ted with my Naval career, however, was another matter. There was a great deal of political apathy among my associates, who voiced their disgust with the political process almost as regularly as they voiced their disgust with those who held the armed forces in disdain, wanted to cut Navy funding, or were generally perceived as unpatriotic or excessively liberal. This operated on me by increasing my appreciation of the system (which had already been solidly inculcated by my family) and making me somewhat zealous about urging others to take it seriously. Voting, even in presidential elections, was often viewed as a waste of time and it was necessary, therefore, to appeal to these men's self-interest in order to get the least spark of interest on any occasion. The Carter administration, for example, cut Navy funding in half and it was only during Republican administrations that members of the armed forces could be sure that annual raises and improvements in operational areas would be forthcoming and so this sort of argument sometimes had great persuasive force.
But the biggest force the experience exerted on me was awareness that, while there is noth
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