Open your ears, shit just got real......

As the famous German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, "God is dead," I now proclaim, "Logic is dead." Certain events in this current week have made me realize that I am stuck in a hopeless situation, surrounded  by many hopeless people, all serving under a hopeless system. Logic, defined by Webster's dictionary, is the science that deals with the principles and criteria of validity of inference and demonstration : the science of the formal principles of reasoning. This beautiful device which should be held above all other human values and ideals has been brutally murdered and maimed, so that it is unrecognizable to everyone. Hypocrisy, idiocy, and madness have instead taken root. Often we joke about how it is dangerous to use logic here, it is unnatural in this place. The sad thing is, this has become truth, a universal law. Those who hold power, who are blinded over-thinking simple regulations, have began a war against the commoner's mind. They want to bend it to their will, make you an automaton, worthless, incapable of any discretion, and completely destroy your free will. 
We all signed the same papers when we came here, pledging to serve and protect the Constitution which has allowed our country to thrive since its inception. We gave away certain rights when we did that, but we didn't forfeit logic, reason, and common sense. We have taken the same classes, experienced the same indoctrination, and lived among the same conditions. Why is it that we are taught values which are then hypocritically used to demean us, punish us, and confuse us? Hypocrisy, a state of incongruence between one's professed beliefs and feelings, is one of the worst blights one can choose to embody. Why then is hypocrisy and illogical deduction the only way one can be successful here? Or rather, are those qualities which are indoctrinated when leadership positions are given? Is there a dark, secret cult unbeknownst to us until they pick you and develop you into something which we must accept but want to resist with all of our might? I ponder questions like these often here. There is a game that is played here. It is aptly called, "The Game." All may not recognize, at least not by name only, however it surrounds them everyday, follows them between classes, hovers over you as you sleep at night. "The Game" is the way in which one survives this place. It allows them to stay out of trouble, to get good reviews, to please others, to endure. "The Game" is deleterious to all who play it. One thinks, if I play I survive this place. This is the effect in the short term. It will change the way you think, make you submissive like that of a slave, rot away the mental faculties of the precious human brain. It makes you sign a secret pact, one not written on paper but sworn but unconscious oath.  It would read as, "I hereby swear to play by the rules of the Game. The rules include all arbitrary and false rules made by those who control the Game. I will limit the use of my logic and reasoning so that I do not become complacent or self-aware as I remain a member of this institution. Should I fail to follow these guidelines, I shall suffer severe consequences and find hardship in surviving here." As I have never made this oath I can only imagine the true form of the oath. There are those who don't make the oath but attempt to follow it lightly as if to minimize suffering. Those who do not wholly give themselves over to the Game will find themselves constantly questioning themselves, their actions, the events of the day, and will be all the more stressed that we already are here with our restricting schedules and duties. I have chosen to refuse the game and although it may cause hardship, I am at least comforted that I am still living as a free-thinking human and remind myself, "this too shall pass." I feel that now I should break away from the hypothetical, abstract, and heavy prose seen above. As all of you who follow my blog or will be sent this writing, you understand what West Point is, that I am a Cadet, that we live with different rules, and cannot share much in common with our civilian counterparts. Once a semester at West Point, we have an inspection known as SAMI (Saturday Morning Inspection) and In Ranks. This past weekend, we had said inspection. This consists of a night full of dusting, sweeping, organizing, dusting, scrubbing, mopping, and dusting. The next morning, our drawers are open, our shades are up, our clothes are buttoned, our computers are off, and you hope that the one asshole or two in the regiment don't check off your room because then you fail. On this particular weekend, the RTO (a respectable, efficient, high-standard, and often intimidating sort of officer) failed every room he saw, including all of Regimental Staff. As far as my knowledge was concerned, he only failed a few rooms from each company (about 8). This is understandable as very few have witnessed an RTO inspection and lived to tell the tale. My room passed. My neighbors passed. Almost all of my friends passed. Because of a few failures, we are held in SAMI longer than scheduled and issued a total re-inspection by our soap-box preaching CO. This was his personal choice as it seems his ego was hurt by the company not getting a 100% pass rate. After this ensued, we had In Ranks which consist of an inspection of our parade uniform. We stand outside in sub-thirty degree whether with a heavy Hudson River wind and wait nearly an hour for the entire regiment to finish the inspection. Double-Standards are enforced across the board. Inspectors with sub-par uniforms failing inspectees with passable uniforms. Some ranks being checked for a certain item and the next three not. No equality or control was found in this inspection. Hypocrisy. So blatant it makes my stomach churn. After this is over our weekend resumed and we thought we won the war. Sunday night night newsflash, we lost the battle and we are being attacked Monday thru Wednesday. Apparently the leaders of the Regiment, the same ones whose rooms failed, decided that everyone but the plebes needs to be in AMI (regular morning inspection) Monday and Tuesday and WAMI (Wednesday morning inspection) on Wednesday. The kicker is plebes did not have WAMI because they met the unstated, arbitrary, bullshit expectations of the Regiment. Why is it that those who had a first time pass on SAMI are getting punished? Why not put those who failed in inspection and them only. I know of multiple cases where plebes failed over the weekend.....the catch is the blame falls on their TL's, then the SL's, then the PSG's, and so on. It is a responsibility for a chain of command to take responsibility and ownership of each other but fault cannot always be attributed to those the next level up in the food chain. I dutifully kept my room in inspection conditions and looked forward to having PMI (basically allows you to live like a regular human and close your door) on Thursday. Then a 12:06 AM email (which nobody read because we don't check email then) exclaims that we are in WAMI for the next two days. I am sitting in my room right now in WAMI, which is supposed to end at 11 am. Apparently the week after our big inspection, our room standards still are not high enough to please those in power who could not be the standard bearer's  from the start. The biggest news flash of the day however occurred right after lunch before I sat down to write this document on the current state of my beliefs and frustrations. SAMI for the next two days, all passes revoked, all trip sections revoked, no firstie or cow club, mandatory cleaning after close of business, initial inspection tonight at 10 PM. What the fuck is this? Now all those who spent money on tickets, hotels, and made plans this weekend are much poorer than they should be. A friend who hasn't seen his father since he got back from Afghanistan is being kept here. Myself and a few other who have sports competitions, college level sports, must tell are teams sorry and stay here this weekend. Where is the logic? the reason? the foresight and planning? Why do you make such a drastic policy so nearly to the end of the week? Why are we who have maintained the standard being punished for because standards are being incorrectly enforced by those who obviously cannot maturely use the power they have been granted? I have many more grievances which I could point out, but just this one week I have become totally stunned by the pure ignorance and stupidity of this place.

Another Poem

I have recently started reading "If I Die in a Combat Zone" by Tim O'Brien. His book is very reflective and I believe is why I had the inspiration to write this poem. It is probably very crude (like all of my other poems) to the Literature analyst and Poetry connoisseur however I hacked it together while the inspiration had hold of me. Although I may not know too much about the topic, it is something which I will likely endure later in life as I leave this Academy.

War

War, war, every human’s evil core

What is it for, is it ever right?

War is taught, then wars are fought

Innocence caught in a deathly grip

Soldiers wander through the mist

Wondering why it came to this

Whether just or not

We were born to fight

Strapped on boots and gave our rights

Political means’ll likely be our end

But we soldier on and always defend

The country which we pledged our lives

Death we must all accept

No matter how grotesque, gross, or unknown to us

We are thrown together and protect each other

No one wants to see a sad Mother

We fight, we fight with all our might

No matter the cause there’s only one

To make it home to those we love