It is a political truism that at election time, politicians try and bribe their people.
This election is not any different and the Conservative party have reached out to what they consider to be their core constituency to excite their imagination and to demand their allegiance and vote.
They’ve done it by offering a type of compulsory National Service for 18-year-olds after they leave school .
Politically this may occasionally be an indication of desperation. The Conservatives have done little or no to conserve society and cultural values. Now they’re apprehensive that their natural base has repudiated them and have provide you with the thought of National Service as being something that may win them votes.
So, for individuals who will not be on the Left, and particularly to Christians, does this have any merit?
Is the thought of National Service something that Christians should support?
Many commentators have identified that the entire idea of belonging to a ‘nation’ has been rejected and downplayed, especially in education and by teachers. It has turn out to be related to white supremacy, and oppressive nationalism, built on a platform of odious colonialism. If you might have a government education set on decolonizing the curriculum, do not be surprised if together with it, you inculcate within the young an aversion to their country and its history.
It then becomes a bit contradictory to suggest being required to affix the armed forces on the principle that dying for a rustic that has turn out to be despised is an inspirational proposition.
At the identical time, the armed forces are reluctant too. They worry that having been shrunk to a historically low level and almost dysfunctional level, the introduction of National Service will place an excessive amount of of a strain on them. Being required to coach teenagers who’re stroppy and resentful because they don’t desire to be there, who do not believe within the armed forces, and resent the lack of their freedom by the hands of the state, is something the military don’t desire to be a part of either. They are badly understaffed and produce other things to do!
But is there a germ of inspiration in this concept that Christians might pick up and reflect back to the federal government? Is this a foul concept that may very well be improved? Could or not it’s become a vision for renewing the community, giving teenagers a unique perspective on life, and teaching them some skills? Perhaps even developing their ‘character’?
We all know from the prophets that “with out a vision, the people perish”.
Our secular culture will not be wealthy in vision. It inculcates a spirit of resentment which drives most of woke cultural aspiration. It peddles a false and hole utopianism, driven by progressive values. And these values, if true to form, will only find yourself in censoring, then imprisoning and ultimately, as Marxism does all over the place, executing its own residents.
Have our progressives learnt nothing from the history of Stalin and the Gulags, Mao Zedong and his mass executions, and Pol Pot’s killing fields?
So perhaps we are able to do higher?
If we consider the thought of conscription as constituted by a covenant between citizen, teenagers and our society, then what might a community conscription programme seem like?
What if, as a part of expressing their gratitude for being educated free by the hands of the state for the perfect a part of 13 years, teenagers were to provide a single 12 months of their life back to the community and back to their society?
One of probably the most serious problems that we face is the decaying infrastructure. What if teenagers were taught to fill potholes within the road surface? The pothole crisis is causing devastating damage to vehicles and anxiety to drivers. Engineering skills may very well be taught, rural and concrete roads made secure, bicyclists protected.
What if teams of teenagers helped to handle the deluge of filthy, decaying litter that corrupts and tarnishes the edges of our motorways and A roads? They might get a way of what an avalanche of fast food boxes flung from cars at night amounts to. And in the event that they have any Green aspirations in any respect, they could clean and rescue the local environment.
The National Health Service never has enough employees. What if teenagers spent a few of their time as a porter in hospitals, helping the sick and elderly move across the corridors from one ward and one operating theatre to a different?
There are other services that depend totally on volunteers. What if teenagers were taught to drive and given access to fleets of cars which were put on the service of the elderly to take them to hospital and medical appointments?
What in the event that they were helped to pass motorbike tests and given decent bikes to hold blood across the country rapidly? What if teenagers were taught gardening skills and sent to the homes of the elderly to do some basic maintenance on gardens and hedges?
What in the event that they were taught plumbing skills and offered to assist cash-strapped local councils as small, modest repair squads, clearing away a few of the backlog of social housing repairs that keep the poorest in our community in squalor?
National Conscription? Teaching children the best way to march, use guns and bayonets? Perhaps not. Learning beneficial life skills and helping to ease the pain and the strain of probably the most vulnerable? Why not?
