re: #264 Romantic Heretic

Basically the same idea as in Starship Troopers. People like to lambast that book for ‘promoting the military’ or some such. They overlook that signing up was for ‘Federal Service’, not ‘military service’. Heinlein mentioned that service could include space traffic controller or even just washing floors in said spaceport.

The point was is that a potential citizen had to prove they were willing to give up a little of their life, or perhaps their whole life, in support of The Federation. Prove that the society they lived in was more important than themselves.

I also agree with your dad about bringing people together from disparate parts of the nation. It’s my belief that the West did as well as it did after WWII because of WWII. People from every part of the nation and every class ended up working together. In the process they became people to each other. They were all Americans, or Brits or Canadians or even Germans. It made it hard to be nasty to others from other states, provinces or classes. An individual might have a friend they served with there and would say “No way!” to attempts to hurt them.

That has changed since and I think it shows.

That idea actually exists IRL, in the form of NCCC. It is a survival of the FDR Civilian Conservation Corps. Our Habitat affiliate hosted (worked to death) a large number of them for two years. That let us work through the week—we built a lot of houses. Many of the kids were prepping for or on break from college. It was the only time I’ve ever seen a girl use the Pythagorean Theorem to lay out a shingle pattern.

The GOP has been trying for decades now to strangle its operating funds and ‘GI Bill’.

nationalservice.gov