A comment in a diary a couple days back got me to remember that basically I learned 'everything I need to know' about society by reading Robert Heinlein books. While his works were always very well written and entertaining, he put forth some ideas that really seem appealing in these days of personal irresponsibility and political stupidity.
Today, I'm going to excerpt a section of Starship Troopers, which, while not necessarily one of the best reads in his canon, contains several very good (IMNSHO) monologues on possible ways to cure some of the current ills of society. Either I just don't recall it being so bad as a child, or he was extremely prescient to see the way we were headed....
Ok, so today's reading, class, is in response to a diary about Rangel and the Draft.
A number of people have called the issue a dead horse on dKos, but I felt this section of Starship Troopers summed up my opinion so well (probably because reading it a couple of decades ago formed my opinion) that I thought it worth putting up here.
Heinlein wrote
The Army makes no effort to find deserters and bring them back. This makes the hardest kind of sense. We're all volunteers; we're M.I. (Mobile Infantry) because we want to be, we're proud to be M.I. and the M.I. is proud of us. If a man doesn't feel that way about it, from his callused feet to his hairy ears, I don't want him on my flank when trouble starts. If I buy a piece of it, I want men around me who will pick me up because they're M.I. and I'm M.I. and my skin means as much to them as their own. I don't want any ersatz soldiers, dragging their tails and ducking out when the party gets rough. It's a whole lot safer to have a blank file than to have an alleged soldier who is nursing the "conscript" syndrome. So if they run, let 'em run; it's a waste of time and money to fetch them back.
Heinlein, if I recall right, was a retired Navy type, so I'd think his views are worth more than my 2.5 cents. They certainly make sense to me. Someone who believes in what he's doing will do his or her best to do it well. Somebody who is pulled in, perhaps against their will, to do it, will perform more poorly, and possibly endanger the lives of others. (I edited this paragraph, several readers have corrected me that Heinlein did not achieve high rank.)
If any dKos'ers out there are unfamiliar with the writings of Robert Heinlein, I highly recommend them. Quite a few were written for teenagers, so most are very easy to read, but not insultingly so, and most contain musings on thought provoking social issues and moral guidance without an overlay of religiosity.