Listen to or read the transcripts from the three sessions. Read what some attendees had to say about the symposium.
 More than 300 people came to hear Rick Atkinson, Missy Cummings, Rachel Maddow, and other experts in the field at the sixth annual Mass Humanities public symposium, “Soldiers & Citizens: Military and Civic Culture in America.”
Each of the five previous annual symposiums presented by Mass Humanities has examined a fundamental institution of our democracy from a variety of perspectives, exploring questions that are both timely and of enduring importance. This year, we turned to the military and its relationship to civil society.
The area explored was the widening and worrisome gap between the values and beliefs of the military and those of civil society at large, especially in a liberal consumer-oriented democracy such as ours. Of course there will always be important differences between an ethos that demands sacrifice and habitual submission to authority on the one hand, and a self-indulgent culture that reflexively questions authority on the other. But the danger that many see is that the two cultures may come to see themselves as not only different, but either alienated from and unappreciated by or, worse, superior to and contemptuous of the other. An open and respectful relationship between the military and the society it exists to defend and protect is essential in a democracy. What steps can be taken to foster such a relationship? (See panels for more information.)
Listen to the three panels here and read feedback from attendees below:
“As one of two attendees wearing a military uniform I would like to thank you for offering such a magnificent session as this.” – Patrick R Jennings, Ph.D. (Sergeant First Class, 1/182nd Infantry, MA Army National Guard)
“I came because I thought Rachel Maddow would be speaking and I wanted to hear her unplugged. Instead what I got was an entire education in something I, as a peace activist, realize now I knew nothing about.”
– Lynette Molnar
Images taken by George Abbott White. Clockwise: Sarah Sewall, Andrew Bacevich, Rachel Maddow, and Rick Atkinson
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