Draft, Oil Crash, etc.
So, this week, two particularly disturbing pieces of information have come to my awareness. I’ve been thinking about them and decided to share my thoughts with you. It’s rare that I actually post Substance, so enjoy it while it’s here. 
The first is about the draft. I know many people will have linked to this article and related articles (Senate bill, US House Bill– thanks for the links and for bringing my attention to this issue).
First, it’s a dangerous thing to do. Part of the problem with the United States is that we are already mired in the military industrial complex. Making an individual’s indoctrination into that complex, even if one does not have to actively pursue service in a military role, is highly dangerous. Basic training is a form of brainwashing that encourages “recruits” to think alike and not question authority. Questioning authority is the most basic American right. It is the foundation for many of the Amendments to the Constitution, most importantly the Bill of Rights. Even though the training received after Basic is designed to propmote tactical thinking and military skills, the initial training is basically a method of wiping the slate clean and making everyone like everyone else.
I don’t want to live in a world where everyone is the same. I’d never be able to find my car in a parking lot.
Anyway, the logistical problem of forcing defense service on everyone is also a nightmare. The bill requires military service or service that is deemed in the interests of national defense, according to the President of the United States.
Now, I’m not a Constitutional lawyer, but it seems to me that putting every American citizen’s two-year career into the hands of one person is a bad idea. I mean, even if you think this President is great, you have to admit that we have had some real shlubs in office. And the determination of what is or is not in the interests of national security is so vague, it’s ripe for abuse. Someone sitting in an office pushing a pile of paperwork between defense contractors to cover up their greed is probably serving in the interest of national defense– if they’re white and rich, certainly– whereas someone teaching impoverished Texas border kids how to read and be good citizens is probably not, even though the Texas schoolteacher is actually providing a valuable service in training future residents of our second largest land border area. The cover-up guy is going to fulfill their mandatory military service. The border teacher is going to have their education or work suspended for 2 years so they can go risk death in a foreign country.
This would probably not even be an issue, incidentally, if we didn’t have a nasty habit of starting wars on multiple fronts. Sorry, but can we PLEASE learn from Napoleon and Hitler? And just about everyone else who has ever tried that tactic? It. Does. Not. Work.
Finally, let’s address the whole reason for the draft. The draft exists because we do not have enough soldiers to fulfill the tasks our military wishes to complete. How is it possible that we have so few soldiers, when unemployment is so high? How does that happen? After all, unemployment is hitting pretty hard in the younger crowd, as people with PhDs and 15 years of experience are taking shit-pay entry-level jobs just to stay employed. So, how come this group isn’t signing up to serve in the military? It’s a guaranteed paycheck with benefits, job training, and the best relocation assistance in the world. The fact is, the military is fucking their employees hard right now by increasing the amount of time they spend in the field (think of it as taking away your vacation and weekends) and gutting the benefits, and for a highly hazardous job. People don’t want to join the military because being unemployed is a better gig than going into the military.
So, if every American has to serve in the military, will the budget suddenly expand to pay for them? Sure– but not enough to provide for adequate working conditions and pay. After all, these are “employees” who can’t quit. They don’t have a choice. They HAVE to be there. They won’t be allowed to go anywhere else unless their owners“employers” decide to transfer them.
The draft is nothing more than state-mandated indentured servitude. It’s not acceptable.
The second item was from a User Friendly Link of the Day: Life After the Oil Crash. This page, and its related pages, scared the bejeebus out of me, I swear. I started thinking about all the possibilities of life without petroleum and petroleum products. It’s pretty scary shit, you know. I scared myself so bad, I started talking to John about it, what kind of plan we should make, what we should do, should we move, etc. I think he got annoyed because I started to sound like his mom. Whoops.
Anyway, he brought me some comfort in reminding me that hemp is a good replacement for oil. It can be used as fuel– in fact, it can replace gas in a deisel engine without any special conversion techniques required. It’s excellent for rope, clothes, even building material. It can be altered into a petroleum-like replacement. Aside from getting a battery for our solar panels, so we can power the house even without the grid, we are probably in pretty good shape.
Also there’s an algae that does the same thing, but of course it’s not as sexy as hemp.
Oh, and John mentioned buying a gun, so he can exercise all of his Bill of Rights and for protection in the post-crash world (except, of course, for the fact that GUNS NEED OIL!)
recursive wrote:
I’m not sure this guy’s assertion that classical economic theory doesn’t apply (see http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/PageThree.html) is that well argued. Certainly I can imagine there will be a slowing of growth/progress at some point in the future while things adjust toward non-oil energy sources — even the death rate might rise for a while, but I don’t see how it necessarily follows that half the world’s population is going to die off in the process. Also, his earlier use (in http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/PageOne.html) of things like a few recent blackouts or declining grain production since 1996-1997, or a couple estimates of reduced oil reserves might lead one to speculate that oil prices will go higher in the forseeable future, but I don’t see how it logically follows that we’re going to fall into some new dark ages.
The whole thing seems like a bunch of short-sighted millenarianism. Of course, maybe he saved all the good arguments and logical reasoning for the $20 book.
Posted on 26-May-04 at 8:40 am | Permalink
halfawake wrote:
The draft would be political suicide for the congressmen who vote for it. I seriously doubt it will happen.
Personally, I’m not one to buy into apocalyptic the-sky-is-falling theories. And even if they are right that the oil crash will cause a massive population drop from our current population of 6+ billion people to 500 million people, I say that’s just great. If you think about how much crap we have done to this world, it’s surprising something like that hasn’t happened already. If it takes my death and the death of the majority of humanity to fix this planet, so be it. I would gladly sacrifice humanity for the greater good of this planet.
And yes, I know that I’m in the minority for that opinion. I wouldn’t kill myself to save the environment, but if the environment kills us to save itself, more power to it.
Posted on 26-May-04 at 8:50 am | Permalink
halfawake wrote:
I just thought I’d add onto this a bit. Even if oil does crash and disappear completely, I doubt it’d wipe out humanity like that guy seems to think it will. Humanity as a species has been alive longer than cars and electricity have been existance. It would be a massive setback to lose either of them, but I don’t think it would kill us off completely.
Posted on 26-May-04 at 9:02 am | Permalink
shaddai wrote:
I think he got annoyed because I started to sound like his mom. Whoops.
*snicker* I so almost lost it when I read that!!!
Posted on 26-May-04 at 9:08 am | Permalink
frankisgod wrote:
if this kind of stuff interests you, you should read some books by russ kick. some of his titles are You Are Being Lied To and Everything You Should Know (But Probably Don’t). he’s pretty much all about exposing political indescretion and true agenda as well as bringing to light little known facts about the vatican, the media, etc. one of his most shocking revelations (to me) is the fact that the police/sherriff/highway patrol are under no real obligation (read: under no law) to protect you. so if you die or are injured because of their negligence, you and your family have absolutely no legal recourse. several cases like this have been tried and the families of the people have lost every single time. if that wasn’t the most convincing argument against gun control, i don’t know what is.
melsa*
*i think i’m worn out
Posted on 26-May-04 at 11:39 am | Permalink
earthdog wrote:
Oh, and John mentioned buying a gun, so he can exercise all of his Bill of Rights and for protection in the post-crash world (except, of course, for the fact that GUNS NEED OIL!)
I am not a gun expert, but I think you could clean a guy with a non-fossil fuels like corn oil.
It is scary as shit, but people have been saying the world is going to end since right after it started. Humans evolved from pray animals. That means we are good at dealing with problems right in front of us. I fear that is how we will deal with this problem also.
I do not agree with his math of how a shortfall will compound. There is a good chance that our econmic system would start to change before that.
Posted on 26-May-04 at 3:05 pm | Permalink
slamlander wrote:
and the way it works. For one thing, Basic Training != Brainwashing. It can’t be. There isn’t enough time and that’s not the purpose. The purpose is to toughen recruits up enough to survive in the military and to weed out those that won’t make it. A lot of kids become adults in the process, even the ones that don’t make it. Generally, I don’t think that’s such a bad thing. Most of those that have experienced it tend to divide the world after that in to two parts … those that have and those that haven’t.
As regards the mental casting process that you are also so afraid of. Switzerland has had 100% mandatory military service for a few centuries now. If anything, there is an increased respect for order and a respect for other people. Swiss are also fiercely independent and would never tolerate the infringement of civil rights that the sheeple of the US are currently clamouring for. Yet another country that follows this model is Taiwan, yet another fiercly independent people. In both cases, it is the desire to retain that independence that caused them to come up with their respective systems. Neither country has been successfully invaded since those systems were emplaced.
Yes, each home is well armed and trained, at government expense, and everyone here knows that. Violent crime is nowhere neaver the per capita rate that it is in the US. More ‘peaceful’ countries have trouble claiming that.
No, in neither country do you have ‘cookie cutter’ people. Although, the people of both countries share a common view in the support of their respective borders and sovreignity. In both cases, they aren’t afraid to tell their government just how the cow ate the cabbage.
Oh, and you certainly can’t accuse Suiss of being overly aggresive, during the past 500 years or so. The Swiss Army is purely defensive but, everyone belongs to it.
Posted on 26-May-04 at 8:43 pm | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
There isn’t enough time and that’s not the purpose. The purpose is to toughen recruits up enough to survive in the military and to weed out those that won’t make it.
I don’t think that’s the case with the U.S. Military. From what I understand of those who have gone through Basic, the purpose of Basic is to turn a person into a part of the machine. Part of that is certainly toughening people up. But “recruits” are taught how to act, how to talk, how to eat, how to dress– you are basically broken down as much as possible and re-programmed into what the military needs. There is certainly enough time in the 8-12 weeks of basic training to modify an individual’s behavior enough that their responses will become automatic and encoded, that their thinking processes will change. That is a form of brainwashing– it’s an indoctrination into thinking the way *they* want you to think.
Put it another way– if military service in the US were mandatory, what happens to the “recruits” who don’t make it? Are they excused from their military service? Do they go to jail for not conforming enough to what the military needs? Do they end up transferred to some other non-specific job “in the interest of national security” like “private contractors” getting just as blown up and just as dead in Iraq?
I think part of the reason Switzerland’s military service has worked so well is because of Switzerland’s policy of non-aggression. The U.S. has no such policy or history, and is actively pursuing a foreign policy of aggression (pre-emption if you prefer). The purpose of the draft is to bring in extra, obligated manpower to fuel that aggression.
It may also be that the comparison falls apart on a simple matter of scale and geography. The U.S. has two borders to protect, and both are held by our closest allies. Switzerland and Tailand have more potential encroachments (though geography certainly helps the Swiss), and their populations are smaller compared to the US. It’s entirely possible that, on a matter of scale, the entire Swiss population is what’s needed to defend Switzerland’s borders, whereas far fewer people are needed (compared to our population) to defend America’s.
Posted on 27-May-04 at 4:29 am | Permalink
slamlander wrote:
I don’t think that’s the case with the U.S. Military. From what I understand of those who have gone through Basic, the purpose of Basic is to turn a person into a part of the machine. Part of that is certainly toughening people up. But “recruits” are taught how to act, how to talk, how to eat, how to dress– you are basically broken down as much as possible and re-programmed into what the military needs. There is certainly enough time in the 8-12 weeks of basic training to modify an individual’s behavior enough that their responses will become automatic and encoded, that their thinking processes will change. That is a form of brainwashing– it’s an indoctrination into thinking the way *they* want you to think.
I have been through Basic Training and Special Forces AIT as well. Yes, they train your response mechanisms. They have to. If you stop to think during a battle, you generally don’t survive the battle. The rest of it assures good teamwork under very stressful conditions. The fears are mostly exagerated there. What *is* deeply ingrained there is reality on the battlefield and the responses required to help you to survive it. They aren’t teaching you that Republicans are bad and Democrats are good, for example.
Posted on 27-May-04 at 7:17 am | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
I never said it was about political parties. In fact, you don’t have to change someone’s political affiliation to change how they think. I believe the military changes how people think– the way they perceive and react to situations. In fact, I’ll bet you agree with me. Where we disagree is that I believe this is a terrible, terrible thing to have happen. Innovation occurs very slowly when everyone thinks alike.
But taking your tangent: Even though I think the Dems agree with my values more, I’m not naive enough to believe they’re immune from exploiting the military machine as much as the Republicans (although the set of Republicans who are in power right now are particularly exploitative of that machine, in my opinion).
I think you misunderstood my use of the word “brainwashing.” I used the word deliberately and for sound reasons, but I’ll even admit that my meaning here is not as extreme as what most people think of when they hear “brainwashing.” In any case, jumping on that one word as though it were the entirety of my point is fallacious.
Posted on 27-May-04 at 7:37 am | Permalink
slamlander wrote:
Put it another way– if military service in the US were mandatory, what happens to the “recruits” who don’t make it? Are they excused from their military service? Do they go to jail for not conforming enough to what the military needs? Do they end up transferred to some other non-specific job “in the interest of national security” like “private contractors” getting just as blown up and just as dead in Iraq?
They way they handle it in Swiss and Taiwan is that those that don’t make the medical or for other reasons, get shunted into Civil Service/Defense areas, like Disaster Response teams. Lord knows that the US has plenty of need for that as well.
It may also be that the comparison falls apart on a simple matter of scale and geography. The U.S. has two borders to protect, and both are held by our closest allies. Switzerland and Tailand have more potential encroachments (though geography certainly helps the Swiss), and their populations are smaller compared to the US. It’s entirely possible that, on a matter of scale, the entire Swiss population is what’s needed to defend Switzerland’s borders, whereas far fewer people are needed (compared to our population) to defend America’s.
I thought so too. Do you know how long it takes an F-111 to cross Switzerland? Try six (6) minutes, without the after-burners. When Hitler was turned back, at the Swiss border, it might have made a difference. Hitler then decided to go through the BeNeLux instead. Had he the present development in military tech he might have tried anyway. However, the Alps really are hollow and the Swiss have been shoring up that buttress for centuries. They are also willing, trained, and capable of fighting to the last citizen. That and anyone trying it has to go through the EU first. Now if the EU were to get nasty … they do completely surround Switzerland … It isn’t even that much of a tactical problem. It’s just a very expensive one, for little strategic gain.
Taiwan is so hollow it almost floats. That’s why China limits itself to making noises on the other side of the straights. Taiwan may be the largest fort ever constructed, in the history of man.
Actually, I think that I just helped you make a part of your point. However, All soldiers get trained the same. That does NOT make them mindless automotons. True, they might be a bit more conservative and they may even become more peace-loving. No one, once they really understand the realities of war, wants war. 100% military service is one way of teaching the young that ‘playing soldier’ isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.
Posted on 27-May-04 at 7:40 am | Permalink
slamlander wrote:
I’ve read all sorts of end-of-the-known-world scenarios since the 60’s. They used to get to me. Did you know that we were all sopposed to be dead of famine and over population by 1996? We were also supposed to have completly run out of oil by 1981.
This is yet another doomsday book.
Posted on 27-May-04 at 7:48 am | Permalink
bandicoot wrote:
I was drafted and served, back in the days when we got all of $124/month and had to take part time jobs to be able to afford car insurance and the like. I’ll back up ’s views about Basic and the military.
Keep in mind that this draft bill is the product of a number of far-left Democrats, who are pushing it simply as a poke in the eye of the administration, not out of any actual need. It is in no way supported by either the present administration or the military, as there are plenty of volunteers, not too few, and that includes the Reserves and the National Guard. In fact, there’s another bi-partisan bill that’s been introduced to eliminate Selective Service (the draft system) entirely.
The whole draft flap can be safely ignored.
And rather than project what the military people feel about things like tour extensions and how they’re being treated, just read their livejournals and blogs. Their opinions are just as all-over-the-map as the population at large. They’re all volunteers, and the retention rates are very good. The people serving in the Stan and Iraq are proud of what they’re doing, and they see what a big positive effect they’re having. And yes, they’d love to get home soonest, but not until the job is done. At least, that’s the general feeling I have from reading them
Posted on 28-May-04 at 3:53 pm | Permalink