ABSTRACT
In 2011, the Pew Research Center surveyed military veterans and American adults to compare their attitudes on war and sacrifice. Although the military insists on retaining the rhetoric of the citizen-soldier volunteer, the reality is that the Department of Defence is the nation's single largest employer. One aspect of soldiers' work that is fundamentally different from other occupations that include dirty work is the sanctioned use of lethal violence against other human beings. Anthropologist Ernest Becker theorized that one of the primary functions culture fulfils is "terror management." The Global War on Terror is explicitly a terror management project. Joining the army is perhaps the closest alternative to the high-paying manufacturing jobs that enabled many working-class families to move into the middle class after WWII. Jobs that involve handling physical dirt are usually of relatively low social status, as are the workers who do them. But some high-status jobs may also have tasks related to dirt.
