subscribe  |    email  |    print

This is one of the most incisive essays I’ve seen in the past decade and on a topic that has vast consequences: The institutionalized deference to seniors. My experience is that they contributed some time ago, but now they’re just armchair: Respect and deference are not the same. This deference may be more enforceable in the armed services, when one is confronted with a title of high rank, but it's just as common and no more tolerable in the civilian community ... the contribution of these senior fellows is often tangential and even irrelevant. But whether we find them fascinating or irritating, we smile and move on.

ChiaPsyant comments on Paula Thornhill’s essay “Improving Capstone,” April AFJ. (www.armedforcesjournal.com/2010/04/4535481)

Post your comments and continue the debate at armedforcesjournal.com/forums.