I think you are badly misjudging the nature of people in these positions.Galvatron wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if many disloyal Imperials remained in the military and simply did their jobs badly, like Admiral Ozzel. It's been my belief for a long time that he was sympathetic to the rebellion and everything he did in TESB was done with the intention of helping the rebels.
Our own history is full of people who after losing everything or having their world dramatically changed, a la surviving a devastating galactic war followed by the wholesale rearrangement of the galactic order, are left with nothing but their work. The prospect of returning to post war life is daunting for veterans under normal circumstances, but even worse when home is unrecognizable. When all you have left is your professionalism and status maintained through your position, you become a functionary obsessed with careerism. There are lots of stories about such people from post war Soviet Russia. With no home to go back to they throw themselves wholesale into government service.
I imagine most of the Imperial navy, officers in particular, have their identities inextricably linked to their careers. This is so normal to the human condition it can make otherwise normal people turn a blind eye to the Holocaust, or just work themselves to death in corporate limbo while their families fall apart because that's where they derive their value. I have run into many of the latter in my lifetime.
Surely we have all heard the stories of the job obsesses person who dies shortly after retirement. Unmoored from the anchor of most of their life they waste away.
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- PeZook