Lew, I critiqued the idea of national (socialist) “service, known in Germany at one time as “The Hitler Youth,” twenty-one years ago in The Freeman. Ayn Rand said it best when she said that the basic idea of “national service” (which was being advocated by William F. Buckley, Jr. at the time) was that America’s youth are essentially useless if they concentrate on educating themselves, learning a trade, pursuing a career, running a business, and raising a family. Being “sacrificial lambs” for the state, on the other hand, is what constitutes genuine “service” to humanity. Government-mandated “service” is, of course, just another way of saying “slavery.”

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