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After 2 long years of active reserve, I went back to regular reserve. I've gotten married beat the "desert depression" that crippled me and plenty of my fellow Airmen (also known as post tramatic or shell shock). And have been living a modest life in The middle of nowhere, Ohio. Now as a short back story, All my family is military mother father and 3 sibilings. and I'm the only non officer. My sister, a major has opened the door for me to have a really nice National Security job. That would do wonders for my career and level of living. Issue is I'm a bleeding heart libral and the things I might be tasked to do would....be at odds. But with a family now and a future to think of I'm completely torn. Another thing is my family is very cut-throat and power hungry, for instance my mom wrest power from the pastor at her church, fired the preacher, and took over. My brother and sisters run a overly-agressive house renting outfit targeting H.A.P, With my eldest sister being completely ruthless to tenats and competitors alike. What I'm afraid of is that I'll end up like them, I feel that small lust for power building up already, with plans of how I could use this job to reach for more power. Maybe Using my military connections I could power my way up the ladder fast, all the way to a job in the pentigon. Maybe I could use it to help me get in good with my more hard line commanders. Maybe it will help if I ever throw my hat in the Public service arena. A million ideas have been bouncing in my head. Am I becoming souless or have I always been souless and just in denial. Any advice at all would be really helpful.

Do you have enough money to live on comfortably?

Would this promotion thingy your Sis has opened up mean more to you than just a better standard of living for your family?

If you're having these sorts of doubts, I'd say don't do it.

Let me help

Well, no man should have to do what he finds immoral or distasteful, but I don't' think that's what this is really about.

Are you actually asking if it's ok to put a price on your values? If that's the question, I say, "of course it's ok!"

The real trick is setting the price. I would talk with your wife about the opportunity, and see how you feel. i wouldn't confuse ambition with soullessness.

On the other hand, working on one's one and being your own man can do wonders for the psyche, and it doesn't always kill the pocketbook either.

Well.... speak with your wife obviously. Look at how secure your job is now compared to the one you could get- from all angles--if your sister gets you the job be careful that you wouldn't come a cropper if she does too.

And it really depends upon how ...distasteful.... these acts would be. I don't know anyone in any job that doesn't have to do things they hate or dislike-- nature of the working world isn't it ?-- but if you think it'd cause you problems morally or psych. wise... which could then affect or lose your family anyway then I'd say it isn't worth it. But I'm assuming it's not like pitchforking aids orphans into furnaces or something.

.... a seems kinda wrong here now !

Oh...

my mom wrest power from the pastor at her church, fired the preacher, and took over.

So.... your mother is now God ? fair play to her then !

Preachers can get fired ?

If you're afraid of being soulless, then that automatically gives you compassion.

Personally, I would never sell out my beliefs or passions for money. If you find something that you really enjoy, then do it. Even if you find yourself hungry for power, you can find yourself something that can channel that in such a way that's productive, beneficial to you, and harmful to no one else. Have you considered working your way up to become the CEO of a company? That takes an almost certain hunger for power, and not at all in a bad way, because you have to be fiercely competitive to be able to make it that far.

Anyway, I find that if you do something you absolutely enjoy, then you will be far happier than if you do something simply for money. Especially if something causes you to go against your own moral standards nearly every day. I make my living in music, and I have to supplement my income with temp labor jobs to be able to pay the bills, but I'm far happier doing what I do now than when I had more income.

Hope that helps.

Meh. Have kids. Its all about the money after that. Kids + work = too tired to care.

Damn Frazzled, that is bloody cynical

Frazzled wrote:Meh. Have kids. Its all about the money after that. Kids + work = too tired to care.

My girlfriend has a son. I'm not the father, but I might as well be. The real father isn't listed on the birth certificate, and so doesn't pay child support.

I don't know what it's like to have multiple children, but I can imagine.

Even so, I hope that gives what I said a bit more relevance.

Respect. Been there done that got a belt buckle. OT but watch yourself, if she goes away you'll miss the kid way more than the GF.

Obviously I'm not talking going off the deep end. Personal ethics must be maintained, to maintain honor. If you can find work thats suits what you like to do great. But in the end its about protecting that family. In the immortal words of both Ash and Mother from Alien, "all other priorities rescinded."

I served in the USMC infantry, (I guess one of the reasons I have a soft spot in my heart for space marines.) Anyway, Since you have served in the military:
1. Part of being in the military is performing acts that are distasteful. No normal person wants to kill.
2. Defending a nation is a vital task.
3. Sometimes defending that nation calls for unpleasantness.
4. Raising and supporting a family is also of vital importance.
5. A person has to make sacrifices for what is important.
6. A person in the govt (any agency) including the military always has the right to disobey any order that is unlawful.
7. take the job, and if you recieve an unlawful order, don't do it.
8. When doing the national seurity job, remember, you took an oath when you enlisted in the military. That oath was to defend the constitution, from enemies, both foreign and domestic. Leaving military service does not make that oath invalid. If a part of doing the National Security job was against the constitution or against your own moral values, you can always leave. Or become a whistle blower.
9. The job is not what defines a person. The person is what defines the job.

A couple of famous quotes:
"Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely"
with that being said here is another quote:
"Knowledge is power"
So what did our parents tell us to do, and what do we tell our children?.....Study hard

Knowledge is power
power corrupts
absolute power corrupts absolutely
Moral of the story: Study hard...be evil.

Mango has good points.

I'd rather have a person with some morals in such a position than someone without morals. If you like the other portions of the job enough to put up with the distasteful ones then good ahead, if not don't take the position. And of course talk to your spouse as others have said.

thalor

In all seriousness, if you feel the job would be in conflict with your morals then don’t do it. Even if you only see it as a means to an end, there is no doubt that the experience will change you and you will almost certainly not like what you become.

As an ex serviceman you will have the skills to find employment elsewhere, assuming you are not desperate or currently out of work, you should go with your gut instinct, which to me sounds like its telling you not to do it.

The ends never justify the means, because you can't guarantee the ends, only the means.

There is no doubt. If you think something might be wrong, then it is.

Do it. Always do it.

In this job you can be light handed on people you morally feel are innocent and what not.

It's all about the money. Get that paper, dolla' dolla' bill y'all.

I think at this critical point you have to ask yourself is WWMD?

what would Ming do?

I think you need to look a bit more into things than you have already. At this point you know there is a "good" job there that you can get into but you feel that they may want you to do things you find amoral. At this point you don't really know though do you? I think what you need to do is go in for the interview and ask questions. Sure they may give you the run around and they may tell you nothing and they may think badly of someone who asks questions (I hear question asking is a no no in the military since they want everyone to be working automatons) but there really isn't any other way to find out before you are neck deep in it. Once you know for sure what you're going to be doing (or what you might be doing) then you'll really be in a position to figure out if you need to sell your soul (morality) or not and if it's worth it.

I decided when I graduated from university I would not take a job in the defense sector because I am a pacifist. I ended up delivering pizza for about 1/2 year because I couldn't find a job. All my friends from school had great jobs and were driving brand new cars. Finally I found a job suited to my education and slowly was able to work my way up the corporate ladder. I learned a lot of things about life while I was delivering pizza that I still remember... for instance rich people would generally not tip while when I delivered in a trailer park people there would practically give me the shirts off their backs. I have everything I want now so it's easy for me to say money is not the most important thing. Someone hit my car this week and I did not call the cops... In fact I had my automobile insurance policy cover the cost for the damage to my car to give the guilty party a break.

No matter how much money is at stake I would never take a job that I wasn't 100% excited about. You spend most of your life at work. Doing something I wouldn't enjoy 8 hours a day I know would be both frustrating and depressing. All the money in the world cannot buy you happiness.

G

Frazzled wrote:I think at this critical point you have to ask yourself is WWMD?

what would Ming do?

Try to marry a hottie, and wind up impaled on the inexplicably, yet highly inconveniently, spiky nosecone of War Rocket Ajax?

Thats a crap plan Frazz.

Take the job. Try it on, the only way to do that is to get right into it. Other peoples descriptions will only go so far.

Moral decisions are a good thing, but an uninformed moral decision is merely idiocy. Get the job and thereby inform yourself in the best, only way how.

It all depends on what te job actually entails. I'm guessing it's not wetworks against undesirable political movements in South America or anything that obviously wrong? Because anything less than that and it's kind of an open area. Without that information I'm not sure how much help people in this thread can be.

People in this thread can't be of ANY reliable help. Do not use dakka to help steer your decisions. Treat anything you see here with a large amount of scepticism. I'm hoping that this advice is very self-evident for you.

grizgrin wrote:People in this thread can't be of ANY reliable help. Do not use dakka to help steer your decisions. Treat anything you see here with a large amount of scepticism. I'm hoping that this advice is very self-evident for you.

That's funny.

Didn't you just post advice in this thread?

Which, along with every other post giving serious advice, must be taken for what it is. Musings from a source whose intent, intelligence, experience, and wisdom are not quantitatively or qualitatively known by the person soliciting advice. My warning to him was intended to be a reiteration of basic internet sense: watch what you listen to on the net, you have NO idea who it's coming from.

That doesn't mean the advice should not be out there; if he decided to wade through the responses, he may find wheat amongst the chaff. But he is the one responsible for the sorting of it, and should not put his faith upon any single answer.

Thanks for clearing that up.

I was utterly confused.

Thanks for the advice so far, Ipretty much felt better after just aring it all out. I'm getting a flight out to New York for an interview. I'll report back on how things go.

sexiest_hero wrote:Thanks for the advice so far, Ipretty much felt better after just aring it all out. I'm getting a flight out to New York for an interview. I'll report back on how things go.

Best of luck. Hope the job is what you want and they offer it to you.

sexiest_hero wrote:Thanks for the advice so far, Ipretty much felt better after just aring it all out. I'm getting a flight out to New York for an interview. I'll report back on how things go.

Excellent. Ming is pleased and so will destroy the Earth today.

grizgrin wrote:People in this thread can't be of ANY reliable help. Do not use dakka to help steer your decisions. Treat anything you see here with a large amount of scepticism. I'm hoping that this advice is very self-evident for you.

So says the self proclaimed money man.

G