Authoritarianism
As someone from a country where I was the last year to do that… eh. I dunno. The military service, sure, fuck that. But the alternative if you didn’t want to do that was 1 year of working as a helper in the medical or caretaking field, and those people are missing. It’d be better if everyone just had to do a year of caregiving. It gives you a lot of perspective and is a really good experience, anyways.
I am absolutely in favor of some sort of civil service or CCC-revival in the US. I’m so fucking tired of how anti-social and disrespectful of others Americans are, and it seems like Covid has only accelerated that.
Yeah that’s the thing. It’s one thing to rail about immigrants, the elderly, the homeless, whatever. The same people who do that think quite differently after a year of civil service in a refugee shelter camp, caring in a geriatric station for people with ~no family or providing food for the homeless. It changes you. In a good way, you get to see a wholly different perspective of society, and this perspective is sorely missing with so many people. 😢
When I was in my 20s, the only people I met who were at least somewhat well-adjusted were those who had either worked through college or participated in something like the Peace Corps. Big big fan of mandatory civil service, especially as an option for those who don’t know what they want to do with their lives yet.
