Post by Gilberto on Dec 20, 2011 8:30:39 GMT -5
This is a good companion piece to "The Men Who Stare at Goats" because it's the presentation Jim Channon wrote to revamp the post-Vietnam US Army into eco-friendly service-driven warrior monks capable of creating a better peace-time world.
Channon introduced concepts like non-lethal "soft tactics" that led to the development of PsyOps methodology and his New Age assertion of potential supersoldiers inspired the idea of psychic spies, but he was smart enough to refuse when the Army offered to form a First Earth Battalion for him to command because he knew that literally trying to implement his ideas wouldn't work.
His manual serves as an abstract philosophy, encouraging soldiers to think of themselves as a force for good, employing ethical battle tactics in an effort to show the world that we were fighting for what was right.
He also predicted the importance of public perception in a growing information age and the tactical importance of developing information networks, he suggested the creation of an "Earth Day" and suggested the "Be All You Can Be" slogan and PR campaign, which became the most successful recruiting campaign of all time.
Ronson's book shows you that the only efforts to implement his ideas were for all the wrong reasons and led to tragedy, but the spirit of this manual is all about making a positive change and seeing the potential in yourself to be the agent of that change. If governments, armies and individual citizens actually took his ideas to heart in spirit, I think the goal he describes in the manual would actually become attainable.
Channon introduced concepts like non-lethal "soft tactics" that led to the development of PsyOps methodology and his New Age assertion of potential supersoldiers inspired the idea of psychic spies, but he was smart enough to refuse when the Army offered to form a First Earth Battalion for him to command because he knew that literally trying to implement his ideas wouldn't work.
His manual serves as an abstract philosophy, encouraging soldiers to think of themselves as a force for good, employing ethical battle tactics in an effort to show the world that we were fighting for what was right.
He also predicted the importance of public perception in a growing information age and the tactical importance of developing information networks, he suggested the creation of an "Earth Day" and suggested the "Be All You Can Be" slogan and PR campaign, which became the most successful recruiting campaign of all time.
Ronson's book shows you that the only efforts to implement his ideas were for all the wrong reasons and led to tragedy, but the spirit of this manual is all about making a positive change and seeing the potential in yourself to be the agent of that change. If governments, armies and individual citizens actually took his ideas to heart in spirit, I think the goal he describes in the manual would actually become attainable.