Military Profession. Ed. Walham M. Wakin. Boulder: Westview Press, 1981. 44.

Flammer, Philip M. "Conflicting Loyalties and the American Military Ethic." War, Morality and the Military Profession. Ed. Walham M. Wakin. Boulder: Westview Press, 1981. 163-164.

Cavanaugh, Gerald F. "Ethics in Business." Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Eds. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. New York: Longman, 1997. 806.

Ficarotta, J. Carl. Joint Services Conference on Professional Ethics (SCOPE). 17 Sep. 1999. Available at: http://www.usafa.af.mil/jscope

Mankind has had to face the moral conflict between good and evil throughout the ages. Although evil often presents more pleasurable qualities than good, it also asks for a higher payment in return.

Satan appears to many people in the form of greed, power, pleasure and riches. In Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", Satan appears to Connie as a peer who at first seems to offer all the things a young teenage girl would desire. However, as the story unfolds, Connie becomes aware that everything about the "young" man who has called on her is artificial and deceitful upon close examination.

Oates relates that Connie "could see then that he wasn't a kid, he was much older -- thirty, maybe more" (459). As the story continues, Connie begans noticing other obvious attempts at disguise and that both Arnold Friend and his friend, Ellie, are a lot older than the teens they are trying to represent.

When they first arrived at her house, she was suspicious and flirtatious with Arnold. But as she begins noticing things and paying attention to what he is really offering her, besides just an ordinary ride in his car, she possibly realizes that she has invited Satan to her doorstep.

Joyce M. Wegs explains Arnold and his intentions with:

Oates shows Connie in three distinct relationships with Arnold Friend. The first relationship is a passing flirtation which will prove to have grave consequences. The second is her terror as she begins to realize that Arnold is not at all what he first seems. And the third and final relationship is her complete submission to Arnold. The entire story seems to be the result of a dysfunctional family as Wegs explains: "Connie's father plays a small role in her life, but by paralleling repeated phrases, Oates suggests that this precisely the problem. Because he does not talk to his family, he can hardly ask the crucial questions, "Where are you going?" or "Where have you been?" (88)

Mary Kathryn Grant wrote that "Running throughout Oates' fiction is the persistent absence of community, of loving, supportive, enduring commitments to others" (22). This holds true in this story also as Connie always seems to tell her mother only what she wants to hear instead of the truth. She never confides in her mother, holds her plain sister in contempt, and seems not to have any feelings at all for her father.

Oates' character Arnold Friend seems to play on this when he responds to Connie's assertion that her father's coming to get her saying, "No, your dady is not coming" (461). Arnold also uses one of Satan's age-old ploys when he tells Connie, "Listen, here's how it is. I always tell the truth and I promise you this: I ain't coming in that house after you. Honey, I'm not coming in there but you are coming out here" (461). Satan is often depicted as tricking people into doing his bidding rather than forcing them into his fold.

Arnold remains confident that Connie will submit to his desires of her own free will, or lack thereof, without his having to resort to physical force to attain the result he desires. Oates seems to suggest that Arnold, as Satan, is collecting Connie's soul with the passage, "She felt her pounding heart. Her hand seemed to enclose it. She thought for the first time in her life that it was nothing that was hers, belonged to her, but just a pounding, living thing inside this body that wasn't really hers either" (463).

Oates' story is basically a lay on morals. She shows that when a person accepts the pleasures that sin and Satan offer, that person eventually has to pay the price for those pleasures. She points out that weak family values and a lack of religion in a person's life leaves an opening for the terror and torment of evil to enter. She also suggests that even a passing flirtation with evil can prove extremely disastrous.

Works Cited:

1. Grant, Mary Kathryn. The Tragic Vision of Joyce Carol Oates. Durham, N.C.; Duke UP, 1978.

2. Oates, Joyce Carol. "Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?" Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X. Day, and Robert Funk, 4th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 1996. 453-464.

3. Wegs, Joyce M. "Don't You Know Who I Am?" The Grotesque in Oates' 'Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?'" Critical Essays on Joyce Carol Oates. Ed. Linda W. Wagner. Boston: Hall, 1979. 87-92.

There are unlimited opportunities in the technical writing field providing instructions, methods, tips and manuals to working journalists in the print media. There are literally hundreds of technical magazines, publishers and websites that pay for "high tech how-to" articles. Of course, the best place to explore opportunities is the internet--just search for technical writers and you will get a host of sites offering employment and earning opportunities.

Writing for the print media is extremely more difficult than writing as a member of the print media. A lot of journalists love to write lengthy articles that cover their chosen topic in more detail than the casual reader usually cares to know.

However, when it comes to writing instructions, manuals or other reference material for those same journalists--shorter is better. They don't want to wade through a lot of rhetoric to find out how to turn on their computer; operate their digital camera; log onto an electronic bulletin board; or connect to the internet.

Robert Love, internet consultant and former editor with the Arkansas Press Association, remarked that if you want a real challenge in technical writing, just try writing a user's manual of any type that the average newspaper journalist will use. Love says journalists are the worst people he has ever provided with technical information. He stated that he has found they seldom want to read instructions; often don't follow them when they do read them; and usually would rather pick up the phone or send an email to someone for "quick-fix" instructions. He says the majority of his time is taken up responding to phone calls and email from journalists who already have all the answers they need in simple and easy to read instructional manuals--they just do not want to read them!

Although journalists may not be the easiest people to write instructions for as a group--technical writing opportunities abound writing for the print media. The Adobe Magazine is always looking for professionally written technical articles about their products from users who have developed innovative uses with their products. For example, how to enhance photos using Adobe PhotoShop.

Technical writing for the media is an entire writer's market in itself. There are any number of publications for the working journalist. All the state press associations, national press associations, software producers, hardware manufacturers and a myriad of others offer technical publications filled with tons of information for journalists. These publications are generally extremely highly technical in nature.

Most of these publications offer a "how-to" or "easy tips" page(s). These, by themselves, are usually worth the cost of the publication. Here a few of the "Tips and Traps" topics from Imaging Magazine:

Writer's Digest usually offers a selection of markets for technical writers at least once a year in their monthly magazine. On the internet there are a multitude of sites with job opportunities for technical writers in practically every field imaginable.

Although I am a retired career soldier, most of my life has involved writing. As a soldier the majority of my time was spent preparing written communications of one type or another. I wrote constantly--personnel evaluations, inspection reports, standard operating procedures, training manuals, training plans, budget proposals, requests for everything (from beans to bullets), and after action reports (AARs). The AARs always consisted of what went worked what did not work. When listing things that went wrong, I had to list how and why they went wrong and make suggestions to prevent like mistakes in future exercises. In short, traditional soldiering was only a small part of my military career--writing was a large part of it.

While working with the Arkansas Press Association as magazine editor and systems manager I spent the majority of my time writing. As systems manager I had to make repairs, solve networking problems, etc. These usually occurred very infrequently. Most of the time I was developing instructional manuals for system improvements so our readers would not be lost when these improvements were implemented.

My goal throughout my careers has been (and still is) to constantly and consistently improve my writing skills and to continue learning new and exciting ways to present material to readers regardless of the market for which I am writing.

Reference Material:

1. Writers Digest, February 1999

2. Imaging Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 5, May 1997

3. Conroy, Gary. Your Mining Co. Guide to: Technical Writing http://techwriting.miningco.com/

4. Technical Writing Zone: http://www.zinezone.com/

Currently there is no cure for Parkinson's disease. Doctors now prescribe a variety of drugs to those with severe symptoms and sometimes perform various brain surgeries that have reportedly been effective in reducing symptoms (NIH).

However, "stem cell" technology is being researched and developed and doctors and researchers believe that some day these cells will be used to treat persons afflicted with Parkinson's disease (Cohen).

But to understand why stem cell research is important in developing an effective treatment of Parkinson's disease, you must first understand the disease itself.

Parkinson's disease was first described in 1817 by James Parkinson, a British physician, who published a paper on what he called "the shaking palsy." In this paper he set forth the major symptoms of the disease that would later bear his name. Parkinson's disease belongs to a group of conditions called motor system disorders. Its four primary symptoms are (1) tremor or trembling in the head, arms, legs, jaw and face; (2) rigidity or stiffness of the limbs and trunk; (3) slowness of movement; and (4) postural instability or impaired balance and coordination. The disease is both chronic and progressive, meaning it persists and grows worse over a long period of time. The disease occurs when certain nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain die or become impaired. About 50,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson's each year with more than half a million Americans affected at any one time (NINDS).

Scientists developing research in stem cell technology believe these cells will be vital in treating this disease. But what are stem cells? They are "blank" cells that potentially can be turned into virtually any tissue in the human body--creating a supply of spare body tissues (Cohen).

Currently there are only three universities that have managed to manufacture stem cells in a lab. To manufacture stem cells scientists have to start with a human embryo or fetus. One lab used aborted fetuses while another used fertilized eggs that were in a lab and not longer needed by couples undergoing fertility treatments. One use for stem cells is in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Fetal brain tissue (stem cells) implanted in animal models has shown that implanting these cells into a Parkinson brain causes damaged nerve cells to regenerate (NINDS).

The potential of stem cell technology is to regenerate new cells in the affected brain area of persons with Parkinson's disease--thereby possibly providing a cure to this disease. Researchers expected to completely develop this technology in five to seven years. The National Institute of Health announced in January of this year it would start funding stem cell research. Doctors say this will speed up stem cell research tremendously (Cohen).

Some religious leaders object to stem cell research on the principle that scientists are delving into divine areas of human existence. Abortion opponents ethically oppose federal funding of stem cell research claiming it will create abortions purely for research (CNN).

Stem cell research could open vast avenues to curing diseases and improving the quality of life of those afflicted by severe, disabling diseases that cannot currently be cured. If the research is developed as anticipated, the potential uses of stem cell technology is just as mind-warping as are the causes of diseases such as Parkinson's.

1. Cohen, Elizabeth. "Stem Cells Promise Big Breakthroughs in Treating Disease." CNN (Online) 21 Jan. 1999. http://www.cnn/org (19 Mar. 1999).

2. "Can Scientists Predict or Prevent Parkinson's Diseases?" National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) (Online) 30 Dec. 1998. http://www.NINDS.nih.gov/healinfo/disorder/parkinso/pdhtr.htm#predict (19 Mar. 1999).

3. "U.S. Government to Fund Controversial Stem Cell Research." CNN (Online) 19 Jan. 1999. http://ww.cnn.org (19 Mar. 1999)