Germany votes to bring in voluntary military service programme for 18-year-olds

To offer a bit of context, the same government just voted to raise current pensions at the expense of steep taxation hikes for current workers, made massive cuts to social services, and is now discussing military service.

This generation is rightfully feeling like they're getting a sore deal.

Yes and the question is who does the German state really target to enroll in their "new" army. Because "This generation" has a lot of clearly distinct groups.

So it could be:

- the native young population who are now flocking in the AfD

- the people fighting the AfD in the street

- the second generation immigrants born there

- the very recent immigrants

- a mix of all

Because the alchemy of creating a working army and "esprit de corps" is much harder than in a corporation. You cannot just take a modern managerial approach to creating an army.

A mix of all will end up obviously in a disaster but selecting on any group will end up in a civil war or coup.

> A mix of all will end up obviously in a disaster

Why would an army that directly mirrors the civil society be a bad thing?

Because the military and war is like putting a society in a pressure cooker. Nothing good comes out of it.

We have been told in most stories that this is a time when people come together and stand up but this is really propaganda.

The reality is most people go a little bit crazy and paranoid in these situation. Understandably.

For example, friendly fires have always been very much under reported. Can you imagine what it lead too when an army is already a bit suspicious of each other?

Dude, it's kids. Their mind isn't set in stone, their opinions aren't very founded. Basic military service also includes ethical/political education. People are not getting packed into trenches yet, it's not prison. If anything, this is going to help tensions in society. They will share rooms, showers, dirt and sweat. We're all the same. Nothing has been shown more effective at tearing down prejudices than actual exposure and confrontation.

> We're all the same. Nothing has been shown more effective at tearing down prejudices than actual exposure and confrontation.

History is full of counter-examples.

Under scientific scrutiny it is not, tho. Contact interventions are considered the most effective tool to reduce prejudices across domains.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_hypothesis

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014971892...