There are many things that people do happily that I can't imagine why they would do it... But I have to say that even though I am critical or judgmental of society at large I'm not critical of people individually. We are who we are.
I have a friend that is a WWII buff and we sat and talked a lot about stuff like the war and the reasons behind it and you now it's all in the uniform. Once you're in it it usually does all the work for you.