{"id":16166,"date":"2021-07-07T10:56:18","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T14:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=16166"},"modified":"2025-08-15T09:58:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T13:58:12","slug":"can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Mass Subjugation Save Democracy?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

American Institute for Economic Research, July 7, 2021<\/h3>\n

Can Mass Subjugation Save American Democracy?<\/a><\/h1>\n<\/header>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\"JamesJames Bovard<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Beatings will continue until morale improves\u201d has morphed from an old joke to the latest prescription for national salvation.<\/strong> \u201cCompulsory National Service<\/a> Could Unite America,\u201d whooped a New York Times <\/em>Op-ed headline last week. Prominent media outlets, think tanks, and too many professors and former generals are calling for government to commandeer a year of young Americans\u2019 lives to forcibly restore their faith in the political system.<\/p>\n

Rep. John Delaney made a one-year mandatory service requirement for every 18-year-old a keystone of his Democratic presidential campaign. Last year, the congressionally-created National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service recommended reserving \u201cmandatory service as a last resort\u201d to force Americans to serve as politicians demand. From the Aspen Institute to the Brookings Institution, from the Washington Post<\/em> to Politico, national service is being whooped up as a silver bullet for all that ails America.<\/p>\n

Congress last month created a new federal holiday, Juneteenth Day, spurred in part by focus on the horrors of slavery. But compulsory service advocates are rewriting the script for American history. Apparently, slavery was evil not because of the unjust subjugation but because plantation owners, not politicians, were the profiteers<\/strong>. If the federal government is the beneficiary of forced labor, any quibbles about the 13th<\/sup> Amendment\u2019s prohibition of involuntary servitude are moot.<\/p>\n

Compulsory national service is the deranged civics version of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT<\/strong>). MMT theory presumes that politicians can fabricate and spend unlimited amounts of fiat money without profoundly damaging the economy. Similarly, compulsory national service proponents presume politicians can destroy a vast swath of freedom without harming America. Proponents tacitly assume that the time of young people is of zero value, so their scheme costs nothing. Since every 18-to-20 year old is squandering all their time playing video games and watching Pornhub, why not round them up? But where did politicians acquire the right to command young people to postpone building their own lives?<\/p>\n

Compulsory national service would provide \u201cattitude adjustment\u201d for an entire generation.<\/strong>\u00a0 Many proponents stress that shackling young people is the best way to encourage them to be tolerant and appreciative of people of different backgrounds. Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin favors national service because \u201cyou get people from the city to the country<\/a>, country to the city, you begin to create a new generation that has shared values.\u201d Indoctrination would be a huge part of any such program but the media wouldn\u2019t use that term because progressive values would be inculcated. The vast majority of young Americans spend 12 years in government schools but politicians want more control over their thoughts.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A recent New York Times <\/em>editorial<\/a> on the virtues of mandatory service quoted philosopher William James on how such a scheme could encourage \u201cobedience to command.\u201d A Time <\/em>magazine article<\/a> touting national service approvingly quoted a retired Air Force veteran: \u201cThere isn\u2019t an 18-year-old boy who doesn\u2019t need to get his butt kicked by someone in a position of complete authority.\u201d Do young Americans need to be forcibly taught to recite, \u201cThank you, Master?\u201d<\/p>\n

Compulsory national service could provide politicians with an army to enforce their commands across the nation.<\/strong> After 9\/11, the Bush administration created the USA Freedom Corps \u2013 a White House agency to oversee all federal service programs. The Freedom Corps quickly became assigned to recruiting informants for Operation TIPS \u2013 the Terrorist Information and Prevention System. TIPS aimed to sign up millions of spies\u2014from truck drivers to letter carriers to cable television installers\u2014who would report any \u201cout of the ordinary\u201d behavior to the feds. No clear guidelines were ever issued on what could be considered \u201csuspicious\u201d and worth adding to someone\u2019s federal dossier. The program was widely denounced as a federal snitch system and Congress quickly torpedoed it.<\/p>\n

Idealizing national service requires ignoring a long record of federal failures.<\/strong> The largest employment program of the 1930s, the Work Progress Administration, gave leaf-raking a bad name and was widely derided as \u201cWe Poke Along.\u201d Contemporary economists recognize that FDR\u2019s vast interventionist schemes perpetuated the Great Depression.<\/p>\n

Federal programs are far more likely to blight young people than to turn them into productive Americans.<\/strong> In the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson launched summer jobs programs that promised to teach good work habits to urban youth. Federal auditors warned in 1969 that many teens in federal summer jobs programs \u201cregressed in their conception of what should reasonably be required in return for wages paid.\u201d Vice President Walter Mondale\u2019s Task Force on Youth Unemployment reported in 1980 that \u201cprivate employment experience is deemed far more attractive to prospective employers than public work\u201d because of the poor habits youth learned on government payrolls.<\/p>\n

The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) offers other warnings of the perils of vastly expanding the federal payroll. During the Carter administration, CETA ballooned to provide jobs and training for more than 7 million people. To boost political bragging rights, the feds pressured local governments and nonprofits to maximize the number of CETA hires, turning it into a make-work laughingstock. CETA paid to build an artificial rock for rock climbers to play on, paid \u201cartists\u201d to grope each other\u2019s\u00a0naked bodies to recognize \u201cmale and female characteristics,\u201d and conducted door-to-door food stamp recruiting campaigns. CETA was also a dismal failure for trainees. A Labor Department study revealed that CETA recruits had \u201csignificantly lower post-program earnings\u201d than similar individuals who never enrolled in CETA.<\/p>\n

AmeriCorps is often touted as the model for what a vast national service could become. But unless photo opportunities for politicians are presumed to be of infinite value, AmeriCorps remains the same hopeless boondoggle it was when President Clinton launched it in 1994<\/strong>. Despite its unctuous motto, \u201cBe the Greater Good<\/a>,\u201d AmeriCorps has always been desperate to justify its existence, leading it to divert recruits into political rabble-rousing, endless puppet shows for recycling, dawdling as elementary school playground monitors, and \u201cteaching condom negotiation skills<\/a>.\u201d Though an AmeriCorps honcho boasted that its members had \u201ccommitted a billion hours of service,\u201d the Government Accountability Office thumped the agency for failing to \u201cdemonstrate results<\/a>\u201d and ignoring \u201cthe quality of service provided\u201d by its members. The agency\u2019s inspector general condemned it in 2014 for a \u201cshocking waste of taxpayer funds<\/a>, lax oversight\u2026 and widespread noncompliance with rules, regulations and sound contracting practices.\u201d But the program continues to receive laudatory media coverage because it serves as a smiley face for big government.<\/p>\n

Pundits gush about the tasks that conscripts could do as if there was a magical pot of gold at the end of the compulsion rainbow<\/strong>. Actually, \u201cgood deed chain gangs\u201d<\/strong> would likely be even more shiftless than AmeriCorps recruits. As John Stuart Mill observed in 1848, \u201cIt is a truism to assert, that labor extorted by fear<\/a> of punishment is inefficient and unproductive.\u201d<\/p>\n

But inefficiency is irrelevant to national redemption, right? A New York Times<\/em> Op-ed rhapsodized, \u201cMany aging Vietnam-era veterans attest to the sense of community<\/a> that came with\u2026 involuntary military service.\u201d Regrettably, the writer \u2013 Rutgers University president Jonathan Holloway \u2013 was not able to survey the 58,000 Americans who died in that war to gauge their opinions on the benefits of involuntary military service. Last month was the 50th<\/sup> anniversary of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed how politicians perennially betrayed young Americans by sending them to die on false pretenses.<\/p>\n

But Washington\u2019s \u201cbest and brightest\u201d learned nothing from that damning expose.<\/strong> One of the most prominent advocates of national service is Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who was the U.S. military commander who helped persuade President Obama to send an additional 30,000 American troops to Afghanistan (where more than a thousand of them pointlessly died). An investigation by Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction found that it was \u201ccommon at military headquarters in Kabul \u2014 and at the White House \u2014 to distort statistics to make it appear the United States was winning the war when that was not the case.\u201d In 2019, SIGAR chief John Sopko summarized the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan: \u201cThe American people have constantly been lied to.\u201d<\/p>\n

If military and political leaders didn\u2019t hesitate to lie to the hilt about their wars, why would anyone expect them to be candid about the costs and benefits of mass subjugation<\/strong>? There is no reason to expect any national service scheme to be more honest than the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, the Afghan war, or the typical floor debate in the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n

The compulsory service prescription for unity ignores how politicians are to blame for much of the current national strife. Historian Henry Adams observed a century ago that politics \u201chas always been the systematic organization of hatreds.\u201d The bipartisan vitriol pervading Washington is a reminder that only damn fools expect uplift from politicians.<\/p>\n

One of the clearest lessons from the compulsory service crusade is that much of the nation\u2019s elite media and opinion makers utterly disdain individual liberty. Since freedom for average Americans has zero value in itself, pundits and poohbahs have zero concern about politicians destroying it. Rather than becoming patriotic, conscripts would likely be embittered to realize that politicians wasted a swath of their lives in which they could have developed their minds and talents to make themselves self-sufficient citizens.<\/p>\n

We should not turn young people into cannon fodder for good deeds that exist only in White House press releases<\/strong>. At a time when the media endlessly denounces inequality, remember that the greatest and most dangerous inequality is that between haughty government officials and citizens stripped of their constitutional rights. Peaceful co-existence between all citizens is the recipe for an American revival, not a vast increase in subjugation to indoctrinate the latest Woke Catechism of the Week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Institute for Economic Research, July 7, 2021 Can Mass Subjugation Save American Democracy? James Bovard Beatings will continue until morale improves\u201d has morphed from an old joke to the latest prescription for national salvation. \u201cCompulsory National Service Could Unite America,\u201d whooped a New York Times Op-ed headline last week. Prominent media outlets, think tanks, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2921,2533,27,2920,2588,275,2108,811,1757,2922,2923],"class_list":["post-16166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-doris-kearns-goodwin","tag-john-stuart-mill","tag-lying","tag-mmt","tag-modern-monetary-theory","tag-national-service","tag-operation-tips","tag-slavery","tag-stanley-mcchrystal","tag-usa-freedom-corps","tag-william-james"],"yoast_head":"\nCan Mass Subjugation Save Democracy? - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Media is cheerleading for conscripting all young Americans for a year of "national service." Slavery is OK as long as politicians profit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can Mass Subjugation Save Democracy? - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Media is cheerleading for conscripting all young Americans for a year of "national service." Slavery is OK as long as politicians profit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-07T14:56:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-15T13:58:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/WPA-poster-Twitter-sized-three-times.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"726\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/07\\\/07\\\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/07\\\/07\\\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"Can Mass Subjugation Save Democracy?\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-07T14:56:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-15T13:58:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/07\\\/07\\\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1629,\"commentCount\":8,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/07\\\/07\\\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/07\\\/WPA-poster-Twitter-sized-three-times.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Doris Kearns Goodwin\",\"John Stuart Mill\",\"Lying\",\"MMT\",\"Modern Monetary Theory\",\"national service\",\"Operation TIPS\",\"slavery\",\"Stanley McChrystal\",\"USA Freedom Corps\",\"William James\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/07\\\/07\\\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/07\\\/07\\\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/07\\\/07\\\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\\\/\",\"name\":\"Can Mass Subjugation Save Democracy? - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/07\\\/07\\\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/07\\\/07\\\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/07\\\/WPA-poster-Twitter-sized-three-times.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-07T14:56:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-15T13:58:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"description\":\"Media is cheerleading for conscripting all young Americans for a year of \\\"national service.\\\" Slavery is OK as long as politicians profit\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/07\\\/07\\\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/07\\\/07\\\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/07\\\/07\\\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/07\\\/WPA-poster-Twitter-sized-three-times.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/07\\\/WPA-poster-Twitter-sized-three-times.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":726},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/07\\\/07\\\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Can Mass Subjugation Save Democracy?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jim.bovard\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/jimbovard\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Can Mass Subjugation Save Democracy? - James Bovard","description":"Media is cheerleading for conscripting all young Americans for a year of \"national service.\" Slavery is OK as long as politicians profit","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Can Mass Subjugation Save Democracy? - James Bovard","og_description":"Media is cheerleading for conscripting all young Americans for a year of \"national service.\" Slavery is OK as long as politicians profit","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2021-07-07T14:56:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-15T13:58:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":726,"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/WPA-poster-Twitter-sized-three-times.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"Can Mass Subjugation Save Democracy?","datePublished":"2021-07-07T14:56:18+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-15T13:58:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/"},"wordCount":1629,"commentCount":8,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/WPA-poster-Twitter-sized-three-times.jpg","keywords":["Doris Kearns Goodwin","John Stuart Mill","Lying","MMT","Modern Monetary Theory","national service","Operation TIPS","slavery","Stanley McChrystal","USA Freedom Corps","William James"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/","name":"Can Mass Subjugation Save Democracy? - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/WPA-poster-Twitter-sized-three-times.jpg","datePublished":"2021-07-07T14:56:18+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-15T13:58:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"description":"Media is cheerleading for conscripting all young Americans for a year of \"national service.\" Slavery is OK as long as politicians profit","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/WPA-poster-Twitter-sized-three-times.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/WPA-poster-Twitter-sized-three-times.jpg","width":1200,"height":726},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/07\/can-mass-subjugation-save-democracy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Can Mass Subjugation Save Democracy?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16166"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21844,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16166\/revisions\/21844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}