How to Manage the World

In most modernized countries where there's some semblance of democracy, no one had to be worried that they'd be picked off the street or out of their homes to go build a great wall somewhere. In those days, that was an everyday thing to stress out over - unless you were no part of the crema society or an elet. Everyone else, if you were male, that is, had to bewary that one day you could be irrigating afield and the next day you're on your way to the frontier to face off against these fierce, brutal killing machines from central asia. So that little passage says what it says in this context. Think what he can do