(12-01-2020, 06:19 AM)Finspiracy Wrote: That is something i can truly admire. Like most of the things you write here.
You were not in it only for the money. You needed a cause which you could believe in. 100% respect from here once again.
Correct - the money was just a bonus. I went into it because unlike the military, if I thought a job was less than honorable, I could say "no thanks" and walk away. If I believed the cause was unjust, or went against my own morality, I could just go home. I had a friend, former US Special Forces whom I called "Mercenary Mike", who offered me a job in Iraq in 2004, and I didn't go. Within 2 months, Mercenary Mike and 8 of his closest friends came home from the job, because the honcho at the State Department on the job turned out to be a dick.
That was not because the job itself was immoral or dishonorable, it was because the US State Department refused to allow the contractors to use equipment that was just sitting idle and collecting dust to protect themselves. If the people whose backs you are guarding refuse to allow you to guard your own back, there are not any percentages in it.
On the other hand, I've also taken jobs that paid next to nothing, because I felt it was the right thing to do. In a National Military, you don't have that sort of luxury. You do what you are ordered to do, and nothing more.
You have to choose your battles in this world.
.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’