Lilac Festival (New York)/Minnesota Day/Military Spouse Appreciation Day/Chair Day/Strawberry Festival (Tennessee)
2007-05-11 @ 1:18 p.m.

Life in camp suddenly got a lot more dreary. Why, why, why? With only half a year to go, it had to become totally sucky. I swear I'm doing things that are definitely not part of my vocation. It's ridiculous, but I'm beyond lamenting it. Not like it'd change anything, so I might as well shut up and do as I'm told. When you think about it, NS is a really good way of conditioning half of the population to submit to the paternalism of our government. After all, when you spend two years knuckling under regimental authority, just imagine what you'd do when that authority turns paternalistic after you ORD. Contrary to popular belief, the instinct isn't to rebel (and the promise of reservist training curtails that anyway). It's a singular achievement of the government that it's consistently delivered on (most of) its promises, always casting every decision as being for the greater good of the country and a reflection of the foresight of those in power. It'd take a lot of idealism to want to break free of such a system, idealism that I can cynically declare I don't possess.