When a person joins the military, his first taste of discipline is external. His drill sergeants assume that he has no self discipline and thus seek to install it; left to his own devices, the soldier, sailor, or airman would be slovenly and too self absorbed to succeed.
Had the new recruit chosen another life, college or a civilian job, his time away from the classroom or the shop would have been his own. He could have decided on his own when to get up, when to study and what to do after hours. No one would have spoken to him about the shine on his shoes and the length of his hair.
The advantages and disadvantages of online media have been prominent in recent weeks. Today’s media is challenged with delivery of news events in split second time. With social media networks as FaceBook and Twitter, we have seen in the last two months, the revolution in Tunisia that resulted with the entire government being dismantled to the recent events in Egypt’s political unrest and revolution of the people.
In the history of the United States, we are witnessing world events change and have the opportunity to see the changes in almost real time. Tunisia’s revolution began by a citizen frustrated by social poverty and repression that used self-immolation. Witnessing that videotaped event on-line sparked the unrest across the Middle East.
Learning how to use the Internet to get across your message is one of the most important things you can master. Let’s say that you have a business, a cause or a non profit organization. In order for you to grow your company or organization, you need to influence many people.
Before you are able to influence them, you need to get in touch with them. The Internet is the perfect solution for this. It allows for the most targeted experience. You can target the exact people you want at the right time.
Group movements in politics are truly important. Politics deal mostly with making decisions at a group level. So you can’t talk about politics unless you also talk about group movements.
Group movements are important in politics because of the following reasons:
#1: Group movements may turn the situation violent.
When the power of the group is unleashed, governments can do very little about it. They will have to abdicate or do what the group wants.
On the other side, it may take decades until group movements become strong enough. The process is slow. Politicians can afford to ignore them for a while.
Thinking of the Army code, “I will never accept defeat. I will never quit.” brings to mind the famous story of the Battle of the Bulge, fought in World War Two. American forces were defending the town of Bastogne, Belgium, and found themselves suddenly surrounded by a vastly superior force of Germans. The Americans were cut off from food, ammunition and replacements.
For many days, they held off the onslaught of the German hordes, until on December 22, 1944, a German party, under a flag of truce, delivered a long letter to the American commander, General Anthony McAuliffe. The letter boasted of the strength of the German Forces that trapped him in the city.
A few months back I was having dinner with a bunch of war veterans; at one end of the table there was a handful of us Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, and at the other end, there was a handful of Vietnam vets. We were all sitting around and telling stories about our wars. The Vietnam vets all talked to each other and shared their stories and experiences, and all us Iraq and Afghanistan vets talked with each other and shared our stories and experiences.
Due to the notoriety of the two most recent and controversial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the consumer market has become a fertile ground for war memoirs. Readers have a strong interest in the military and an effective marketing campaign is a guaranteed way to generate sympathy and curiosity about heroic veterans. Marketing, advertising and publicity are essential to building an audience.
The Media as a Marketing Tool
Using a variety of media outlets increases your opportunity to reach your targeted market. The internet, television, print and radio are all effective ways to spread the word of your war memoir. Diversification of the way in which you advertise to your readers is the modern approach to public relations.
In the military we’re trained to accomplish missions, and in order to accomplish mission—large scale ones—often, the military will set up smaller targets to accomplish that will eventually lead to the accomplishment of the primary mission.
This can be useful as a way of looking at goals. If a person has a larger goal, in order to reach that goal, they have a lot of little goals that they, most likely, have to accomplish first. This is the same as the military strategy of mission and targets. To accomplish a larger goal, a person needs to know exactly what it is. What’s the mission? What is trying to be accomplished? A new job? More money? Better health? You need to know what the mission is. A soldier always knows what his mission is—and if he doesn’t know, someone screwed up along the chain of command.
When a person joins the military, his first taste of discipline is external. His drill sergeants assume that he has no self discipline and thus seek to install it; left to his own devices, the soldier, sailor, or airman would be slovenly and too self absorbed to succeed.
Michael Anthony
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