I don't know of anyone that considers jury duty an "annoyance for a cause greater than ourselves". Normal people know intuitively that it is a waste of time, that lawyers, cops, clerks, and judges are just running an extended grift on working people and the rest of society, and that nobody will be harmed by their lying their way out of having to miss work for 7 dollars a day.
Now you do. I just served jury duty this week, in fact, and believe it to be an important (and, yes, annoying) way of serving my country. I find your take disappointingly cynical.
I would say the opposite: shanghai citizens into serving as cops, prosecutors, judges, bailiffs, etc., so that there is some hope that they might influence the process instead of just being another material that the professionals process (like defendants).
