Service Nation?

They've largely changed the tune in the recent weeks due to criticism of other people also concerned about mandatory service. Since writing this topic I've also been informed that they now aren't actually about pushing mandatory service and they seem to want to distance themselves from the National Service Act.

Nevertheless, National Service Act exists and is alive and well and the organization pushing it is also a supporter of the Service Nation campaign. On the National Service Act site you can find this:

Then when you look at the text of the Universal National Service Act of 2007, where it defines "voluntary" service (section 103 e) it says this:

So you cannot actually choose NOT to do it. You only have a choice to do some other kind of service instead or do it at another time. But that's not "voluntary". Choosing between what you're going to be forced to do cannot be called "voluntary". But as you can see they're being quite subtle about it. Even this very text can be looked at by someone easily deceived and agree that National Service Act nor the National Service campaign have no danger of pushing mandatory service, yet that seems to be the likely outcome.

Which is why I wouldn't just take a quote from the campaign site and call it an end all evidence.

That said, considering that they've changed their tack and are nevertheless professing to support true voluntary service only and that the campaign itself might not be in support of this exact bill, I've suspended my building of ServitudeNation.com. It may be that the Service Nation campaign is merely an "unfortunate" namesake of the more heinous Service Nation Act so attacking it "head on" might not be the best strategy at this point.

BUT, I still believe that this campaign is an excellent opportunity for the actual mandatory service to be pulled through. As you can see, it is pretty easy. The act is called the same as the campaign. The "voluntary" service is being redefined subtly. As the buzz around the campaign builds up, ANSA (Americans for National Service Act) may find it pretty easy to push their bill.

And bottom line is, even without the whole mandatory service business, Service Nation is largely misguided. It seeks to use government service to solve problems, yet governments cause most of them. It also popularizes the concept of "service" in the name of so called "public good" and "nation" thus boosting the legitimacy of those concepts. Yet in reality there is no such thing as "public good", only the good of the individuals which ultimately make up a healthy society.

Wow, I never even heard of the service nation thing until today. Then again, I never read any mainstream news except occassionaly what is on the yahoo front page. I think I may have heard about the legislation thing though. I think people (in my country the USA) used to do more community service in general than they do now, and I think a lot of factors are going into that. For one thing, I think work takes up more of people's lives than it used to (longer workweeks anyone) for another, I know some people are disgusted with their communities, namely the people in them and would rather not run into someone they know.