02-12-2012
Permalink
National Service
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Subject: In Orwell's Newspeak: "Isolation" Means Mandatory
Military Service For All
The drumbeat to enslave us never let's up. A few years ago, in my
essay, "National Service:
A Vicious Concept — And Its Antidote," I wrote about the
Obama administration's drive to impose mandatory national service on
all Americans. One of the few good thing that you can say about the
economic crisis is that it created so many new problems during the past
four years that attention was temporarily diverted from this proposal
— although it is alive and continues to grow in our
government-run educational
system.
However, the ideological cancer that it is, the call for service
is never completely eradicated, and this meme continues to course
through our culture, springing to the surface at unpredictable times
as a malignant social tumor. In a recent article by New Republic
writer Russ Hoyle entitled,
"Crisis Ahead
for the Volunteer Military", he adds his voice to the call,
proposing conscription as the medicine to cure what ails us.
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As U.S. forces come home from Iraq after nine years at war,
the nation is facing professional troops sufficiently bruised
and isolated from American society that some defense experts
whisper we may need major changes in military education and
even a conscription-based national youth service program to
reboot our fighting forces.
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Who are these "defense experts" who remain unnamed and are too
afraid to make their worries publically known, only wispering their
concerns to true patriots like Hoyle in private? I guess we'll just
have to take Hoyle's word for it that they exist and would certainly
be worth quoting if they ever chose to come forward.
What is the problem needing to be addressed? Troop "bruises" and
"isolation". Well, that's certainly clear. And the obvious solution
to that "isolation" is the abandonment of a volunteer armed services
and its replacement with enslavement of all, for surely there must be
companionship, camaraderie and understanding that is fostered by one's
shared experience of forced labor.
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The wartime shortcomings of the all-volunteer military are a
legacy, in part, of the draft's end 40 years ago. There's
been a growing disconnect between the American public and the
U.S. armed forces.
Outgoing joint chiefs chairman Adm. Mike Mullen declared last
year that "America no longer knows its military, and the U.S.
military no longer knows America."
Waning public interest has allowed the military to operate in
a kind of self-imposed moral isolation that has weakened the
U.S. officer corps, the backbone of the volunteer force.
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The volunteer military is a job that some people choose, just as others
might decide to be a librarian, an inventor, a lawyer, or work in a
factory. What exactly is it that is so special about military service
that it results in some unprecedented inability for it to be fathomed?
Yes, soldiers face issues that most of us do not fully comprehend, but
then again, most people really don't understand the true complexity of
an automotive assembly line, nor do they have much idea as
to what an architect does in the course of designing a building. So
what? That's the nature of a society base upon a division of labor.
With so many options available, we end up focusing on certain areas
relevant to our own lives at the expense of a deeper understanding of
others. This is just a necessary consequence of living in a
wonderfully expansive 21st century civilization.
If the military faces some sort of unspecified "moral crisis"
(whatever that means?) with it's officers, how does this translate to
a civilian problem? Instead, it more obviously indicates a defect
within the chain of command leading back to the commander-in-chief,
and that is where the difficulty must be identified and a solution
found. But it turns out that that's not really the "problem" that
Hoyle is concerned about.
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[Milton] Friedman's economic theory ended the unpopular draft.
Forty years later, the American people's instinctive interest
in their troops' welfare has inevitably atrophied.
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Hmmm. Did you know that your concern about this county's war efforts
and the welfare of our troops was "instinctive"? And were
you aware that because you no longer face the draft you have become
distracted from your duty to care, and have allowed those "instincts"
to atrophy? How could you?! Well, if you are not going to take
appropriate responsibility for yourself, there are always others ready
and willing to step in.
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To reduce the military's isolation from civilian life, the
Pentagon should begin by deeply cutting manpower and supporting
renewed conscription in the form of a three-year mandatory
national service program (including civilian energy, education,
infrastructure, environmental and urban service options) for
all Americans between 18 and 25, with special benefits for
military service.
A well-designed national service program is not a comprehensive
prescription for what ails the U.S. military. It is not a
return to the draft. But it would restore a needed sense of
civic responsibility among young Americans. It would supply
manpower demands during wartime and replace most private
contractors with responsible enlisted troops."
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Whoa Doggy! Did you see the magic happen? Well look again!
Hoyle opens his act by waving around "military isolation"
in one hand. Then, like any good magician he engages in a lot of
misdirection during the middle of the performance. Finally, with a
daring feat of prestidigitation, the other hand pulls a "sense of
civic responsibility" from out of nowhere for his magnificent
conclusion. Bravo!
I wonder just how many in the audience noticed the old switcheroo?
Hoyle is so sure that his magic is effective that he's even willing to
state that a "national service program is not a comprehensive
prescription for what ails the U.S. military" and not worry that
his readers will catch on. He's already hooked them by their guilt,
and all that's left is to reel them in and set them to work at the
direction of their government masters.
It wasn't that long ago when Rahm Emanuel was
saying:
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Everybody—somewhere between the ages 18 and 25—will
serve three months of basic training and understanding
in a kind of civil defense.
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Now, here we are, a few short years later, calling for a
"three-year mandatory national service program". Isn't
it adorable how soon those little memes grow up! Also, don't miss the
call to couple the forced military service with another new
"special benefits" entitlement program that further
ensures that a larger segment of the populace is even more dependent
upon the federal government for their lives — thereby making
them much more compliant in following government dictates once
released from their slave labor.
The progressive's collectivistic mind-set is fully wedded to the total
elimination of individualism from the culture. So long as they wield
power they will never cease their attack on independence and
self-responsibility. As Orwell, Huxley, Levin, Rand and other authors
have prophesied, the goal is nothing less than totalitarian control
over the thoughts and the actions of every human being. These people
are our mortal enemies and it is important that we fight back now, or
else we will suffer the disastrous consequences in the very near
future!
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