Monday, December 06, 2010

Tell. Don't Do

I never liked the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy conceived by the Clinton administration.

The Clinton policy essentially tells people to lie. Nothing good comes from institutionalized lies.

Personally, I would prefer a policy of "Tell. Don't Do."

IMHO, the problem is not with individual gays serving in the military. The problem we need to avoid is widespread sexual misconduct in the army.

I say this because I've come across people who advocate using sex to manipulate society.

In my progressive days, I came across a number of people who wanted to define a new "gay lifestyle" that involved sexual relations with hundreds of different people. Some claimed to have had thousands of partners.

My progressive professors advocated the creation of a gay military. These progressives thought that, if there was a large number of promiscuous people actively living an active gay life style within the army, this group would form a progressive army within the US army.

It would be like the progressive party within the Democratic Party. You only need a small number of people dedicated to the cause to rule.

A group of people forming a sexual nexus within the army could jerk around those who weren't in the nexus. Imagine millions of people engaged in the fantasy that they were Hawkeye Pierces set in on a campaign of destroying the people they labeled and derided as Frank Burns!

Think about it. Sex could be used by Alinsky style community organizers to organize a progressive party within the US Army!

My progressive professors held the fantasy that a gay army within the army would be a force for progress.

However, when I have thoughts of an army within an army having sexual adventures with thousands of partners at home and abroad, I don't have visions of progress. I have the nightmare of Abu Greib on an epic scale.

Please note, I don't see homosexual misconduct as the only type of misconduct. I see the thousands of babies our hetrosexual troops abandonned in Vietnam as a national disgrace.

Here in Utah, Mormon pioneers experimented with polygamy as a way of progressing a society through sex. This historical record indicates that this was a terrible thing for a large number of people. I've met several people who've escaped from modern polygamist cults. Their stories of abuse are horrific.

The problem isn't a person with same sex attraction serving in the military, but the combination of sex and power politics.

My observation is that, when people develop systems of power politics centered on sex with multiple partners, things get ugly. What starts as a progressive fantasy turns into institutionalized abuse.

Rather than a system that excluded people for who they are, I would prefer a system that accepted all people, but that disciplined or expelled people for sexual misconduct.

I would prefer a system of "Tell. Don't Do," to the corrupt policy of "Don't Ask. Don't Tell."

There's really no problem with a person who feels same sex attraction serving in the military. Problems pop up when there's a group of people who have sex with eachother while engaging in power politics. Such people end up undermining the people around them.

Such behavior can happen regardless of sexual orientation.

Unfortunately, we live in a society where it is no longer possible to talk about problems.

Every time I hear people talk about the issue, I remember a progressive professor who was titillated by the idea of using Alinsky to organize an army within an army dedicated to the cause of progressive dominion.

No comments: