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this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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Work-life balance obviously goes out the window in a war (actually, life itself does). Does being vulnerable really preclude you from being brave, though?
We live in a hyper-individualistic society which is self-centred. This is only exacerbated by social media, where attention and being the main character is more important than ever. The new generation is living more and more in society. Instead of being part of society. Being part of something bigger is uncommon nowadays. Which makes participation in something as extreme as a war unfathomable. If you look at countries with high levels of civil sense like Taiwan. We see school uniforms and military service. Kids are being raised to be part of a free and democratic society, not to just live in it.
I can't really provide evidence for or against that in recent years, but I'll point out the greatest generation grew up during the literal great depression.
Vulnerability not, but sympathy misunderstood for empathy will. I don't think German Gen Z doesn't enlist because of vulnerability, but because of culture. German liberal nationalism relies on 'Never again' as a mantra of nonaggression; to them the Bundeswehr was always a compromise against the NVA.
Schools until recently told us that conventional war is 'fallen out of time', "look at UN, EU, OSCE".
As a German Gen Z my main concern would be the fact that you can't rely on the promise that our army is purely there for defence. I'm ready to defend my home and the home of my neighbors but I'm not willing to be sent to another continent to (allegedly) do so. Right now that may not be an issue but these things can change overnight.
What do you mean? Germany is defended in the Hindukush of course /s
Exactly 😄
Last year I was seriously considering having myself examined for those new-ish territorial defense units in the reserve.
With the theoretical possibility of an AgD/CxU government the risk of having to guard some camps instead of critical infrastructure has become greater than 0, therefore I will wait for at least six months to see how Fritz von Papen fares.
German liberal nationalism is a sham for different reasons, but also neoliberalism destroyed the economic social contract.
Why should i die, so old people can sit in their large houses unaffordable to me, despite my better qualification, while they also destroy the environment and proudly fuel climate change with their big cars and cruise travels? Of course there is also plenty of old people who barely get by. But those dont demand the young people to sacrifice themselves in the reactionary "liberal" media.
At the same time Germany does have access to higher education without going through the military if you aren't affluent. So forcing the poor into the military as the only option to escape poverty is not as severe like in the US.
You should look at it through a more utilitarianism POV. If your country gets invaded, not only do you loose your way of life, culture and society get impacted to the point where you won't be able to continue as normal, but the environmental destruction of war in your own country far outweighs what the gerontocratic part of your society does today. You only have to look to Ukraine for that.
So it might be more advantageously to voluntarily undergo military training, so that in the event of an invasion you can try to defend your way of life and continue to strive for a more equal and environmental conscious society after the war is over.
Wow, that's been the attitude here too, but you never hear people say it outright.
Technically, conventional war is largely obsolete. As long as you do have a reliable and credible nuclear deterrent. Germany has long been in the very comfortable position to fool itself into deeming conventional war obsolete without having to maintain an own nuclear deterrent. With the USA finally having revealed itself to even the most servile transatlanticist as an utterly unreliable ally, (in fact, as more of the kind of "ally" commonly referred to as "enemy") this illusion is falling apart.
Oh, well that's true. How is the offer of formal protection by France being received? I'd hate to see more proliferation.
Yeah that's why current events hit people twice as hard. We basically all assumed peace to be a given. It's not.
I wish the West could have woken up before it was on top of us.
Better late than never
Absolutely.
It was true. It was the longest continuous peace in Europe ever.
Yeah, but, they all end. Nobody ever had a good argument why it had to go on forever.