5 ms·

I find myself having a really hard time taking a side on this issue. If a government, for example, mandated the teaching in school that it's people were geneti

I find myself having a really hard time taking a side on this issue. If a government, for example, mandated the teaching in school that it's people were genetically superior to all others (say in North Korea), I would say parents were well within their rights to withdraw their students from school. If, however, parents wanted to withdraw their students from school so they could 'teach' them that evolution isn't real, or to keep them from having to go to a school that was too racially diverse (say, in the South right after Brown vs. Board of Education), I would say that the parents are doing their own children harm and their children should have to go to school. I suppose I come down on the side that a government should have a right to impose educational standards, but like any government power it should be monitored closely because it is very easy to abuse.

dantheman 17y ago
Who in the government is imposing these so called "standards".
- rauljara 17y ago
  Who in the government decides for what things citizens can be deprived of their personal freedom (i.e. arrested)? Who in the government decides when it is legally permissible to confiscate citizens' property (i.e. taxation, eminent domain)? Who in the government decides when it is permissible to force its citizens to force its citizens to attempt to kill other people (i.e. impose a draft)?
  - jimbokun 17y ago
    Are you in favor of expanding the governments ability and proclivity to do the things you list, or do you think it better if the ability of governments to do those things were further curtailed? (Your answer, of course, will depend on the government you are living under, and the extent to which they can or cannot do those things currently.)
jimbokun 17y ago
Do you seriously believe, for one instant, that a government organization will make decisions that lessen the power and influence of that government in society? Government officials will tend towards decisions that give the government more reasons to increase the scope of government, and towards shaping of children's beliefs and world views to conform to the main stream of thought of government employees. I know that you say that government power should be "monitored closely" as a solution to this possibility. But who watches the watchers? In general, I am deeply troubled by the European Human Rights commission protecting the rights of "society" in this case, rather than the rights of individuals. I personally believe that the rights and dignity of individual human beings is one of the greatest advances in human history, and that chipping away at those rights and returning more power to "society" is a grave error.

dantheman 17y ago

Who in the government is imposing these so called "standards".

rauljara 17y ago
Who in the government decides for what things citizens can be deprived of their personal freedom (i.e. arrested)? Who in the government decides when it is legally permissible to confiscate citizens' property (i.e. taxation, eminent domain)? Who in the government decides when it is permissible to force its citizens to force its citizens to attempt to kill other people (i.e. impose a draft)?
- jimbokun 17y ago
  Are you in favor of expanding the governments ability and proclivity to do the things you list, or do you think it better if the ability of governments to do those things were further curtailed? (Your answer, of course, will depend on the government you are living under, and the extent to which they can or cannot do those things currently.)

jimbokun 17y ago

Do you seriously believe, for one instant, that a government organization will make decisions that lessen the power and influence of that government in society? Government officials will tend towards decisions that give the government more reasons to increase the scope of government, and towards shaping of children's beliefs and world views to conform to the main stream of thought of government employees. I know that you say that government power should be "monitored closely" as a solution to this possibility. But who watches the watchers? In general, I am deeply troubled by the European Human Rights commission protecting the rights of "society" in this case, rather than the rights of individuals. I personally believe that the rights and dignity of individual human beings is one of the greatest advances in human history, and that chipping away at those rights and returning more power to "society" is a grave error.