Cubed

The engineering life, ah. Interesting how a great adjective to describe my engineering job right now is also a mathematical term.

Someone pressed my button today (actually, more like stepped on it). But it was more of a build up of multiple people stating something similar, so maybe it wasn't right to chew them out for it. But then here you see me, blogging to rant to myself without ever really addressing people about how I feel. I always hate that sometimes I cower away from confrontation in these instances. Oh well, I guess that is something I need to work on.

Anyway, someone pretty much discredited my work with Northrop Grumman because I'm working submarine missile launching (and if this person is reading, I hope you don't take this as an attack on you; it is more of a way to address my philosophy). Okay, I'll take that to some degree. I did say before I graduated that I did not want to work for defense because I thought it would conflict with my values. So maybe you can call me a hypocrite or sell-out. I mean, I guess I did not have the confidence in my resume that I could get a job anywhere I wanted. I applied where I could with motivation from a friend who works for Northrop Grumman and I got the job.

So what’s the big deal? I’ve been in community and progressive work all of college, right? Much of that community almost despises the military. And if you ask any of them, it’s because they don’t believe in violence as methods for conflict resolution and peace. That’s a legit argument. But does that mean the military should not exist? Should we never develop weapons of destruction because we should only function on non-violent confrontation?

This is how I see it. The military is necessary for the superpower nation that we are in the world because truthfully most of the world is hostile to the United States. And it’s crazy that we put billions of dollars in the weapons research and technology but I see it as the only way to remain seen as a formidable country. I work in defense and that works primarily on displaying the fact that we have the technology to worthily protect this country as opposed to actually dropping bombs and firing missiles, if that makes sense. I believe defense serves more of the function to scare our enemies as opposed to pushing the offense. Take, for example, robbery. A burglar is less likely to rob the house with a “Brinks Home Security” post than the house next door without any hint of a home security system. And then 20 years later, the burglar sees the same sign with 20-year aging all over the sign, he just might have the technology to bypass the obsolete system because the homeowner was too lazy to upgrade.

So have my values changed? No, I’m still the same guy who supports non-violent confrontational efforts. But companies such as NG are essential to the well-being of this country that we care so much about. The truth is that working for NG has opened my mind about the military and has allowed me to respect the people, even more, who serve our country in the forces. True, NG develops the weapons but it’s the government who drops the bombs. And segueing into the election, I say if you are reading my note and you care enough about these issues, you better be registered for November 4 (the deadline is October 20) and take your stand. That’s another note which will come later.