From: jamesd@netcom.com (James A. Donald)
Date: Sun, 31 Jul 94 13:55:44 PDT
To: mpd@netcom.com (Mike Duvos)
Subject: Re: Children and the Net
In-Reply-To: <199407311720.KAA03972@netcom14.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <199407312055.NAA01717@netcom12.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Perry E. Metzger <perry@imsi.com> writes:
>  > A society that forceably prevents fundamentalists from
>  > brainwashing their children also has the right tools to
>  > keep me from explaining to my children why government is
>  > evil and why there is no god.

Mike Duvos writes
> The cure for brainwashing is ... 
> to make sure the intended victim is exposed to a wide variety of
> other viewpoints.  We can cure the children of Fundamentalists
> by ....

Much though it pains me to acknowledge that Perry is ever right
about anything:

If I find that the children of fundamentalists are being "cured"
I will move my ammo stash from my garage to hole in the hills,
and take my gold out of the safety deposit box, and add booby
traps to my alarm system.

It is completely impossible for a private person to insulate
his children from opposing views.  Only the state has that
kind of power.

Unlike Mike, I have actually raised children.  Once every
few months I make them sit still for about thirty seconds
and utter a few Words of Profound Wisdom in their general
direction.

Surprisingly this has proved startlingly effective.  The
infrequent comments from their father have proved vastly
more influential than the steady propaganda they receive
from their compulsory government miseducation.  

> Very young children need to be protected from graphically violent
> material which they might find disturbing.

By who?

I gather you do not entirely trust parents to perform this
important social activity.

> It's the wishes of the children that tend to be overlooked when
> the Funny Mentalists are having their legislative orgy.

Who is more likely to care about the welfare of a kid?

A fundamentalist who happens to be the kids father, or 
bureaucrat in charge of child welfare?


-- 
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
We have the right to defend ourselves and our
property, because of the kind of animals that we              James A. Donald
are.  True law derives from this right, not from
the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state.                jamesd@netcom.com