Should conscription be re-introduced in 21st Century Australia? (1 Viewer)

[will-anal]

What about Russia?

See, every example of NS we come up with is shit because only moronic nations have NS.

 

[David Spade]

russia is bad too because they have extremely high rates of suicide because it is so fun and good for them

 

[Iron]

Srs u guys it would be like srs business scouts or something. Every young man would get an accute sense of the nation, make friends with kids from other states, different backgrounds etc etc. Really give themselves a grounding in life before they set off for uni/learning a trade etc. Would also make them fit and confident members of society in a better position to make positive contributions to the whole. It's all about community, healthy living, socialisation, masculinity, the joys of nature and building the confidence to take on the whole world. This is all positive. Life is far more than simply the individual and Rudd Labor should remind us of this now.

In terms of the military aspect, sure I agree that defending the nation etc makes little sense today. Ideally it would be run by something like the UN or some other association for good, like the peace corps. I dont think u should make a big deal about 'forcing' people. It would be more like an all expenses paid holiday imo

Hey, whatever happened to Rudd's idea about having uni students donate a year to charitable/community works to minimize their hecs debt? I was on fire about that

 

[will-anal]

What about Singapore?

Armed Nips.

Sounds great.

 

[jennyfromdabloc]

You say I am contradicting myself because I have nothing against freedom, yet I want to impose a requirement on people. It is a truism to say that compulsory service does not entail complete freedom.

Yes it is a truism, and truisms are true. That's why it should be obvious that what you are advocating is anti-freedom. You even admit it "does not entail complete freedom" as though its just a minor restriction.

Having the government tell adults what to do with their working lives for several years is a pretty huge restriction of freedom.

What I am saying, is that based on the justification of the compulsory nature of schooling, I see no issue in extending that to national service.

I never said a volunteer army would be worse, so I don't know where you're getting that from (but on of the biggest issues with national service is the amount of resources required to run it), and iirc, conscripts were never meant to serve overseas - they were only meant to serve in defence of the nation itself, on its land. I don't know the exact technicalities of this, and I don't particularly know which policy would be better.

Oh and last time I checked, people can drop out of school, uni, tafe, you don't make an immediate contribution, and you don't learn the things you do in this sort of scheme e.g. discipline, developing team skills and that kinda stuff.

Well for this argument to make sense we have to accept that compulsory schooling is justified in the first place. I would argue that it is not at all a good idea. Even though I would be in the minority, your argument is nothing more than an appeal to the status quo.

Even then, it is a weak appeal to the status quo. Even if we accept the status quo and that compulsory schooling is a good idea, we also accept that people in Australia become adults at the age of 18, and that the government cannot force us into compulsary education of any kind beyond this age.

You also have to demonstrate why discipline is good. I'd argue that discipline in this context is just a euphemism for blindly following orders, which is in fact terrible.

As for team skills, why can't these be developed just as well if not better in the workforce, or at university? Espescially if as you say people could just choose a civilian based national service role.

 

[moll.]

Srs u guys it would be like srs business scouts or something. Every young man would get an accute sense of the nation, make friends with kids from other states, different backgrounds etc etc. Really give themselves a grounding in life before they set off for uni/learning a trade etc. Would also make them fit and confident members of society in a better position to make positive contributions to the whole. It's all about community, healthy living, socialisation, masculinity, the joys of nature and building the confidence to take on the whole world. This is all positive. Life is far more than simply the individual and Rudd Labor should remind us of this now.

So it's male-only conscription?

In terms of the military aspect, sure I agree that defending the nation etc makes little sense today. Ideally it would be run by something like the UN or some other association for good, like the peace corps. I dont think u should make a big deal about 'forcing' people. It would be more like an all expenses paid holiday imo

Hey, whatever happened to Rudd's idea about having uni students donate a year to charitable/community works to minimize their hecs debt? I was on fire about that

Yeah, that was a good idea. I'd do that.