World War I and World War II used the draft - even when volunteerism was at a high.
I'm aware of that. My father was drafted in 1943. They decided that he should service 50 phone lines in the Marine Corps instead of the 300 he was servicing as a civilian.
I'm also alive because the service decided that men with two or more children would be exempted from going Guadalcanal, because they knew what kind of casualties were going to happen.
2. Please don't make comparisons to slavery. REAL slavery exists in the world, even today, and the comparison is off.
What part of "report for duty or go to jail" is anything but involuntary? So we're to be well fed slaves? So we can work our way out of servitude by putting in the time we "owe" the government - really it's corporate masters - our lives? It IS slavery, perhaps the most heinous kind of slavery, since it involves quite a lot of getting ground up into hamburger for someone else's ideals and profit.
Historically, minorities have *fought* to be able to fight precisely BECAUSE the social contract allowed them to afterwards own land, receive benefits, pay, and raise their social status.
So that's the way you think the world *should* be? Only people that go off and kill other people in the name of your big tribe ought to be able to own land receive benefits, pay and social status? Heinlein makes for fun reading but in real life is disregards a few minor details about government by the consent of the governed and the self evidence of everyone's birth right.
Since NOONE has "total freedom" then the question is not about living in a free country, but rather how much you feel you should give to the country that has given you - literally - everything you have.
Sorry, but the country has not given me everything I have. Certainly *we* as country have built the infrastructure to earn what we get, but the country has NOT given me everything I have.
Even if there is no such thing as total freedom, that's no argument for forcing people to go to war, or some other kind of "service." If individual freedom is such a problem, why have any at all?
There is simply no evidence that a draft has ever been implemented fairly, when the root of the problem is that you're forcing people to kill or die.
You can't talk about imposing the draft "equally" when the imposing the draft at all should be an abomination.
I know quite a few people disagree with me - enough that we've killed a lot of people to maintain our system of permanent war. But there are lot of people who agree with me as well.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-11-14 11:16 pm (UTC)World War I and World War II used the draft - even when volunteerism was at a high.
I'm aware of that. My father was drafted in 1943. They decided that he should service 50 phone lines in the Marine Corps instead of the 300 he was servicing as a civilian.
I'm also alive because the service decided that men with two or more children would be exempted from going Guadalcanal, because they knew what kind of casualties were going to happen.
2. Please don't make comparisons to slavery. REAL slavery exists in the world, even today, and the comparison is off.
What part of "report for duty or go to jail" is anything but involuntary? So we're to be well fed slaves? So we can work our way out of servitude by putting in the time we "owe" the government - really it's corporate masters - our lives? It IS slavery, perhaps the most heinous kind of slavery, since it involves quite a lot of getting ground up into hamburger for someone else's ideals and profit.
Historically, minorities have *fought* to be able to fight precisely BECAUSE the social contract allowed them to afterwards own land, receive benefits, pay, and raise their social status.
So that's the way you think the world *should* be? Only people that go off and kill other people in the name of your big tribe ought to be able to own land receive benefits, pay and social status? Heinlein makes for fun reading but in real life is disregards a few minor details about government by the consent of the governed and the self evidence of everyone's birth right.
Since NOONE has "total freedom" then the question is not about living in a free country, but rather how much you feel you should give to the country that has given you - literally - everything you have.
Sorry, but the country has not given me everything I have. Certainly *we* as country have built the infrastructure to earn what we get, but the country has NOT given me everything I have.
Even if there is no such thing as total freedom, that's no argument for forcing people to go to war, or some other kind of "service." If individual freedom is such a problem, why have any at all?
There is simply no evidence that a draft has ever been implemented fairly, when the root of the problem is that you're forcing people to kill or die.
You can't talk about imposing the draft "equally" when the imposing the draft at all should be an abomination.
I know quite a few people disagree with me - enough that we've killed a lot of people to maintain our system of permanent war. But there are lot of people who agree with me as well.