about Afghanistan (link to BBC video). The narrator says that the situation there is not like in Iraq. Most people on the outside believe that the average person there hates the US and NATO forces and wants them to leave, yet that appears to be quite opposite the case, even among conservative Muslims. People do not want the Taliban to return. They want the country to have a good economy, for business to prosper, for people – especially women – to have opportunites which they never would have under a Taliban regime.
The narrator makes it seem however as though Afghanistan is on the verge of being dumped by the US and NATO. That would be a tragedy it seems.
Watching this, and seeing the images of the men in the Afghan forces who are working to protect their country and keep it free, makes me think that America should have compulsory military service. Such a topic is a political hot-potato perhaps, but I look around and see our society getting fat and lazy. I see dissociated people who seem to be unable to make critical judgement and fend for themselves in fundamental ways, who will not make stands for things because they are too confused or whatever. There is a lack of the spirit of serving together to make society stronger and more intelligent.
Also, everywhere one goes, there’s this sense of how soft and weak people are. You see people sitting at cafes and restaurants. We’re supposed to enjoy aesthetic pleasures. Everywhere one goes though it just seems like a saturation of too much. Its too easy. People go to cafes and order a latte or whatever – its just indulgence, indulgence, indulgence. Meanwhile people are becoming feeble in a way. The governments are failing. Their countries are being invaded, corporations are plundering and pillaging, and the systems that are supposed to protect them and work for them are failing. (Meanwhile though, the government has the $billions it needs to spy on everyone and violate our fundamental human right to privacy, even while the roads are crumbling.)
I think people need to get tough.
Another thing about military service is that it would bring together all the classes of America which at this point in time are flying apart at high velocity. People sleeping in the same dormitories, sharing bunk beds, learning about each other, and gaining training and experience even if it is doing things like civil engineering – building bridges or whatever – would be beneficial.
Another thing that makes me think this way is something I’ve seen recently in my own city. I’ve had multiple thefts of parts off my bicycles recently which have cost me hundreds of dollars. But it seems like everyone in the city just resigns themselves to it, even as the thieves run around in broad daylight. They push shopping carts down the sidewalk, filled with stolen bicycle parts, in full view. (Yet the government has an endless budget for the latest gadgetry to spy on everyone, it employs 35,000(!) people for the NSA, but it can’t even respond to theft and keep communities safe and sane.)
To me any reasonable person would respond to someone stealing their property by beating the shit out of them, or at least giving a best attempt to. In light of the lack of law enforcement – even as we finance the billions’ worth of infrastructure and personnel to spy on everything we do – it seems reasonable that human beings who share things in common stick together and protect each other. I don’t see any convoluted distortion of what being civilized might mean that doesn’t take into account such a basic principle as this.
If someone hurts you or your brother or sister they should get their ass whipped. People should not be out in public view pushing stolen shopping carts filled with stolen bicycle parts down the street without the fear that some pissed off people are going to catch them and beat their royal asses.
But how many here would ever stand up? How many have the backbone to say “fuck this” and stand up? People allow themselves to be pushed over to such an extent that it sickens me. And its not just with bicycle theft either – its with everything. People don’t stand up for what’s right with society – in terms of politics, government, everything.
I think the USA should have compulsory service for men and possibly also for women (there is supposed to be equality so why not?). Perhaps it would be good to shorten secondary education by one year and then have everyone start their service at 17. And there can be yoga training and an organic, vegan meal option. Whether it would be building bridges, defending the borders, or perhaps working on projects to help other countries – it would benefit everybody and help make American society more equal and more strong.
I bet if the kinds of things like the bicycle thefts happened in a place like Afghanistan that people would not stand for it for one minute.
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