Martial Slavery

Anthony Gregory on why the draft is evil.

It strikes me that the reason that so many people cannot make the connection between the draft and slavery is because it has become a big enough part of our culture (albeit one that no longer exists) that we cannot look at it as it is, for that would shatter much of how we se oursevles.

Put another way, it is very difficult to admit that the US had legal slavery up until 1973. Therefore, to allow us to fool ourselves into thinking that we did not, we like to distinguish the draft from slavery.

I suppose there are also a bunch of people out there who assume that there ought to be a collective legal obligation to serve society, and so do not see a draft as slavery because they feel it is simply fulfilling an implied social contract.

But some of that, too, I feel, is a rationalization because we hate to think of our government as a slavemaster.

In any case, I have the feeling that the practical objections to the draft will prevent it from being used in the near future, so, with luck, this is all a theoretical exercise.

That is all.