You know, when I think about this, I am tempted to suspect that I may have sabotaged my brain as a young adult as I had some kind of subconscious fear of my brain (as a so-called "natural resource") being used by the military. My grandfather had been called from the front lines to work on the Manhattan Project.
In fact, when I was placed in the county jail holding tank at age 19 for petty theft, I was visited by army recruiters who offered to have all charges dropped if I would enlist in the army. I just wanted to return to my cell and take a nap. Do you know what the army recruiters told me?
These were their exact words when they realized that I did not want anything to do with joining the military: "You're gonna get a bronze di-ck up your a-ss."
I've just never been patriotic, and I don't like parades except for the drums. I'm a sucker for the sound of drums.
Over the years, having talked to many different kinds of people, I was surprised to find out just how many men had joined the army from a jail cell.
Both Vonnegut and Salinger were soldiers. I think Vonnegut was what we call a conscientious objector, which means, he did not carry a firearm. He was captured by the German troops in World War II, and when they read his dogtags, they asked him, with a name like Vonnegut, why he was fighting against his cousins.
Have you ever read about how many Russian prisoners were offered release from prison sentences if they joined the army to fight the Germans? Well, they fought in the war, and if they were not killed, after the war, they were returned to captivity. Once back in the gulags, the prisoners who did not go for the "deal" called the ones that did "bit-ches".
While searching for some source to refresh my memory, I saw something about American and Russian soldiers raping many German women towards the end of World War II.
... macho fantasies ...