SadistDave
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Joined: 3/11/2005
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I've read about this from McCrystal before. His idea of compulsory service is not restricted to the military. It also includes social and infrastructure programs. Sort of a "You will serve. Do you want to serve with a gun, a broom, or a hammer? Will you be a soldier? Will you cook meals and clean gutters for the elderly? Will you build homes for the homeless? Will you sit behind a computer and help people find jobs?" kind of a thing.
The rite of passage comment is not as ominous as some people seem to believe. His reference to it is along the lines of buying your first car, renting your first apartment, or graduating from college, which are rites of adulthood. His rite of citizenship refers to something common to most people that just about everyone can relate to. If everyone serves then it becomes easier to find common ground with people who come from vastly different backgrounds. He's a General. His model is military because that's his background. He imagines that having everyone serving in some way that America will be less fractured because, like the military, everyone would serve next to people from different racial, economic, religious, political, and educational backgrounds. It makes people more relateable to be able to connect through a shared experience. .
It's an interesting idea actually. Imagine yourself as a young person graduating from high school or college. You have a basic education but no experience. Spending a compulsory couple of years working in the right field could give a lot of people practical experience that would make them more likely to get jobs they trained for. It also levels inequalities in the job market considerably because everyone would have the opportunity to gain some kind of useful skills and gain experience a variety of fields regardless of any social or economic factors.
And really, the programs don't even need to be run by the federal government or require full time participation to be beneficial. There are thousands of existing private non-profit programs that would also benefit from having a ready work force. There are also thousands of state, county, and local programs that would benefit from intern programs that give people a chance to gain experience. For example; a program as simple as reading to children in the hospital for 5 hours a week would be valuable and practical experience for young people wanting to work in social services, become teachers, run daycare centers, pediatric medicine... or maybe just become better parents later in life. In the process, the common good is served.
I actually like the idea, but it's never going to happen. As ideas go, it's a pretty good one. As reality goes, the whole concept is open to all kinds of abuse, especially if it's done at the federal level. Also, (as some posts here show) some people will be against it just because it would be mandatory. Ironically, some of these posters have had no problem in the past with the notion that their favorite ideas ought to be compulsory for everyone, whether it is mandatory acceptance of their favorite social opinions or mandatory participation in their favorite government programs.
-SD-
< Message edited by SadistDave -- 5/31/2013 3:36:00 AM >
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To whom it may concern: Just because someone is in a position of authority they do not get to make up their own facts. In spite of what some people here (who shall remain nameless) want to claim, someone over the age of 18 is NOT a fucking minor!
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A National Service Obligation? - 
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