E Pluribus Unum: A Case for Compulsory National Service

Read Joe's 10,000-word essay here. When you hear the words compulsory national service, your head might fill with images of the draft. But the issue extends beyond World War II and Vietnam. When you turn on the news (which I don’t recommend) what do you see? National disunity. The student debt crisis. A country in need of repair. In this fellowship, Joe Wells explored the idea of compulsory national service. What is it? Where has it been tested? What were the effects? What could it look like in the United States? Might it be the answer to some of our problems? Or would it create more issues than it resolves?______________________________________________________________ Joe Wells is a writer, thinker, and real estate investor. He spends his weekdays working for a midsize consulting company in New York City. He enjoys hiking, running, playing golf, cooking, reading, writing, and too many other things to list. Curiosity is one of his strengths. Having too many interests to pursue is one of my weaknesses. He doesn’t understand boredom. he writes weekly articles on my website where I discuss self-improvement, real estate investing, financial independence, and other topics he finds interesting.    

Om Podcasten

The Write of Passage Fellowship is designed to help a small group of intellectually curious minds to create world class essays on a topic of their choice. With the rise of the internet and tools for mass communication, we’re witnessing a new generation of writers and content creators. It has helped me build my own audience, a process that I then systematized to create the Write of Passage course as we know it today. The news doesn’t dive deep enough. The problems of the modern world are too complex for short articles with clickbait headlines. We plan to nudge the conversation in a more thoughtful direction. Each essay will analyze events with the context required to communicate nuance and help the reader understand them. Each fellow receives mentorship, professional editing, and feedback from cohort participants.