periodic philosophy

A friend (?) of Amber's had a pretty good post on his (?) blog. He says:

Education should be a privilege of the willing, rather than a requirement of the entire population. Or, simply put, only those who desire an education should be allowed to have one. So, who's allowed to acquire an education? Well, anyone... so long as the express a desire. [...]

Parents need to take more responsibility for their children, and rely less on extra-familial forms of guidance and supervision. I don't have a good solution to this problem, but I can think of a number of great of examples of how this gets screwed up.

1-Problem: (pertinent example) Kid buys violent video game. Parents get bent out of shape about the content of the game, lobby the government to do something about the content of the game.
1-My Opinion: DO NOT f****** ruin the fun for me because you don't like the game. Get your goddamn head on straight and DON'T LET YOUR KID PLAY A VIOLENT GAME!! PROBLEM SOLVED!
2-P: Kid sees porn on the internet. Parents are upset, lobby the government for tighter controls on internet content.
2-O: Why is your kid browsing the internet without supervision? Apparently the ever-imminent danger of your child finding porn is not a concern for you until it actually happens. You're an idiot, and you should be shot.
3-P: Kid has to learn about some sensitive subject in school (I'm not trying to be clever here, it could be any number of things... study of religions, evolution, race relations, etc.). Kid bitches to parents about this stuff. On thing leads to another....
3-O: What, you seriously think hiding your kid from the world is going to help him get through life? Again, you should be shot.

[...]

Organized religion must be eliminated.

think of a pressing issue in the world. Any issue at all. Chances are very good that:

1. Organized religion caused it
2. Organized religion is exacerbating it
3. Organized religion will eventually exacerbate it

Terrorism? Mostly Islamic fundamentalist whackos. Debate over science standards? Mostly Christan fundamentalist whackos. Perpetual war in Israel? Muslims and Jews can't get along, simply because they're Muslims and Jews.

Although I disagree with some of the stuff about Organized Religion, overall the whole post is a pretty good read.

And now I must meet with the other GTAs.