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December 11, 2002
Youth Lib
Sven makes a little more of his case in Adult Supremacism - part 2. I'm holding out for some prescriptives on which to gnaw. And standing here at point 'A' in the "evolving toward a better society" continuum, I'm particularly interested in hearing about how we're going to traverse point 'B' on the way to 'C'.
Posted by mph at December 11, 2002 12:52 PM
Comments
Is this, like, satire? Or are you satirizing it by seeming to take it seriously?
I'm kinda scratching my head over this.
Stupid polemic--be more funny!
Posted by: pk at December 12, 2002 01:15 PM
| Is this, like, satire? Or are you satirizing it
| by seeming to take it seriously?
Sven doesn't mean it as satire, and I don't mean to satirize it.
The reason I'm following along here is not so much because I'm interested in youth liberation, or because I agree with all of Sven's assertions. I don't agree with a lot of them, and if I were writing for a wide audience I'd tone down some of the language, because whether he sees it or not, Sven is somewhat abusive in some his assertions. I'm following along because I do believe the way a society treats its disenfranchised (and youth are disenfranchised, right or wrong) is a small sample of a broader pattern with regard to that society's attitude toward hierarchies and authority. Those things are key to understanding why we're the way we are, and they're key to figuring out how to be better. I believe that when the boss kicks the dad, and the dad kicks the kid (and can do so in a much more extreme manner), the kid learns to look for his opportunity to do some kicking.
But like I said... I'm waiting for something prescriptive.
If you agree that it's generally acceptable to treat adolescents arbitrarily; in the case of the state/government categorically so, with no regard to their individual capacity to behave responsibly; and if you believe (as I do) that less arbitrary authority overall would contribute to a more liveable social space, then you need to worry about "what's next?"
If you think reliance on authority and hierarchy are simply immutable elements of the human condition, and that we're relying on them at an appropriate level, then there's little use in thinking about it. For the moment, I prefer to think about ways to deemphasize a reliance on arbitrary authority in our interactions as a way to help unravel other ills, from simple interpersonal violence to much broader problems with the way our governments behave.
Unfortunately, Sven isn't answering questions elsewhere on his site, where he'd be able to clarify some things I think he skipped, like what a "youth" is and why he probably isn't talking about emancipating kindergartners.
Posted by: mph at December 12, 2002 01:56 PM