I was heated, sure. I responded to the notion that conscription can or should be brought here the same way I would if someone said “times are tough were going to have to start using slave labor to save the economy.” Mandatory enlistment, forcing everyone in society to join the military, is equivalent to that, in my opinion. It is one of the most objectionable things any society has ever done, in my opinion.
I completely agree with you that mandatory enlistment is essentially never acceptable as if a conflict is so dire, you’d expect citizens to feel empowered to join the fight without fear of penalty or retribution if they didn’t.
That being said, I think most of what you were replying to was not an argument for mandatory enlistment, they were suggesting that we might want to include a couple years of work placements following high school, with one option being military service but other choices being available and none decided by the government. I also believe they were suggesting that the penalty for not doing so would be similar to penalties for not attending high school and not what we’ve seen countries implement as penalties for conscription. I’m not saying that plan is perfect but I can at least see a significant nuance between their suggestion and military conscription.
I think a big part of this miscommunication was the language used earlier, like civil service and conscientious objectors. In a system like you’ve described, i don’t think that having that as an option is necessarily a bad thing so long as it is voluntary. There are lots of benefits to programs that incentivise community service. I don’t particularly like the way we recruit high schoolers into the military already, I genuinely just think a lot of the practice is manipulative and misleading. But so long as it is voluntary, it is what it is.
I was heated, sure. I responded to the notion that conscription can or should be brought here the same way I would if someone said “times are tough were going to have to start using slave labor to save the economy.” Mandatory enlistment, forcing everyone in society to join the military, is equivalent to that, in my opinion. It is one of the most objectionable things any society has ever done, in my opinion.
I completely agree with you that mandatory enlistment is essentially never acceptable as if a conflict is so dire, you’d expect citizens to feel empowered to join the fight without fear of penalty or retribution if they didn’t.
That being said, I think most of what you were replying to was not an argument for mandatory enlistment, they were suggesting that we might want to include a couple years of work placements following high school, with one option being military service but other choices being available and none decided by the government. I also believe they were suggesting that the penalty for not doing so would be similar to penalties for not attending high school and not what we’ve seen countries implement as penalties for conscription. I’m not saying that plan is perfect but I can at least see a significant nuance between their suggestion and military conscription.
I think a big part of this miscommunication was the language used earlier, like civil service and conscientious objectors. In a system like you’ve described, i don’t think that having that as an option is necessarily a bad thing so long as it is voluntary. There are lots of benefits to programs that incentivise community service. I don’t particularly like the way we recruit high schoolers into the military already, I genuinely just think a lot of the practice is manipulative and misleading. But so long as it is voluntary, it is what it is.