I think this is more of a personal question for myself to figure out, but it’s one that has been plagued me lately.
The biggest employer in my area is the Northrop Grumman shipyard. Next to that it would be the military. Chances are if you go up to any adult 1 in 5 might work for either of the two. I’ve had some people tell me to go into the apprenticeship for welding at NG, but I respond with, “I don’t want to build warmachines”. A guy I work with recently got accepted into the apprenticeship, and he starts off making around $11, and he said at the end of the apprenticeship he’d be making around $15-16. Even though NG is a private company who happens to build large warships for the government, does this balance out in doing the apprenticeship (and end up making double of what I make now), and move to another place of employment with complete knowledge of welding when the apprenticeship is up? The apprenticeship program is 4 years, and I’m sure there might be a catch that I have to work for the shipyard for a period of time, I’m not completely sure about that.
That is for you to work out, and yes- Northrop will probably have you build them..
But I had the same problem- the DoD offers a program for engineering students that we apply, and if selected they will pay all/most of college expenses and offer internships in the summer for pay, and a guaranteed job for several years when you leave. I have loans at the moment and I am being pressured by my neo-con parents into applying for this. I have the added weight of them currently helping with interest and my dad just being laid off.
Take the job and the movement fails. Complacency is consent. I dont want to send you to the poor house. I am just saying, movements for liberty will go nowhere as long as frightened people keep buying into the machine.
The State isn’t supported because people work for it, the State is supported because people obey it. As many a South American kleptocracy have proven if everyone is on the take and no one is paying their dues, the state comes to naught but a mafia infighting itself.
If you don’t think it is a good idea, do something else. You don’t have to rely on someone else for a job. There are lots of opportunities to work if you’re willing to take a little less money to feel good about what you’re doing.
There are a lot of entrepreneurial opportunities online, where you don’t have to be limited by geography.
The movement as it is, is not dependent on one individual. He’s not being complacent, he’s trying to place a monetary value on his conscience which isn’t an easy thing for anyone to do (except Vichy with his +400 IQ, and +5 damage per strike enchanted mace).
The liberty movement advances as knowledge and awareness increases not when people paint themselves into corners of ideological misery.
Take the best economic opportunity which is available to you. I do believe that soldiering would be a legitimate occupation even in a natural order, though I think it would be a job that would entail a great deal more legal liability for one’s actions than it does today (no such thing as “oops, collateral damage” in a natural order), so the fact that warships are used by the armed forces is neither here nor there. Note that The System is all-enveloping. It’s like the Matrix. No matter what you do for a living, you will be paying taxes and those taxes will be funding wars of aggression all over the world, as will the inflationary devaluation of any cash balance that you maintain. Of course, you shouldn’t sign up for field work at CIA and start killing babies in Afghanistan from a remotely-piloted drone or torturing goat-herders in Afghanistan or coffee farmers in Colombia. But short of directly pulling the trigger, your participation this way or that way is in the noise-region. I don’t even see a problem with joining the military if that works for you as long as you’re not going in as spec ops or advanced infantry (but it’s still a really bad idea for your own welfare).
Beware, you have wheels in your head! Pacifism (or whatever causes you to feel conflicted) does not exist. It is a thought, a construct, an arrangement of words or neurons. It is a spook!
I would do what would be most beneficial for my interest, not the fixed idea which rules me. Become the ruler of that idea. Consume and dissolve, or ressurect and hold fast, at your whim.
I don’t even see a problem with joining the military if that works for you as long
Well the thing is I wouldn’t be part of the military. I’d be working for a private company who happens to building ships the military uses. My problem with that is that my income would be paid for in some way by taxes (what private individuals are buying these things?), and I’d take part in the production of something that would be used for war.
If you don’t think it is a good idea, do something else. You don’t have to rely on someone else for a job. There are lots of opportunities to work if you’re willing to take a little less money to feel good about what you’re doing.
In the long run it would be beneficial for me to enter the apprenticeship, but I don’t want a guilty conscience for reasons stated above.
If every individual doesnt act on what he believes is right, there will be no right. There will only be slaves talking about rights. It has to start somewhere, and buying into their paradigm only perpetuates the system.
Do what you feel is best for you, but if everyone decides to “take the job,” they have thier consent. And the world will keep spinning as it always has.
In my own experience, doing something you know is wrong weighs on you, and you will likely have poor performance, in the long run. Take the highest paying opportunity that you can take pride in.
I know I would appreciate it if you did not voluntarily participate in building these things for the government military. Obviously there’s still numerous people that are willing to do it if you don’t, but if you aren’t willing, then at least now there is one less person willing to support the government’s killing of others. I would consider that progress in that it is the potential beginning of a trend towards fewer people supporting such things. I personally wouldn’t do that apprenticeship, but this is an ethical issue, and it’s impossible for me to prove to anyone else that the ethics/morals I follow (Christian) are the “correct” values that everyone should follow.
Do it Bert. If you think it is a good idea, then do it. Don’t worry about the expectations of others.
We don’t live in a libertarian Utopia. Setting impossible moral standards won’t help the world, and will only create unhappiness in your own life. Your first responsibility is to yourself and your conscience (and responsibilities)]