R-Day at West Point. Profundities happen that day in the lives of over 1200 kids.
“R-Day” is the day that each new class reports to become cadets. Kids come from all 50 states and certain allied countries to begin the crucible of Beast Barracks. Looking back, it is not all that much of a crucible compared to life, but it is enough to be transformative to 18-year old kids who have not yet lived life, or to 21-year old prior service sergeants who only think they have lived life up to that point.
On R-Day, each civilian is ushered through a series of checkpoints where they are issued their cadet uniforms, tactical equipment for the summer training cycle, and they are taught the basics of how to march and salute. At the end of R-Day, West Point has a parade of all of the New Cadets, showing off to the parents just how much of a transformation they could achieve in just eight hours. We all marched out of step, but we were in uniform and trying. It was enough to impress the parents.
What impressed me as a New Cadet was the Cadet in the Red Sash. I have taken life lessons from the Cadet in the Red Sash that I stand by today.
“STEP UP TO MY LINE! DO NOT STEP ON MY LINE! DO NOT STEP OVER MY LINE!”
That is the life lesson. The way I interpret it.
What it was supposed to teach, probably, was quite different than what I took from it. I was supposed to take from this rite of initiation the ideas of precision, attentiveness, obedience, and discipline. I think I took three of those four attributes with me. All but submissive obedience.
“Step up to my line.” Now I know where the line is. I precisely know my limitations.
“Do not step on my line.” Now I know to be attentive. I learned to always look to the rule or the limitation and be wary of it.
“Do not step over my line.” This is discipline. No matter what passions waken, have the restraint to respect the line.
This was a life lesson that I was not supposed to get on day one at West Point – R-day. It was the opposite of what I was supposed to learn. But learn it, I did.
My philosophical interpretation of this line by the Cadet in the Red Sash bore broad implications. They were scary implications for any boss. A willingness to step up to the line of right and wrong, of legal versus illegal, would give any boss the willies. In truth, when you have that philosophy, even your bosses are watching you and daring you to step over the line. Precision. Attentiveness. Discipline. It works no other way.
There have been studies about non-conformist thinkers. In those studies, the contributions of those thinkers are always valued, but if there is an opportunity to kick one person out of the group, it is always the non-conformist who goes first. And then, invariably, the leader of the group says that “we need to think outside of the box.”
There is a cognitive dissonance in this approach. The group rejects the person who rejects the box, and then challenges themselves to imitate the person that they cast out.
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In ancient times, when attrition was a third of a class, Beast and Plebe Year was a crucible. Not a comparative criticism, just a data point. JAB, USMA Cl 1972.