National Service

[Alex K]

Over twenty years ago, a younger version of myself laid in a coffin-sized rack aboard a submarine 800 feet beneath waves that were thousands of miles from hearth and home. As if my longing wasn't enough, I struggled with the thought that back home there were men that were actively beating the shit out of their wives and children. This self-inflicted mind fuck preoccupied me for a few days. At first I excused it by convincing myself that I wasn't in part protecting the freedom of the wife beater, but had to admit that I was. The fact is that my service contributed to a broader good that wasn't easily quantifiable and necessarily helped protect freedoms not only to of my countryman, but other world citizens that our mission was designed to protect. Now, I don't ever have to accept wife beating as a natural outcome of freedom. It's illegal and punished appropriately when recognized and proven. What the thought process did affirm, broadly speaking, is that free people may use their freedoms in ways I don't agree with, even if legal. The important part was freedom.

My dedication to liberty means that I could never support mandatory service to the state. Telling someone that their manner of service is subject to personal discretion doesn't negate the fact that they have been deprived their liberty. 

I've had this conversation before and some like to argue that I shouldn't be opposed because I am not 'perfectly' free in that I have to pay taxes and get a driver's license etc. I am compelled to obey the laws of society to which I am born or leave. If I stay I must accept, but work through the accepted means for change towards more liberty. What I don't have to accept is further erosion of liberty, particularly where compulsion is invoked.

How about the obligation to get a school education? Is that also unacceptable? I ask because I don't have a hard time imagining a year or half a year of service as part of personal formation akin to schooling.