Raw Story a has a piece on it, with some entertaining comments.
Democrats have for years been extolling the virtues of poorly compensated compulsory service. It's the feel good version of the Republicans' strength through miserable obedience program. The Democrats offer goo-goo satisfaction and oneupmanship sanctimony as a teaser. The Republicans offer hostile goo and a sense of moral victimhood.
The parties are intensely and cynically interested in extracting surplus value through appeals to frustrated compassion. And of course the appeals are targeted at youngsters, who face the prospect of decades of soul-killing drudgery in occupations directly opposed to anything even hinting at compassion. Of the two, the Republicans are a tiny bit more straightforward: miserable obedience, performed properly, offers a little power somewhere down the line. They even have a perverse meritocracy and ethical system. The Democrats' model relies on the Republicans' regular implosions.
Faced with a series of crises, created by what passes for ideology amongst the elite, the Democrats put out a feeler for the market-readiness of old wine in hope'n'change bottles. They want shabbily compensated, compulsory labor as a means of delaying a reckoning for imperial botchery. The sensible thing would be to abandon the misbegotten project. There's no fix for it. Managerial royalism in any cause has nothing to offer, no matter how much enthusiastic "human capital" is poured into propping up stooge regimes and pasting smiley faces on cruel exploitation. It's a cynical ploy and won't change a thing. They may however manage to put a number of ingenuous humanitarians in harm's way.
I used to wonder how they could live with themselves. But the answer is right there. They live quite nicely. Although they occasionally feel sorry for themselves.
Comments (8)
That is very depressing. Like an evil-export WPA? For warzones? Or something? I am scared.
Nice photo, though.
Posted by Emma | July 1, 2010 10:13 AM
Posted on July 1, 2010 10:13
Very depressing indeed. USians give a huge amount of their time to worthy volunteer projects already. I think the effort is drastically undervalued, and know that the amount of hours is seriously underreported. If one is willing to factor in the value of basic family and neighborly assistance, it's easy to see that the overall national economy would completely collapse in its absence.
In short, how much more do these thieves want? There's not a lot left to give them. And no reason at all to help prop up their infantile empire dreams.
Posted by Al Schumann | July 1, 2010 11:23 AM
Posted on July 1, 2010 11:23
They want everything, of course.
The only help I want to give our Imperial masters is the kind that ends with them in their graves.
Posted by RedPhillip | July 1, 2010 12:13 PM
Posted on July 1, 2010 12:13
I wonder if Raw Story is trying to play up the idea given their go-to guy for negative comment. And Kurt Nimmo obliged them by saying something predictably insane and ridiculous.
Aside from the obvious attempt to parlay the underemployed American working class into a force for empire, it's a dumb idea because even if the military clears the area as "safe", the sudden influx of soft targets is going to be a resistance fighter's dream come true. How much will public opinion take when we're seeing coffins containing Joe and Jane Six-Pack coming back from Afghanistan along with the usual complement of soldiers? You'd need soldiers in the vicinity playing nanny all the time, which would cut the combat forces available in half. Then what will Obama do? Turn his civilian expeditionary force into a military draft?
I honestly don't know how to interpret this one. I don't know if they're trying this as a backdoor draft, or if they're just stupid and haven't thought the implications through. Nefarious or moronic? With this administration, there's evidence on both sides.
Posted by Nullifidian | July 1, 2010 1:03 PM
Posted on July 1, 2010 13:03
This is just a trial balloon for a possible Campaign 2012 theme.
"Stasis You Can Bereave In"
Posted by Michael Dawson | July 1, 2010 1:07 PM
Posted on July 1, 2010 13:07
Nullfidian,
There ain't nothing like corpsified "soft targets" in formerly "peaceful zones" - and you just know they have to be peacehappy and turrur free, since they have soft targets in them - to drum up domestic pledges to the war machine.
Win/win for the PTB.
They get a whole new batch of complicity targets, and a justification for a more formal draft and/or escalation when those rubes take the predictable bullet.
~ Jack
Posted by Jack Crow | July 1, 2010 1:21 PM
Posted on July 1, 2010 13:21
I think the general compulsory service proposal is a non-starter. At least at this time. The trial balloons for it keep going up, have for a while and will continue to do so, but when the gullible Dem and Rep consumers start to feel they could be personally affected public enthusiasm withers. The more vacuous bootlickers love it, of course.
That's not to rule out some ghastly recruitment for real volunteers, who would indeed serve the purpose Jack describes. I don't where they'd actually find them. There's no shortage of humanitarian outlets right now.
Posted by Al Schumann | July 1, 2010 2:31 PM
Posted on July 1, 2010 14:31
I thought they already had a civilian expeditionary force there. It used to be called Blackwater.
Posted by LA Confidential Pantload | July 1, 2010 10:00 PM
Posted on July 1, 2010 22:00