I get the sense that many of us are in favour of "national service" - if only we knew what it truly was and that it wasn't used to e.g. beat the shit out of a bunch of foreigners for the sake of Big Oil. IMHO as we get older we get a better sense of community. I've known WWII vets (on both sides) who had "the time of their lives" (in a very literal sense) during the war because they experienced for the first time that sense of community.

It doesn't take a war to do it, tho. I'd like it to me two years long, unavoidable for anyone, to be served in a different part of the country or outside the country, to be paid only nominally (and absolutely equally) and to recompensed with community respect as evidenced by such benefits as discounts in restaurants, free seats on buses and trains, free medical care (though we Canucks have that already) and free higher education. How's that?