I'm merely pointing out that the majority of information I've found -- I was quite curious -- indicates that you are, decidedly, unallowed to think during your first year, that there is a strict caste system, individual thought is verboten and adherence to a rigid/inflexible "code" is the norm.
Hence:
1. Indoctrination.
2. Automatons.
3. Brainwashed.
4. Subserviant.
Merely a single point of view.
ThoughtYou can
think whatever you want.
Saying whatever you want is restricted, but then, most civilian places of work have speech restrictions, too.
Oddly enough, an officer in my unit was also a fan of Ayn Rand's fiction. We would swap Rand paperbacks when on deployment & discuss them. No problem with libertarian thought and speech at my unit.
CasteThere is a caste system, but folks are free to move around in it, given their drive & ability. I knew plenty of mustangs (officers who had once been enlisted) during my time in service. Thye are usually highly thought of due to their high level of competence.
Similar systems exist in some civilian organizations. Labor vs management in a union shop being just one example.
Humans organize their organizations to suit their purposes. Sometimes an explicit hierarchy is what is needed.
IndoctrinationYep, plenty of that. Like they say, "You're in the Army now, you're not behind a plow..." I also recall indoctrination when I first went to college and at my first corporate job. Thye armed services' indoctrination is quite a bit more rigorous, no doubt.
Brainwashed AutomatonThe most intensive brainwashing* I have been subject to was not in the service, but at the university. All incoming freshmen were required to spend a week on "Orientation" and suck up lefty-loonie indoctrination & brainwashing. All the PC & postmodernist baloney was trotted out the THE proper viewpoint. All very serious. All very humor-less.
The Army's efforts to turn me into a killer were sometimes laughter-inducing. Where else can you sling a rifle & bayonet & holler "kill" at the top of your lungs with 120 other folks? Then, you get to run through an obstacle course with a fake** rifle & real bayonet, hollering at the top of your lungs, bayonetting targets while your drill sgts set off arty simulators & urge you on. What a hoot. When I am at Home Depot & some guy asks a HD employer, "What will make my grass grow greener?" I must suppress a giggle.
There was a deadly serious purpose behind the training, but a thinking being can see the humor (sometimes black) in it, most of the time.
SubserviantUnless you are a hermit, you wil always be part of some human organization with folks above & below you. Even orgs that explicitly try to be egalitarian have a pecking order. It is part of being a human.
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Ezekiel, fistful has made a solid point. You have swallowed a line of bull and have placed your ignorance and indoctrination on display for all to see. A little time in the service would have done you a world of good in opening your mind to different ideas and provided depth to your critique of the armed services.
* Brainwashing is a mildly pathetic term used by most who do not understand its true meaning and use it as a substitute for other, lesser ,conditioning techniques.
** Called a "Rubber Duckie." The bayonet course was rigorous enough to cause us to break our rifles, so we used the rubber duckies, instead.
