The micro level: the military as a profession The most visible interaction between the military and its surrounding society is the armed forces’ staff. It is usually drawn from the society it is anchored in – if not, the armed forces are an army of occupation or a colonial army. The military as a profession influences its individuals in a certain, collective manner. Its special work and life situation turns it into a total institution which separates it from the rest of society and regulates daily life. Other social contacts are strongly restricted, the separation from the outside world further underlined by the barbed wire and the walls that usually confine army barracks. Goffman goes as far as to compare these total institutions (other examples would include prisons or

asylums) to societal greenhouses that are trying to change the character of individuals by dissociating them from the world, the life and the self they used to have before joining the institution. Regulating clothing is just one way to influence someone’s self-perception and identity.1