Jobs used as bargaining chip

[BigV]

Originally Posted by piercehawkeye45

The entire thing is a gray area. Obviously there is a difference between someone who wants to serve their country and will sacrifice their life to do it and an opportunist who will try to get whatever they want at the expense of others, but going into detail about what jobs are honorable or not will only result in biased, hypocritical, and blatantly naive remarks since we don't have a clue how each job actually affects society, what goes into it (this includes sacrifice), and the type of people that perform those jobs.

To me, it's not what job you do, it is how you approach the job. If you work as a janitor and approach the job in a honorable way, I will respect that to the fullest. If you are in the Marines and are a complete entitled asshole who shows no respect for anyone besides oneself, I will have absolutely no respect for you or what you do.

this one comes first because it says it best. As for generalizations (discussed below), I find them useful in direct proportion to their specificity. They can be a useful starting point, but an intelligent approach retains an openness to new information and a willingness to change one's conclusion to conform to new facts.

Today there was a story about a Navy medic who

Authorities have released the name of a Navy corpsman whose writings allegedly describing explosives being planted at San Clemente High School touched off a massive evacuation on the first day of class at one of Orange County's largest public school campuses.

Daniel Morgan, 22, was last seen at Camp Pendleton on Tuesday night and was absent without authorization. Officials searching for the corpsman said they believed he was driving a white Jeep Wrangler with a black top. The vehicle's California license plate is 6NKZ930.

--snip--

Sheriff's officials did not discuss a motive or detail what Morgan allegedly described in his writings, other than to say he had placed explosives in or around San Clemente High.

Military, but bomb threats? respect or no? See? you generalization has real limits. just one current events example.

Originally Posted by glatt

OK, so let's break this down.

This sort of respect is earned after the following requirements are met, right?
- service is for you and me
- 2 year or more time commitment
- risking life is not required, but helps (road side cleaner was included in examples of honorable jobs)
- death on job is not required

Did I miss anything?

So does public school teacher fit? How about police or firefighters? How about Big Brother/Big Sister volunteer? Foster parents?

Originally Posted by infinite monkey

FA Administrator?

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Some, yes, yes, yes, some.

Death on job not required, but possibility of personal endangerment is a major plus.

eta, sacrifice.

Originally Posted by glatt

OK, This is interesting. You're saying some teachers and some foster parents deserve this respect, and some don't. It that based on how good they are, or how much they have to sacrifice/risk?

I know this is getting off into a gray area, but I kind of feel like by defining the gray areas we can make the other areas clearer.

What about all the other public *servants*? and sacrifice? sacrifice of what? It is right to consider all public employees the same (at least for a starting point). Politicians are public servants too, right? respected? No, not really. I think the marketing of a given sector makes a huge difference in the how the members of that sector are percieved. But we need all types of people, types of workers to function as a society, despite the clear fact that not all of them are equally well represented or respected.

I think teachers, for example, have a much more direct impact on the quality of my life than the military. As such, they're more important, but they're not paid as much nor are they respected by most of the public as much. That is unfair (boo hoo), but more importantly, it exacerbates the vicious cycle of poor performance, poor morale, poor reputation, etc etc. This does not help make things better.

Being stuck with labels and stereotypes, stopping there and being unwilling or unable to think further severely limits one's ability to function in the world. It's like only having a club to solve any problem that might arise. SMASH! Fucking neaderthals.