This episode features an audio essay written by American author Daniel Quinn in 2000, which comprises Chapter 18 of Everything Voluntary: From Politics to Parenting, edited by Skyler J. Collins and published in 2012. He explores the true purpose of mass public schooling and its effects.
Tag: politics
“Nuance” in Politics and Public Policy? No, Thanks
Nuance is a wonderful characteristic in painting, literature, music, and the other arts. In political philosophy and public policy, it’s a cheat mechanism used for the purpose of creating unwarranted wiggle room.
Politics versus Policy in the New “Public Charge” Rules
If the US government is going to regulate immigration at all (I don’t believe that it should, and the Constitution says it can’t), “pay your own way or go away” doesn’t sound like an unreasonable rule.
Politics Makes People Stupid
I listened to someone defending and supporting Trump where they had to discard their life-long touted principles to do so. Just because they want to keep out “those people” and are grateful there’s no “President Hillary”. And perhaps because they like ritual human sacrifice. Disgusting and stupid.
Afghanistan: In Search of Monsters to Not Destroy
America, John Quincy Adams said in 1821, “goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.” That’s as good a summary ever spoken of the non-interventionist position. US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) disagrees.
Politicians Shouldn’t Be So Important
Whether it’s a provocative president or a squad of trendy socialists, these people shouldn’t have any hold over you. It’s embarrassing to see people defending politicians from other politicians. It’s as though they take politicians seriously.
Human Sacrifice: A Grand Old American Political Tradition
Whether you support the death penalty or not — I don’t because I prefer limited government and the power to kill disarmed prisoners in cold blood and with premeditation is by definition unlimited government — it’s worthwhile to ask: Why? More to the point, why now? Politics, that’s why.
Government is Irrational
Government, specifically statism, is not “agreeable to reason”. If it were, there would be no statists. Instead, it is based on a superstition; a “just so” story written to explain something in a fictional manner to simpletons who are assumed to be too stupid to understand reality.
American Politicians Use Jews as Pawns to Excuse Their Meddling in Israeli Elections
What are the purposes of the BDS movement? To pressure the government of Israel to meet “its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully compl[y] with the precepts of international law by: 1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall; 2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and 3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”
Peckerwood Populism is About Political Strategy, Not Personal Belief
Is Trump a racist? A xenophobe? A misogynist? His public history, going back at least to the early 1970s, offers evidence for all three accusations. Some people find that evidence compelling, some don’t. But to focus on Trump’s personal beliefs in any of those areas is to miss the point. He’s not an individual actor living out his life in private. He’s a public actor, leading a major political party, occupying the highest political office America has to offer, and campaigning for re-election to that office.