COMPULSORY VOLUNTEERISM

There is a large segment of society, and especially politicians of an authoritarian bent that is dead set on pushing the idea of "Universal Service" on the youth of America.

For example, Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd in remarks he was to deliver this weekend was going to say that he wants, “to rekindle the flame lit in this place with an American Community Initiative that calls once again upon every American to be a part of something larger than themselves …. I want to use the power of the presidency to create the first generation of Americans in history in which everyone will have served their country—40 million Americans by 2020.”

Of course, this is not an initiative exclusively of the left or the Democrats. Among Republicans we find people like Colin Powell and John McCain who think it's just dandy to steal away two years of someone's life for their "compulsory volunteerism," or "paid slavery" or "forced community service," or whatever they want to call it. The implication here is that citizens owe not only their taxes, which might well consume half of their income over their lifetime, but actually some of their actual lives, to the state.

Requiring every American to "serve their country" unless it is in defense of the country in time of national peril is, simply put, UnAmerican. It's more in line with the types of universal service that was required in Soviet Russian, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany It defies everything that this country was founded on.

Yes, it is true that during the time of the Revolution that every able-bodied man was a member of the militia. But the Minutemen were obliged at a moment's notice to defend their community from Indian attack, the British, and other forms of invasion.

They were not ready, at a moment's notice, to empty bedpans at an old folks home, or perform Peace Corps type duties, or clean up slums, or all of the endless tasks that those of an authoritarian mindset think would make them "better people." Tasks that, by the way, they don't want to pay ordinary people a living wage to perform. They prefer to draft young people to be, in effect, indentured servants.

Hillary Clinton says she wants to get away from Bush's "ownership" society and replace it she says, "I prefer a 'we're all in it together' society."

Sound pretty collectivist to me. We aren't "all in it together" when it comes to individuals paying their mortgages, raising their children, competing in the workplace, and making a life for themselves. We own our own lives. We don't need the government and society in general telling us what to do with them!