[extropy-chat] Re: "if we cannot be free, at least we can be cheap"

[Russell Wallace]

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 00:03:39 -0800 (PST), Al Brooks
<kerry_prez at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Good answer. But why do so many of those against big
> government support public schools? Such has been my
> experience. I've often heard it said: "I don't like
> the guvmint, but we've got to reform public education,
> not eliminate it".

I'll answer that question with a memory of a little conversation I had
with an American once, on the stunningly vile custom that Americans
somehow let their governments get away with, of (given public
schooling) _forcing children into a particular school based on
address, rather than letting the parents choose, given that they've
paid the tax money_. It didn't seem to bother him much.

I remarked that I didn't listen to the radio much since the 1980s when
the Irish Ministry of Culture shut down all the independent radio
stations (leaving only the government-approved ones, which really
aren't worth listening to).

He replied that if the American government tried to do that, the
response would be rioting quickly followed by armed rebellion (and
rightly so, in my opinion).

People, unfortunately, get used to the form of servitude they grew up with.

- Russell