The Military Hierarchy

Demolocke’s Agenda Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

Ever wonder what makes a military organization so effective? Ever wonder why it has persisted over human history with little to no change? There are reasons why it works to well and there are aspects of it that can teach us about human nature, our very existence and survival depend on this knowledge. 

In a terse nutshell, the Marine Corps is broken down to, “Headquarters to Regiments to Battalions to Companies to Platoons to Squads to Fire-teams and so on. There is a theme in how the military breaks down so it can operate efficiently and effectively. Now, the breakdown I present is simplistic and there are more complexities involved but as to a basic hierarch this is how it works. 

It comes down to a four-man fire team, the fire team of infantry called, “Marine Grunts,” is the backbone of the fighting machine called the Marine’s. It is why every Marine regardless of MOS or Military Occupational Specialty where an individual Marine may be a administrative person, a truck driver or an aircraft mechanic, in the end they all are infantry and all carry weapons and all are expected in a clinch to pick up that weapon and work as an infantryman, a grunt, and fight, fight, fight. 

Take a look at a few org charts on how the Marine’s are organized. The reason I perceive is this, in order to work in a singular cohesive manner to accomplish the mission through tactics and strategies the Marine Corps must be organized in a way that triggers and uses human instincts of survival therefore the org breaks down a very large number of Marines into smaller tribe like settings starting at the bottom with the fireteam that consists of four grunts. One is a team leader and the other three are his Marines who all know each others jobs and responsibilities while focusing on one aspect that together makes a team that functions effectively to accomplish what ever mission is assigned.

That fireteam works as a team, the individuals work as individuals but with a common team set of goals driven by the teams leadership assigned goals, the missions, and all work as a tribe where their goal, in essence, is to survive using those teachings, training and experiences of a Marine fire team. It is that instinct of survival that binds them into a brotherhood of Marines and that survival instinct along with training and understanding is why Marines have a goal of the enemy must die for their cause so we can survive and fight and win and achieve our cause, our goals and our missions. It does not and cannot work any other way and when those ties, the brotherhood, and hierarchy are not correct then those Marines from the individual to the fire team to the squad to the platoon to the company and so forth all die for their cause - ain’t gonna happen in the Corps dude!

Now, in a less critical tribe our very society, especially since consists of very large numbers of our species, can only survive if they are also made up of such a hierarchal model must be such that it allows for the family unit, the social neighborhood unit, the community of township to city unit and all with distinct socially driven cultural beleif systems adding in a larger consistent belief system that encompasses all the mentioned hierarchy must exist in order for that society to survive.

Human species by their very nature, as encoded in our DNA, cannot be cohesive and connected if the numbers of the tribe exceeds a certain level of members. Survival of the fittest creates conflict and associated violence both communications oriented and defensive oriented where one is to control the tribe and the other is to protect that tribe against “Other” tribes vying for the same resources of survival and security, etc. 

When humans exceed those tribal member limits they expand and create other tribes that are competitors for resources. As long as resources abound they can live in peace with relative harmony. If the humans exceed that number without those ties that bind the individual tribe then things get bad. They escalate until a point of boiling is reached then a breakdown begins. In  our history that often leads to conflicts and violence of a nature less communications and more about removing competition from “Others.” 

In the larger social entity groups of like beliefs system individuals gather to make the smaller, stronger and more cohesive bound tribes. Once set, the stop others from joining, become exclusive and then act accordingly where in essence their survival trumps all others needs and desires - conflict occurs and other violent methods outside the tribes communications needs roar like a fire with fuel dumped in causing the flames to roar higher and hotter until the fire spreads and consumes all that does not adhere to that tribes social cultural belief rules, etc. 

Herein lies the bane of our current modern society where the current beliefs refuse to accept that things that are the very essence of humans and their existence, their survival, triggers those emotionally driven monkey dancing antics of our very needs in survival but with a bad effect due to our sticking our proverbial heads in the sand trying to force evolution to remove the very conflict and violence that is our nature out of us so we don’t feel “Bad or scared or fearful.” 

The dichotomy of these two states in and of itself creates an environment of those very traits we want to evolve from too fast, conflict and resulting violence when others refuse to let go of their beliefs and the two tribes begin to clash over whose rights and beliefs shall dominate - dominate or status is another of natures survival tools of family and tribes. 

To fix this, we need to educate ourselves so we can reconnect back with our species nature, the nature of survival. We accept and understand who and what we are then we can work to avoid the most dangerous and deadly of violence while using the acceptable levels of violence to communicate with one anther in finding beneficial mutual ways to survive while allowing our tribes to exist. 

If we can learn from the militaries hierarchal breakdown that makes them survive over a long history then we can use the same models to create a social tribe of many tribes of many families that can survive over all the future. It takes work and it is not given freely or due to some slight or perceived wrong that occurred to others born long before us but to the hard work and dedicated efforts of the family, the social tribe and the social connectedness and cohesive make up of the larger social tribe of tribes. In this case our United States, United Communities, United Tribes and United Families!

Then again, why would an individual give up what they want to live in harmony with others; why would an individual give up their own gratification just so they can exist with others; why would an individual want to live in harmony when they can have everything without work, effort, or emotional costs?