Quote:
Originally Posted by stuW
There have been some very interesting points brought up in this forum. I also wanted to state that I was very proud to hear of the successful operation, as I believe it is telling of the abilities of our SOF to be able to act in pure daylight with lightening speed in a complicated, capricious environment and perform the mission. However, I am highly cautious to allow those feelings to impact my decision making - this is not at all to suggest it has interfered with anyone on this forum or in the military. TR made a prior suggestion, if I interpreted him correctly, that my perspective may differ if I had lost a friend to the enemy. This made me think of an interesting theory that I believe has relevant application to this discussion.
The theory caught several academics by surprise in 2002 when it was awarded the Economics Nobel Prize, as the academics who developed it were psychologists. It currently is being introduced to various social sciences beyond economics, including political science and violence, and appears to provide a new way to explain decisions made by people given their situation. I would be interested in feedback if you are inclined.
In its most basic form, the theory suggests that people tend to normatively value benefit and cost differently - diverging from traditional economic theory - with cost/loss being more impacting to people than gain. This may be a theory worthy of consideration and cognition during decisions when facing potential loss - I imagine this situation may be common in the military. More information is available at the link below, and I do know of some work where it has been applied to political violence if there is interest. I'd be interested in commentary, application or relevant experience if others find it interesting and worthwhile to this discussion...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_theory
Stu |
Stu
Thanks for posting. Wikipedia is a poor ref for facts/etc it is changed on the fly by anyone so we do not use it on this board.
If you are an academic you would be better served to ref real factual references. We deal in Reality not theory. We would be better off if Academics prior to teaching had been out in the world and served so they would have a better grasp on reality in the Real World. Too many have never been outside of the academic environment and had to get dirty and earn a living the hard way with blood, sweat and Tears.
Ref the Theory - We gain nothing when we do operations except the security for our team mates, Family and country. We do asses our Risk and train Train TRAIN to limit the loss of life of our members and civilians. The Commanders and Policy makers determine what type of operations our government is willing to do.
The Loss we have is Loss of Life. There is no economic gain or loss. When we make our decisions it is not economically driven it is driven by success or failure. We succeed the bad guys are dead or captured and all of my men come home to kiss the kids and hug the wife. That is our loss and gain.