Blogging law professor Stephen Bainbridge thinks about service versus servitude. At the core of it all is the idea of mandatory public service -- or at least public service that is a prerequisite for other things.
In good nerd fashion, Bainbridge's post links to the relevant sources.
I'm all for public service, charity work, humanitarian efforts, and all that. But I'm not so sure that I like the idea of making any of it mandatory in any sense whatsoever. You can't FORCE people to be "virtuous."
Goodness knows I hate being pressured in any way to do something that I don't choose to do. While I'm at it, let me declare that I also hate "holier-than-thou" people getting on their virtuous soapboxes to tell me what I should be doing -- should according to them. What a tyranny of self-proclaimed virtue.
Don't even start with arguments that contain the words "for your own good" or, even worse, "for the greater good." Do you know the first casualty of any effort that's publicly trumpeted as "for the greater good"? I'll tell you: individual freedoms, liberties, choices, and self-determination. Why not steamroller over a few intransigent individuals if you're convinced that it's for the greater good? I mean, really. Pffft.
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