Actually, I know that you are already aware of this, but for lurkers, the reason drill sergeants make their recruits miserable is because the purpose of the military basic training is to train soldiers to survive and to do their job no matter what without thinking about it. They put as much pretend stress on you as they possibly can to similate the stress on the battlefield or when working during wartime 36 hours straight with no breaks when lives are on the line. Everyone has to learn to be a soldier and to do basic soldiering skills without thinking about it. Even when they are too tired to think about it. Even when you are being shot at (especially then). Even when you think you can't go on. You learn to do things by rote so that in an emergency you will do what it takes to survive and to protect the soldier beside you.





>>>>The idea is to teach them discipline before they become 6'4" 250 gorilla. :-)
>>>
>>>Agreed, and that's my point. If you teach little kids that the biggest, strongest person wins (which is what corporal punishment does), then when they become the biggest, strongest person, you're in trouble.
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>>hmm.. Who said anything about the biggest and the strongest always winning? Why do you equate punishment with such nonsence?
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>Nonsense? What other message do you get when those who are supposed to get you to behave can not explain the reasons for it by any other means but force? Let me spell it then: the message is that force works, and that you must have it when you grow up. Then you'll show them.
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>Except that by that time you've grown up... and haven't learned how to explain to your kids (or students, for that matter) why exactly should they do this and never do that... which is too bad, they may actually understand. Instead, you repeat the lesson you learned as a kid: force works. And since you've learned to respect your elders but are still pis*ed on them for beating you, you don't exact your revenge on them. You pick on those who are trying to do what you once did, and want to get away with it. Well, not on your watch.
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>And so it goes in circles.
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>But as with any vicious circle, the catch-22 exists for the sake of those who know how to get out of it. It's quite simple: don't repeat what you didn't like when it was done to you.
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>[this is the metaphorical 'you' - for all I know, you may have grown free as a bird]
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>>I don't know any parent who punish his child just because they can. those who do should be locked up.
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>>When kids understand why they're being punished.... well, kids understand.
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>Kids do have a sense of justice. And if the punishment is perceived to be unjust, you have a problem.
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>>I'm not necessarily talking corporal punishment, but I don't rule it out either... tho I don't see what military rank has anything to do with it. :)
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>The army (et al) is just a codified behavior described above. The drill sergeant is a sadist because his drill sargent was a sadist and now outranks him. And they both believe that it's good to be so, because that builds the morale etc.