Priorities of Work
The Fragile Illusion of Normal
When you’re in the military, you learn to adopt a certain frame of mind. Security is paramount. The first step in any venture is securing the area and ensuring it’s defendable. You establish a perimeter, set in security, and establish a watch. After that’s done, you can start worrying about personal hygiene, food, sleep, and support operations. Nothing happens until you’ve ensured you’re not susceptible to getting caught with your metaphorical, and sometimes literal, pants down. We called this “priorities of work.”
In a post-scarcity world, this lesson seems jarring to most people who pile off a bus at Fort Benning, Camp Lejune, or elsewhere. Kids from bad neighborhoods know a little bit better, but the idea that you live in an ordered world that runs off scripts like a role playing video game pervades. The complexity of the safe system eludes most, and military service is the first time many come to the realization that the buck stops somewhere.
In the military, somebody is always on duty. Duty covers a lot of tasks and watches, but is generally covered under the General Orders in the Army, which any young Soldier is forced to memorize on pain of some “corrective training” during their basic combat training. When a Soldier goes to a unit and is in garrison, duty usually takes the form of staff duty. Soldiers get locked out of their barracks rooms and need a key. Somebody came back from a night-fire range and left the gate to the motorpool open. You have to go around and check that every door in every building that should be locked is actually locked. It seems performative, but that’s because it’s in a controlled environment. Combat environments have a little more weight to them.
Police, firefighters, and EMS are very familiar with the shift mentality. Somebody always has to be on duty. The point isn’t being there for instances where nothing happens. You’re there for the instances where something happens. The point is that something could always happen. You can’t have a stable society outside of your ability to mitigate chaotic circumstances. Productive people depend on the fact they can go about their business without threat of violence and will be able to receive immediate medical care in the case of an emergency. “Call 911.”
What happens if you’re in a place or time where 911 isn’t an option? There are definitely places and times in the US where you can’t rely on it. There’s an old adage that, “when you’ve got seconds, the police are minutes away.” Our society wasn’t built for the gray-zone warfare it’s experiencing right now. You can’t reasonably assume “safety” and “stability” in the US at this point.
Most shared cultural experience in the US relies on an upbeat “live laugh love” paradigm. In the 80s, the more honest expression of this was “Working For the Weekend” by Loverboy. Everybody grinds 9-5 and then it’s the weekend. Surprise, surprise: bad things still happen on weekends. ER nurses will tell you weekends are some of their busiest times in hospitals. They’re on duty.
The reality is that you’re one unlucky moment away from exiting the Coca Cola commercial where everybody’s singing, dancing and smiling and entering the grim an uncomfortable world of mortality. Our society takes great pains to minimize this fact as to not wreck the party atmosphere. It’s getting increasingly difficult as conditions degrade.
“Normality” lasted a little longer than the hairline for Loverboy’s guitarist, but it’s eroded to the point where security considerations have become planning factors in the lives of all people who aren’t adamantly in denial of reality. Whether it’s feral criminality, drug-induced antisocial behavior, psychotic mass shootings, or any lesser level of war, we’re all actively on the front lines, even if we’d prefer to pretend we weren’t.
It might be uncomfortable, but it’s time to start living like you’re in the military and adhering to the priorities of work. Security is paramount.