Re: Snow Was: Smoking. Was: Clarke Award Finalists 2001

After WW2, this pretty much died (royal sons [and maybe daughters now]
may still spend some time in a military service, but that is generally
temporary). Militaries became both professionalized and very technical
-- just having a title and and income and a winning smile/pleasant
personality was no longer enough. Actual knowledge of how to use the
various types of units (often determined by their equipment) became
necessary.

It took them long enough to learn.  You would have thought the Charge
of the Light Brigade was enough to start selecting generals for their
knowledge of warfare rather than their school ties, but that didn't happen
until well after WWI.

 Education was not evenly distributed then or now.

>
In those days aristocrats could get university degrees merely by showing=
up  No exams for them!  Why, they might finish worse than a commoner!

This is still the case in both the US and UK, although these days it may
well take money as well as the right bloodline.  Ask any university about
their legacy admission policies, though, which are often very eye-opening. 
Mind you, you may wind up in an Ivy League college, but headed for a degree
that specially marks you as a legacy rather than a student who had to
do the material.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."