Lighthouse of Discipline, Part 2

Without authority, men treat everything as an individual competition. Team playing does not enter the vernacular as frequently. However, one can look to the military’s own command climates and culture to see how important it is to surround oneself with coworkers of similar talents. 

On the USS George H.W. Bush, the culture of the sailors is to live a life like former President Bush. His military service and time as Naval Aviator inspire the crew as well as the captain of the carrier, Captain Dave Pollard. 

Captain Pollard leads visitors on the ship through engaging stories of then-Lieutenant Bush’s experience being shot down by the enemy and having to bail out of his aircraft: A junior line officer, Bush’s plane was shot and he had to bail out over the Pacific. He inflated a yellow lifeboat and was protected by his fellow aviators from enemy ships set to retrieve him from the water. 

This teamwork, these “associations” are vital parts of each of our lives, as Quadragesimo Anno highlights: “Man, endowed with a social nature, is placed on this earth so that by leading a life in society and under authority ordained of God, he may fully cultivate and develop his faculties … and obtain for himself temporal and at the same time eternal happiness.” 

A life in society is the key piece here; it is the work being done with other members of the human race that makes it so powerful. This is an example of intrinsic work. No matter the task, the community around the completion of the task makes the work itself powerful. 

We can see this quite frequently within the military. Shared pain often forges stronger bonds within units, which later leads to unit traditions and strong climates for making colleagues not just coworkers, but lifelong friends. Examples of this shared pain include physical punishment during military indoctrinations, or being required to keep uniforms in a pristine condition at all hours, etc. 

Some types of shared pain, however, offer no satisfaction than to develop one’s virtue of obedience. Examples include traditions of first year students at the military academies, such as running with high knees around the dormitories, standing by a wall when speaking to an upperclassman, or saying certain phrases when moving about the campus. 

These bonds are forged through fellowship in simply being obedient to another’s command. Another interesting aspect of the academies as well as the other colleges within the US is that we see a natural rivalry between certain schools in sports and other student activities. Auburn vs. Alabama, Michigan vs. Ohio State, etc. 

This “fake enemy” helps one’s own organization grow closer as they have a common goal in defeating a rival. We need more of these types of associations today outside of the military and collegiate spheres. Organizations that develop discipline in their members through an understanding that work must be done for the betterment of one’s own soul. 

Traditions help men stick together. Working against a common enemy in small things helps to create a winning culture. While every association should work to form these bonds and complete their work, it is not always about efficiency, every culture must ask the question, what is the meaning of personal existence?

This brings us to Centesimus Annus. The main point from this encyclical is that work does not need to be easy, only fulfilling to man’s nature, and that we must not reduce men to cogs in a machine like either Socialism or Communism. “The obligation to earn one’s bread by the sweat of one’s brow also presumes the right to do so.” 

States must not undertake goals to lessen the sweat, but rather to enable those without jobs to obtain the right tools for those that best suit them. Through man’s own effort, not the State’s, work should become easier. The Fable of the Bees tries to teach us that private vices create public benefits, using a beehive as an example. The hive thrives when the bees desire for personal gain is afoot, but when the bees become “virtuous” the hive falls apart. 

But men are not bees. Men are multifaceted, and can perform acts for personal gain without vice and without being uncharitable. Just as mercy and justice are two sides of the same coin, so are public and private virtues. Within Centesimus Annus it is made clear that workers now have a “commodity,” i.e. their labor. 

They are unsure how to sell this commodity or for what it is worth, and thus injustice can be more readily done to those of the lower working classes as they have no defense. One defense to this today within the military is the same rate of pay for every military member of the same rank. No matter the status, i.e. an officer at graduate school will be paid the same as an officer of the same grade who is deployed on a surface ship, or with an infantry battalion. 

In this approach, pay is not tied to the work done, but rather to the skill level or experience of the officer. This helps to prevent jealousy from brewing between the ranks and helps to ensure that no job is done for a financial gain over any other job. John Ruskin even said this in 1860: “For a servant or a soldier is engaged at a definite rate of wages, for a definitive period; but a workman at a rate of wages variable according to the demand for labor.” 

Failure to do likewise today with workers in labor has resulted in various issues such as inadequate salaries because the job currently held is viewed as safe, and constant, as it has no end except quitting or being fired, both of which the worker has mostly in his control. But if this dynamic were to change and all laborers were hired for a specific task, or term, one might see similar benefits as within the military. 

Moreover, after the end of one’s term, other jobs begin to open as other workers’ own terms have ended. Thus, work does not need to be easy, but it must be paired with a just wage and definite amount of time and task. 

The greatest counterargument is in Populorum Progressio. The military is not viewed kindly within this encyclical. Items such as setting aside military expenditures for a world fund, or disapproving arms races are mentioned all too frequently. The main point of argumentation is the emphasis on “love of neighbor” or love for the whole “family of man.” 

However, love of man does not mean the inability to protect oneself. The mission of the U.S. Department of Defense is “to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation’s security.” Let the nation with no internal crime be the first to cast the stone calling for the withdrawal of military power from other nations. 

Since every nation has at least some crime, there is a pragmatic approach that must be concerned. Police forces are needed as crime will always take place. Conflicts will always take place within nations just as crime does within a nation. Thus, militaries are a necessity. 

Efforts should be made to minimize the destructive capability of nations, but calling for a worldwide monetary fund can be rebuked by other encyclicals such as Centesimus Annus, which shows that the solution of redistribution within States is no real solution, but rather an error as it is an overstep of the States’ authority. 

Even within the military today we can see humanitarian aid efforts during tsunamis in Japan, or protection against pirates within the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The military does more than destroy, it protects, a virtue that every strong man should strive to emulate when he sees a fellow man get poked and prodded by an external threat.

The United States must restore discipline to its citizenry. We can look to the Holy See for guidance, but also to the military. Hierarchical structures are not inherently flawed as we can see from Rerum Novarum. Associations of men oriented towards the same noble goal also lead to a strengthening of bonds as seen in Quadragesimo Anno. 

Equal pay for those of the same level of experience and class results in valuing labor more appropriately for the working class similar to military pay structures, a valuable way to counteract socialistic or communistic ideas as mentioned in Centesimus Annus. While the love for neighbor is a true virtue that we must embody, there is a naivety in Populorum Progressio in believing that all men are peaceful. 

We must be prepared to love our neighbors but also to administer justice when confronted with injustice. Humanitarian aid and service can be done just by standing guard and being a watchful eye. Like a lighthouse calling sailors to safe harbor, let the guidance from the Popes and examples from our military show us the path forward to form a citizenry with a strong moral foundation for the next generations.