Voluntary military service, however, is one of its purest examples in our time. The intellectually and socially highest person may subordinate himself to a non-commissioned officer and actually tolerate a treatment which, if it really concerned his ego and feeling of honor, would move him to the most desperate reactions. But he is aware that he must bow before an objective technique, not as an individual personality, but only as an impersonal link requiring such discipline. This awareness, at least in many cases, prevents a feeling of degradation and oppression from arising.

XREF: Connects to Scheler's broader distinction between subordinating oneself to an objective order versus to another person's ego — the impersonal technique diffuses the blow to self-worth.

DEFINE: Illustrates a principle where subordination is tolerated because it targets an impersonal role, not the individual ego.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 764