A Proposal ... For The Military Veterans of Steemit  

Wikipedia on the Phalanx:

Each individual hoplite carried his shield on the left arm, protecting not only himself but the soldier to the left ... The phalanx is thus an example of a military formation in which the individualistic elements of battle were suppressed for the good of the whole ... The effectiveness of the phalanx therefore depended on how well the hoplites could maintain this formation while in combat.

In theory, theory and reality are the same. In reality, they're not. How Steemit is supposed to work is not how it does. If you wish to succeed you have two options: Invest USD $100,000+ and do whatever you like; or, form an army. Creating great quality content doesn't do the trick. I invite you to go to my feed, read through my articles, and then, somewhere public, grade me for the quality of my content creation. I swear, I will not dispute your assessment no matter how negative. Then, go look at my wallet. Is there a disconnect? 

This is not a unique insight, and hence, the plethora of groups and alliances attempting, whether stated or implied, to become armies. As they soon discover, however, it's easier said than done. The reason is psychological. In each of us resides a deep instinctive imperative: Save yourself. What every great general in history discovered was that you don't need to kill all the enemy combatants. All you need to do is prevent them from working together as one. Once they become thousands of individuals, each attempting to individually save themselves, there is no longer an army. They are defeated. The strength of an army is directly related to its ability to suppress this instinct. 

We all know that there is something that makes soldiers different. The sense of camaraderie that one finds between a Band of Brothers has not been replicated, at any time or in any place, in the civilian world. Honor, Duty and Loyalty. These are words that are increasingly met with derision amongst civilians. Leave Not A Man Behind. I've Got Your Six. We do not believe these words are artifacts of an archaic era that not longer exists. 

"Just words," you say? "QuillFire is a poet."  

@derangedvisions and I met during a contest for one of my posts. We quickly became friends. Soon thereafter, he released a PTSD-related documentary he'd made, War Torn. If you haven't seen it, you should. It is both poignant and profound. But the point I'm making is not to be found in the film, but rather in the comments. There is a comment/reply thread (second from the top) that explains what happened. Go read it.

When you're finished, take a moment to reflect upon what you just witnessed. "Whatever comes out of these gates ..."

Worse than a Bad Plan, is No Plan. Worse than No Plan, is Two. 

Amongst the Great Generals of history, there is a surprising lack of agreement on the most important aspects of strategy and tactics. There is, however, one thing upon which they all agreed ... and they all agreed that it was the most important thing: Concentration of force at the enemy's weakest point.

Everyone running around doing their own thing is the definition of chaos. Hence, I propose the formation of an army. To be effective, we must not only all agree on a commonality of purpose, but also a commonality of execution. The more complicated a plan, the more likely it won't work. Whatever the core, it must be simple. Here is what I propose and why:

1. Join the Veterans Project & The Military Veterans on Steemit Discord Channel

Lines of Communication are imperative. We need to know what one another are doing. And, there must be a definitive list of who "wears the uniform." More on this later. 

2. Assist Three Vets Every Day

Irrespective of everything else we do on Steemit, every day each one of us does something to materially assist three other veterans. 

2. (a) Three is a Pattern

Three is not an arbitrary number. Three is a pattern, and in pattern there is meaning. I'm in advertising and I've spent 15 years studying every aspect of the brain and mind: Our brains are pattern-detection and pattern-comparison machines. The occurrence of any stimuli three times in a row triggers pattern-recognition. It triggers meaning. 

Think of musicians: There are countless One-Hit Wonders. You know the name of the song but not the name of the musician who sings it. There are even a number of Two-Hit Wonders. But there are no Three-Hit Wonders. On the third hit, your brain detects a pattern, "great musician," which sets off a cascade of meaning-making and memory formation. 

The result: Elvis is more famous (is more meaningful) that any song that he sang. Ditto the Beatles, Elton John and Billy Joel. (Notice that I listed three male musicians, a pattern, to increase the meaning and memorability of my initial Elvis argument.) Creating a pattern created a new meaning of the musician, the way in which our brains understand the concept of "what they are," and hence, the category in which they ought to be placed and the manner in which they ought to be thought about.

If you want humans beings to fight for a thing, don't make it easy ... make it meaningful. 

2. (b) Material Assistance 

Material assistance is contextual. 

I have around $100 worth of STEEM & SBD. A divorce and a 3.5 year custody battle prevents me from being able to buy an arsenal of STEEM. The value of my upvote is, monetarily, worthless.  

But not everything of value can be measured in dollars. While I have no money ... I do have words. Perhaps you do to. Or, perhaps, you possess another talent or skill: Graphic design; videography; musical composition, etc. Or, perhaps you have an extensive network of followers or a substantial amount of STEEM. 

Armies need cooks as much as they need combat soldiers. 

3. A Single Tag

We only get five hashtags per post. And yet there are multiple almost identical hashtags to which a post might be entered ( #veterans #veteran #military). We need to choose one. I would be inclined towards creating #vets-only.   

3. (a) Downvoting Non-Members

This hashtag is our home. Once a hashtag becomes popular, the interlopers show up. Just look at #IntroduceYourself. We need a system to quickly identify who gets to be there and who doesn't. Perhaps a bot could send out a member/non-member message when anything is posted to that hashtag. I'm sure there are some tech-savvy vets who could work out the details. 

Non-members would get down-voted by everyone. The tag is rather explicit: #vets-only. If you're not a vet, then it's hard to imagine how you could innocently believe that posting there would not provoke ire.      

3. (b) Daily Visit

All Members are obligated to make 3 Material Assists per day. Most often that obligation will be met by Upvoting, Commenting, ReSteeming and Following. If all posts in the #vets-only hashtag are from Members, then finding three worthy posts would be easy.

While Members will create personal friendships and seek to be mutually supportive (good), Members should also search for newer and smaller members to help out. This ought not be an obligation, but rather a matter of Honor. They too, are your brothers and sisters.   

3. (c) 100% Upvotes

Would you only upvote your children by 10%? Of course not. Special relationships transcend ordinary considerations. We all have multiple people we're trying to support and our upvotes can only be stretched so far. But here's the thing: For our army to work, we need to concentrate force. If we do not achieve substantial concentration of force, then we'll be just another of the countless voting groups going through the motions. The objective is to ACTUALLY assist one another. To ACTUALLY make a difference. 

I'll use my own situation to illustrate the magnitude of the problem and to justify the necessity of concentrating force as I've described: 

Quality vs. Payout:

Steemit Poets United: Daily Dose of Poetry and Prose #52 Payout Poem: $4.94

Quillfire is the most skillful poet in our little group [250+] and he could be the number one poem every day. This poem is a masterclass in poetry and he even invented his own form of sonnet, the Savagerean Sonnet. If you like poetry this is one not to be missed. And I mean this post and this poet! 

 PoetsUnited: Daily Dose Of Poetry & Prose #51 Payout Poem(1): $1.53 Payout Poem(2):$0.72

Our first entry is by this great author @quillfire (A.K.A Poetry Rhymes Lord), the amazing scents of the flower in his poetry works I must say is pleasing to any nostrils. I implore him to also take the baton of writing the daily dose someday. It's a double entry piece again. His first work tells us: Here he compares all daddy attributes (the good and the bad) to that of a Lion and inspires us to celebrate them. Powerful imagery. His words below this poem are strong. His second work here: The poem deals with the importance of appreciation, the teachers are been over looked in many places, which is not supposed to be so because they are the architect of the society. He implores us especially parents to appreciate our teacher tutoring our children, let's show them love, until then we will have a better society. He specially wrote this piece in honor of Mrs. HODGE who tutors his daughter in the elementary class. What a dad!!! @quillfire you are awesome. 

PoetsUnited:Daily Dose of Poetry & Prose #44 Payout Poem(1): $1.11 / Payout Poem(2): $0.92

The best poem for today is for sure a gem by this true poet in person of @quillfire (I give him the Alias; Poetry Rhymes Lord), a double entry piece. I love the footer at the end of his post, this makes him unique and relevant. This poet is an author to watch out for! The first poem discusses the theme of trust and how betrayal has been a part and parcel of mankind. Another hit is that one should beware of friends for changes is constant to human. The second piece relates to divorce and marriages, misunderstanding and effect to relationship. 

OK ... 3 pretty spectacular write-ups, 5 posts (poems + lengthy accompanying articles). 

Not one made it onto Poetry's Hot ... let alone Trending ... pages. Click on the link. Go take a look at the competition, poems that are making hundreds of dollars per post.

Imagine if the vets could collectively bump me into Trending on Day 1 or 2. That's where everyone's looking, and that's where poems get seen. And, that's where whale-bots look. OK, that's good for me but how does it help anyone else? I, too, have a 100% Upvote obligation. And, as my account grows, so too does the size of my Upvotes for other vets.

There's more. When you notice someone has a Reputation Score of 67, what's the first thing you do upon landing on their page. Be honest ... you check their wallet. And now, magically, there's a lot more commenting and ReSteeming, isn't there? Success breeds success. The success of anyone one of us, becomes the success of all. A virtuous circle. 

Keep in mind that this dynamic would not just effect one person at at time. From Day 1, many Members would begin to benefit.

4. Free-Riders  

Nothing destroys group cohesion faster than free-riders. They contribute little, yet share in the rewards. "Jack, you go collect firewood. I'll go try to catch some fish. Sammy, Dave and Tony ... can you guys get going on a shelter?" That's how we did it (with a fair amount of swearing involved). Everybody was already exhausted from marching all day, but everyone did their bit for the good of the group. Except Tony. Tony's tired and he wants to take a nap. But don't worry, he'll be OK when it's time to eat. 

All organizations need to rid themselves of Tony's. 

Don't get me wrong, I am NOT in favor (and would argue against) continuous monitoring to verify that everyone's met the letter of the law. Our army cannot become a police state or a cult ... and, we are grown men and women. When Honor is the coin of the realm, monitoring for compliance becomes an affront, if not an insult. Honor Between Soldiers requires trust. That said, consistent behaviors emerge and quickly become apparent. Everything's on the blockchain ... there are no secrets. And, when they do, that Member would need to be expelled lest their continued presence spread discontent. The details of a mechanism for expulsion would need to be brainstormed to ensure fairness. 

 *****

So, there it is, my proposal. It is simple and relatively easy to implement. Indeed, much of it could be enacted tomorrow. The only thing stopping us ... is us. 

Brothers and sisters, we are what we are: Once a soldier, always a soldier. 

When the trumpet sounds ... ride to the sound of the guns. 

• If you are interested in this Proposal, I'd love to get your feedback in the Comments section. The good, the bad and the ugly.

• Upvote & ReSteem to ensure that a broad cross-section of vets see this post. Until a week ago, I'd never heard of the Veterans Project. And, if there's little interest, then there's little point in moving forward. Let's find out.

• Be a "Warrior-Poet" ... start by Reading My Damn Poems! It builds mystique and lends an air of gravitas as you snack on champagne and Grey Poupon at cocktail parties. "His exploration of dystopian dialectics is deplorable. Dross, I say, dross." Yes, my friends ... that could be you.

@shadow3scalpel @chairborne @guiltyparties @jackmiller @derangedvisions @rakkasana84 @chira @anarcho-andrei @patriot