How To Beat The Extremists
In no other profession are the penalties for employing untrained personnel so appalling or so irrevocable as in the military.
— Douglas MacArthur, 1933
After reading “After Capitol riot, police chiefs work to root out officers with ties to extremist groups” from The Washington Post and “For 1st Black Pentagon chief, racism challenge is deeply personal” from The Philadelphia Tribune, it seems that there are many insurrectionists, fascists, and seditionists in American government. Current and former military and police officers engaged in the Capitol riots.
This is not a good thing for many reasons. I won’t outline them here. What I concern myself with is how to fix things. I ask ‘what if’? So how do you fix this vexing and troubling problem?
You don’t.
Huh? I’ll explain.
My solution is fairly simple. Instead of saying ‘I’m going to fix people’ which is very difficult, I say ‘I’m going to keep the best people’. This is easier.
How? Work ’em half to death. Not just ‘Death By Burpees’, although, methinks lots of less-conditioned cops would have a hard time with this. It’s a matter of having a high standard and keeping a high standard. People with striving to live up to something don’t fall for demagogues.
Train them more. Train them better. Make sharpening the saw the main thing. If being great is the goal, you only keep great. The others go away. Then, once the word gets out that you have to work, that there is no free lunch, that the standards are high, then ‘the deplorables’ stay away.
SOURCES:
“Some U.S. police train for just a few weeks, in some countries they train for years”, CBS News https://www.cbsnews.com/news/police-training-weeks-united-states/
“How a Presidential Rally Turned Into a Capitol Rampage”, The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/12/us/capitol-mob-timeline.html
“I Did The ‘Death By Burpee’ Challenge Every Day For 2 Weeks. Here’s What Happened.” Prevention Magazine https://www.prevention.com/fitness/a20504056/how-to-do-a-burpee-challenge/#:~:text=%22Death%20by%20Burpees%22%20is%20a,second%20minute%2C%20you%20do%20two.&text=To%20be%20counted%2C%20the%20burpee,clear%20at%20least%206%20inches.
“What History Teaches Us About Demagogues Like The Donald”, Time Magazine https://time.com/4375262/history-demagogues-donald-trump/
“Training: The Foundation for Success in Combat”, The Heritage Foundation https://www.heritage.org/military-strength-topical-essays/2019-essays/training-the-foundation-success-combat
