Quotes: Military (3)

Military 139 The General: "I don’t care what kind of man you give me; if I have him long enough, I’ll make him afraid…. In an army of injustice the enlisted man involved is confirmed a little more in the idea of his own inferiority…." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead. The psychology of the military.

Military 139 The General: "…to make an army work you have to have every man in it fitted into a fear ladder…army functions best when you’re frightened of the man above you, and contemptuous of your subordinates…. The hate just banks in them, makes them fight a little better…can’t turn it on us, so they turn it outward." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead. The psychology of the military.

Military 140 The General: "The machine techniques of this century demand consolidation, and with that you’ve got to have fear, because the majority of men must be subservient to the machine, and it’s not a business they instinctively enjoy." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead. The military as machine.

Military 143 The General: "…in the Army the idea of individual personality is a hindrance…I work with grosser techniques, common denominator techniques." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead. The psychology of the military.

Military 157 Red: "Don’t kid yourself…a man’s no more important than a goddam cow." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead. The enlisted man as cow.