In the military, I always thought that it was a method of ensuring obedience. Fear in the battleground is supposed to be one of the most intense fears experienced by humans. And getting people to go into the battlefield and act with even a semblance of competency requires a lot of brain programming. Thus, the fact that an enlisted man can never even aspire to be an officer (with a few exceptions) gives the officer an incredible source of authority; in the mind of the enlisted man, the officer is almost infinitely better than him. This is also the reason why bootcamp is so intense: programming obedience.
This might also explain the doctor/nurse duality: the institution desires that in a high-pressure situation, the nurse never disobeys the doctor. Though I’m not so sure whether this explains it fully in this situation.
Yes, but there is a question of degree. The claim is that two-ladder systems with no allowed lower-ladder to higher-ladder transition effects a much greater amount of obedience than a comparable one-ladder system. In other words, you’d have to expend a lot more effort in training if you wanted a similar amount of obedience in a one-ladder system.
In the military, I always thought that it was a method of ensuring obedience. Fear in the battleground is supposed to be one of the most intense fears experienced by humans. And getting people to go into the battlefield and act with even a semblance of competency requires a lot of brain programming. Thus, the fact that an enlisted man can never even aspire to be an officer (with a few exceptions) gives the officer an incredible source of authority; in the mind of the enlisted man, the officer is almost infinitely better than him. This is also the reason why bootcamp is so intense: programming obedience.
This might also explain the doctor/nurse duality: the institution desires that in a high-pressure situation, the nurse never disobeys the doctor. Though I’m not so sure whether this explains it fully in this situation.
Obedience can be demanded in a one-ladder system.
Yes, but there is a question of degree. The claim is that two-ladder systems with no allowed lower-ladder to higher-ladder transition effects a much greater amount of obedience than a comparable one-ladder system. In other words, you’d have to expend a lot more effort in training if you wanted a similar amount of obedience in a one-ladder system.