Military and Social ValuesColonel Malham M. Wakin, in his evening speech, asks whether Plato's statement that "knowledge is virtue" is true. Much contemporary experience suggests otherwise. To some extent, this observation could also apply to the military sector. Colonel Wakin argues that we have some basic knowledge about human conduct, but that we live in a highly pluralistic society in which some practices reject that basic knowledge. However, even if we draw members of the armed forces from that pluralistic society, the uniqueness of the military function will always keep its main practitioners away from the mainstream of civil society. The military profession vows to defend the values, the way of life that embodies the minimum conditions for human dignity. After examining the convergence of values ​​functionally necessary for the military and those we know to be fundamental to social existence, he concludes that a competent military profession can serve as a moral anchor for the parent society. Many years ago, when I learned that I would have the opportunity to study philosophy at the graduate level, I was tremendously excited. What a wonderful opportunity it would be, I thought, to sit at the feet of Socrates and be enlightened by those who have studied the crucial problems of human existence. I expected that senior philosophy professors would be wonderful role models in their personal lives, and I looked forward to associating with those who had solved the problems of the universe. Indeed, these senior professors seemed very wise. They were dazzling in their ability to reel off the names and theories of great thinkers of every age. They knew the point of view of those whose names I couldn't even pronounce, and I said to myself, "I will never be able to grasp all these ideas or remember them well enough to teach them to others." But as time passed, I was slightly devastated to observe that these senior professors were not, as a group, the congenial masters of everyday life that I expected them to be. They weren't all basically nice people, not even to each other. Indeed, some occasionally crossed the street to avoid meeting and talking to a colleague. And some have had difficulties in their major personal relationships - divorce, legal fights, envy, defamation, narcissism - hardly what I had hoped for in the most knowledgeable and studious people in our society..