Among the intellectual class, I think it is contrarian, at least in the US. The idea is a common thread in American social thought going back to at least the early 1900′s. Particularly since the end of the Cold War, the the widening fissures in our society, It’s been very common for elites to bemoan the lack of social cohesion and suggest that mandatory national service is the answer. Not just a military draft, or registering for the selective service, but actual mandatory service by all young adults for a period of one-two years.
No such speculation is necessary; you need only to, you know, read the page, to see that the list is simply a list of countries with national service, period—whether compulsory or voluntary.
Looking at that list, it’s certainly not composed entirely of countries that are “notoriously terrible” (e.g., Singapore, Israel, Estonia, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, are all, I am given to understand, quite nice)… but the list is clearly skewed toward countries I very much would not want to live in, much more so than the list of countries without conscription.
Mandatory national service is a terrible idea.
Is… is that a contrarian idea?
I was not aware of the negation of this claim being a mainstream view. Who is advocating for mandatory national service?!
Among the intellectual class, I think it is contrarian, at least in the US. The idea is a common thread in American social thought going back to at least the early 1900′s. Particularly since the end of the Cold War, the the widening fissures in our society, It’s been very common for elites to bemoan the lack of social cohesion and suggest that mandatory national service is the answer. Not just a military draft, or registering for the selective service, but actual mandatory service by all young adults for a period of one-two years.
I had seen claims that Pete Buttigieg had made calls for mandatory national service, but turns out it was actually a substantial increase in the number of paid service opportunities.
It seems fairly uncontroversial to say that the list of countries with mandatory national service doesn’t seem like a list of countries that are notoriously terrible.
That list includes the United States, so it clearly can’t be a list of countries with mandatory national service.
I think the US is listed because it’s mandatory that we register for the draft
No such speculation is necessary; you need only to, you know, read the page, to see that the list is simply a list of countries with national service, period—whether compulsory or voluntary.
This seems to be the correct list to look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription#By_country
Thanks!
Looking at that list, it’s certainly not composed entirely of countries that are “notoriously terrible” (e.g., Singapore, Israel, Estonia, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, are all, I am given to understand, quite nice)… but the list is clearly skewed toward countries I very much would not want to live in, much more so than the list of countries without conscription.
Yep, I misread the page, my mistake