Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
Youtube always shows off all the progressive and positive aspects of Europe. Bike lanes, relable trains. Was so jealous. Then heard that my game buddy is off to manditory milatary service.
The idea that the government can take away a year of your life, and thats normal is still a tough pill to swallow.
Finn here. The willingness to defend the country is high in Finland. For a small country like Finland it's the most cost-effective way to keep up a credible defense. I guess a professional army might be an option now with NATO membership.
And, yes. It feels like the normal thing to do.
My grandfathers did it (and fought in two wars), my father did it, my older brother did it, plenty of friends did it at the same time as me.
It's an experience you can bond over very quickly.
Theres definatly SOME good to it. Hell, maybe that will help reduce the crime rate too*. From what ive heard, you are forced to learn a skill, so more skilled workers.
*Just came back from holiday. First taxi from the airport has dents in the doors from kids throwing rocks. Depressing here
Probably. Pretty much anyone who wants to go career can.
It's 5-6 months for the shortest service. In my case I volunteered to drive big rigs, so 12 months and I got a driver's license that would've required two years of lorry driving as a civilian. It's been my backup plan in case my career in rocket science hadn't worked out.
I think there's value to mandatory military service when your aims are primarily defensive. Country gets invaded and not only are there lots of people in the army already, but also there's plenty of reserves who just need refresher training. When you're the one getting invaded, you usually don't have problems with motivation unless the current regime has really fucked up.
When you try to use a largely conscripted army for invasions, like Russia is doing, people start to wonder why the hell they're doing this.
Conversely, when your country is known for military adventurism like the United States, it's easier to motivate volunteers. They signed up for this, and as fucked up as it is, they almost want to be sent off to war in some far off land. England also has generally used a volunteer military throughout its imperialist history. Giving your citizens the choice works better if you're going to be doing imperialism.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Do you think Europe is one country?
Doesnt the origianl post also treat Europe as one country?
Ugh, there are talks of reintroducing mandatory military service in Germany because of Russia (and a little bit for social services as one can do them as an alternative). Although I see that it might be necessary I hope that my kids won't have to serve.
I don't mind the idea of mandatory service to one's country, but "military" should be optional. I'm sure there's loads of important infrastructure projects that need doing, environment cleanup, various jobs to instill a sense of ownership and belonging while doing measurable good.
At least here in Finland, the military part is optional.
Kind of a compromise for smaller countries that want to have a standing army. And some countries offer alternatives like civil service or paying additional taxes instead for those that don't want to serve in the military.
The US having expensive higher education driving poorer people to join the military to afford it is bleaker honestly.
Well the thing is that not rvery country has this.
America here. I think that mandatory service is fine. Living in a largely democratic country should come with a price tag, not just be something that you get for free. E.g., immigrants that naturalize have to put a lot of effort into naturalization; as a result, they're usually much more personally invested in their civic life, on average, than typical citizens. Maybe ppl here would care more about fixing the country instead of just making sure they got theirs if they had to work for a year or two as conscripts.
A year in retail too, while we're at it.
Truth. The time I spent in retail made me much more patient.
I think there should be mandatory service, but not necessarily military service. Something like the old Civilian Conservation Corps.
But I'm also old enough that this policy wouldn't affect me directly, so take that as you will.
Sadly, I am too old as well. I tried to join a number of years ago, but was unable to due to a medication I was on. Waivers would have let me join during GWOT, but I was pretty opposed to our wars of choice.
They already take more years of your life away with school
"Take away a year of your life" is hyperbole.
It's not like you're dropped into 70s Vietnamese jungle with a garrot wire and some amphetamines.
It's more like a year long summer camp. Learn basic soldiering, learn some kind of speciality whether it's catering, logistics, or mechanics, and earn a good salary.
Most people go backpacking for a few years afterwards to spend the money they earned.
If you'd rather play games instead it's pretty easy to get an exemption.