[Exsubmariner]

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Now with the whole wardroom watching, and me not known for biting my tongue, I posed a followup question. I asked, "So, XO. You're telling me the pictures of the clothed (in bikinis), beautiful women are offensive, but the missiles tubes on which they are placed, which house up to 10 warheads each, which each are capable of vaporizing over 1 million people instantly are NOT offensive?"


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Reminds me of Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now:
"We train young men to drop fire on people, but they cannot write [censored] on their aeroplane, because....It's Obscene."

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He rapidly replied with, "Mr XXXXX, you have a negative attitude towards nuclear weapons!"

I said, "You're gawdamn right I have a negative attitude towards nuclear weapons! Do you have a positve attitude towards them?"

Before we could heat up any more (and I could get myself in trouble) The CAPT broke in with laughter at the irony on the XOs position and changed the sbject, in a way which made it clear he didn't wan't the argument to proceed any further. The CAPT later told me that he agreed with me but had to acede to the wishes of crewmembers who claimed to be offended.

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Ironically, we had a Captain who I nicknamed "psycho." I'd say he had a positive attitude toward nuclear weapons. I thought he was an exception in my experience. However, I have discovered that individuals who share many similarities with him are in fact common in the American landscape. The military is like society on a shorter, finer scale.

I don't really have time to go into all the psychology I have studied about the subject in the intervening years, but I will say I think the hypocritical behavior that can be observed on the part of many who profess devotion to their faith is in fact rooted in a set of contradictory beliefs. They are behaving perfectly in accordance with the cognitive dissonance taught to them as dogma.