Professor J,
Like anything else there are lots of ways the mandatory service thing could go wrong. But in a nation with so many fatherless young men, those who lack discipline, and who have so little respect for themselves and others, I think the positives might outweigh the negatives.
I find the balance between seeing things as they are, which is pretty bad, and maintaining hope that they can be better hard for lots of people. What you see most often instead of hopeful realists are either Pollyannas or Doomsday Preppers. Neither of which are all that helpful in problem solving.
And as far as looking for adults I think my two years of service between high school and college would help immensely.
Last night I went with my son to the Italian Film Fest at his university. The movie was a documentary about Venice and I expected it to be the standard fare about the city sinking and the tourists ruining it. But the problems presented were much more complicated.
Teorema Venezia (The Venice Syndrome) depicted the situation in which residents of Venice find themselves. Property is being bought up by investors for rentals at astronomical prices, but the real problem was that the infrastructure (schools, post office, and businesses like markets and groceries) are closing. So the residents, many of whom have lived on the island their entire lives are being forced out due to an inability to survive.
The citizens had clearly been sold out by their city leaders. The money was bypassing the residents and going directly to the big corporations, cruise lines, and investors. Little of it remained in the city to keep anything going. The feeling of the people was that they were being driven out so the city could become a sort of tourist attraction with no real residents, an Italian Disneyland with canals and history.
Interesting how many citizens around the world are facing problems that have no simple solutions.
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