sometimes i wonder what kind of country would we be if our military was not voluntary... or what if our youth, all of our youth had to serve in some sort of volunteering. whether it's the military, coast guard, police, firefighters, etc. would more volunteering, more service to the community and nation among our youth lead towards a betterment of society? or a more cynical society? a less patriotic society? think about the countries with mandatory conscription. think about those families who flee because they do not want their children in the military. (wikipedia entry on military service, with a nice map of non/mandatory countries.) plus, there are issues of gender equality in the conscription. can you imagine families leaving america because they don't want their children in the military and there isn't even a war going on?

these reasons led me to think about volunteering in other ways. but also, even though our military is on a volunteer basis, for many it seems like it's not that they're volunteering for love of country, duty, honor, altruism, etc. but rather for other, perhaps even selfish, reasons. so then one could argue just how 'voluntary' our military service is. there are many options not to join, to do other things, but for some they just don't see any other way out of their current situation. for example, the other reasons might be to get out of where they live (my grandfather), for the scholarship to pay for university (my father), because they didn't really know what else to do in life (someone else i know), or they simply have no other means to support themselves.

it's not really in our country's nature to volunteer i think. i mean, it's more like getting a pat on the head for a good deed rather than seen as something that is basic to growing up, shaping life, and contributing to society. i think a lot of young kids, or at least the ones i went to school with, volunteered because it looked good on paper. they wanted to get into university and to do so they had to have good grades and some extra curricular activities. to volunteer was bonus points. i was against that. i was for volunteering to really help out people because you believed in it and cared for what you were doing. then there's also the issue of money and time. once you get a little older and you leave the nest, it seems like there's no time to even do the things you like, let alone volunteer to help others. your time is already exhausted from working and just maintaining life (sleep, clean, acquire food, etc.). if you do have time to volunteer, then it might boil down to a question of money. perhaps you can't afford to volunteer because you can barely afford to live in general. if you had time to volunteer, might as well get another job to help with the bills. (maybe it's time to volunteer in a third world country then to appreciate what one has?)

some days i just feel like the fundamental blocks of our society are fucked up. i feel out of touch with youth. that they are lost and wandering with no direction. not like i have direction... but dealing with them through jobs i've had and seeing how many young people have lack of education, direction, ambition, hope, future, etc. makes me wonder how different would things be if little things here and there were changed. what if it was like when i was briefly going to public school in japan? what if our public schools had no janitors? what if the students had to clean the classrooms, the yard, the entire campus on their own? and not bring their own lunches but serve the school lunches themselves? would this instill any discipline? any caring to clean around your own house? any sense of duty towards your school? or would it be like how i experienced it in japan. would the girls do pretty much all the work and the boys would sit on their asses? that would suck and defeat the purpose of letting students do things. then again, so would mandatory volunteering. people would no longer do things to help because they wanted to, but because they had to. that might be just as bad or worse than doing it to look good on paper.

perhaps instead our country's attitude could shift towards one will be well-regarded to take time out from the education/occupation contiuum to serve a year or two of volunteering at home or abroad, or of traveling around to gain international experience and awareness. it seems that a lot of scholarships to help people get a higher education are geared towards those fresh out of high school. there is no time to wander about to figure out what one wants in life, to volunteer, to see the world, etc. because you'll lose out on $ that you absolutely need to better yourself. there's other things tied to this, tangents i could go on as if this wasn't already a tangent but i just wanted to get these ideas from out of my head and down into the written word.