Conscription is a form of slavery
This text is part of: "Problem of Schooling" by Piotr Wozniak (2017-2024)
Conscription is immoral
Conscription is compulsory military service.
As much as school is a form of slavery for kids, conscription is a worse kind of slavery for the adolescents. The roots of schooling and conscription are similar. The Prussian education system was born in the need to educate conformist masses for the use by a monarch, church, army, etc. School evolved towards a more civilized form aimed at "enlightenment". Modern politician may see benefits in a cultural and social "melting pot" that could homogenize the youth and produce more conformist citizenry. Compulsory military service has little value for modern military readiness. For the same reasons, compulsory schooling has little value for fostering bright minds.
Modern appetites for conscription are partly based on the immortal effort of the older generation to use the younger generation without much concern for their rights. We use conscripts to avoid taxation required to pay the cost of the army. We send kids to school for safe keeping to get more time for our own careers. Youth have no vote in democracy and is defenseless. This is why it is a form of "cheap labor".
Conscription in Poland
My criticism of conscription is ferocious for it was the compulsory military service that pushed me into ten extra years of education at Polish universities. In addition, my vehement and victorious battle for freedom in 1986 might have decided the early emergence of spaced repetition. Had I lost, my work over SuperMemo might have been quashed by the noble effort of crawling in a mud pit (for details see: The Army).
My violent opposition to conscription in 1986 was a result of being driven by clear goals in life. I hypothesize then that the survival of conscription must be associated with education systems that produce obedient citizenry with lesser chance to crystallize goals in youth. It is also helpful for the state to snatch students early enough before they really have a chance to find out what they want from life.
Thankfully, conscription in Poland ended in 2009. But in 2020, a 19-year-old genius in Finland can still have his life disrupted by the anachronic concept of serving in the army without consent. We will never know which great ideas will not be born. Resentments or mental health consequences may last for life.
Wherever freedoms are limited in a nation, they equally affect kids at school, and the stance on the compulsory military service. Political appetites for enslavement in the name of conformist human services are slow to die.
I point to the compliance with conscription as a scary side effect of the allegedly great and humane Finnish school system (see: Finnish paradox).
Even the opponents of compulsory schooling seem to acknowledge than occasionally we may need conscription to survive. To me, conscription is even a greater violation of human rights than coercive schooling. Obedience to military causes lead to 20 million deaths in World War 1. What did that war accomplish beyond that what might have been accomplished by peaceful means? I cannot say. To me that's 20 million deaths in vain. I asked a prominent historian; he stated that it was a war that was originally welcomed by the warring populations.
A good lubricant for such madness is compulsory schooling. Prussian school model was actually inspired and motivated to a large degree by leaders who thought of having obedient cannon fodder at hand.
Allegedly, Finland needs to be ready because its neighbor Russia is governed by a tyrant Putin (2021). 18-year-olds need to wallow in mud with a gun to be ready to face Putin's nuclear arsenal?
If youth in the army is so vital, let each conscript be paid by taxes of those who deem themselves unsuitable. Why those who hold the power of democratic vote over children can force them to do things for free? That's criminal (see: Children should vote). Offer a pay that is high enough to attract young people to the army, and the moral dilemma is solved. Those who command lives of others while watching news or voicing their opinion on Facebook should vote to pay their bravery in taxes for those who actually serve.
Smart people do not comply
In response to compulsory military service, smart people become conscientious objectors, object the draft, or enlist for a dignifying pay.
As much as compulsory schooling leads to no genius, compulsory military service provides no great military leaders nor great hope for victories. One Navalny can be a death nail for Putin, and Navalny is a product of genius, rebellion, and bravery. Those qualities are systematically destroyed at school. School demands unquestioning obedience.
With a population free, if the ouster of the tyrant becomes a national priority, all it takes is a few genius hackers, or a few robot or drone experts, or a brave rebel of Navalny's character. No tyrant can keep a diverse nation of talent in check. Diversity is power.
Compliance with conscription is a clear statement to the world: my brain and intelligence are of less value than my execution of orders from above. My passions and goals do not count for enough beyond what I could accomplish as a faithful soldier.
The draft is born from the same conceptual error as compulsory schooling. No wonder then that Milton Friedman, intellectual father of school choice, had also a major contribution to ending conscription in the US (1972).
Who supports conscription today? Who rationalizes its value in case of trouble? People who have no sense of global cohesion of mankind. Those are primarily people who never mastered English, and never felt part of global community. Thus one language for the world is also a means facilitating the ever-lasting peace. In the new unified global community, war is an anachronism and so is draft.