I pit Rubystreak

The BBQ Pit
1

So, I am sort of pitting Rubystreak and sort of not. So I’ll get my caveat out of the way first. Rubystreak seems like a very classy person from what I have read, I do not really have a problem with her personally. However, I do have a bit of a problem with her stance in this thread:

Let’s teach girls to put up with violent boys

Now, I am not trying to rehash what was already said in that thread, but to address a larger issue of which it is a part.

Essentially her position is one of an appeal to authority. She is saying that if children are hit they should go find a teacher and tell them about it. All in all, sound advice, which I don’t totally disagree with. However, what lies behind it and many of the posters who agree with her is an implicit appeal to authority.

This ignores one simple fact:

That bureaucracy fails people again and again and again and again.

So while not a conservative by trade, this is one area where I will let my conservative flag fly. We have through teaching like Rubystreak is advocating begun to educate people away from self-reliance. This has resulted in a society where we rely on bureaucracy for everything. Something that is going before the FDA is whether or not health food recommendations can count as medical advice. That say if I recommend some herbal remedy to you for your stomach ache, I am responsible for giving a prescription without a medical license.

FDA Docket 2006D-0480 – Draft Guidance for Industry: Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the FDA

The problem is that so-called ‘experts’ or people in authority position are consistently wrong, deal with the situation inadequately, and then are capable of hiding behind the bureaucracy when things don’t go according to plan. This is what Rubystreak advocates teaching our children. I find this to be more destructive than a bloody nose or a fat lip, even more destructive than the occasional psycho going to school with an assault rifle. The psycho in my opinion is not going to be deterred by such an authority structure anyhow.

I find this sort of dependence upon an ineffective bureaucracy to be repellant and contrary to a free society. It has bred a society filled with weak social dependency.

So while Rubystreak’s advice makes sense in a school environment, it also lays the foundation for dependency by weak and incomplete people who are totally helpless when the system fails them.

2

So why the Pitting? Why not start a GD thread on the issue? If you’d like to and link to it, I’d be happy to join in, but to Pit **Rubystreak **for a very common, nay, the status quo idea on how to handle conflict in schools, seems rather…odd.

I like **Rubystreak **a lot, so I don’t want to be part of pitting her, but it is a topic I’d like to discuss. I don’t entirely disagree with you, but it seems to be debate worthy, not really Pitworthy 's all I’m saying.

3

Fair enough. I’ll do that.

4

Teaching children to rely on authority teaches helplessness

5

Sweet. I have to go shopping right now, but I’ll definitely pop in later.

6

Then become part of the bureaucracy and fix it. Get the parent groups involved. Run a local news story about how your kid’s school is failing the kids by not implementing anti-bullying programs. Teaching people to counter violence with violence is not the answer. Rubystreak and I have clashed often but I’m with her on this one.

Bogus. You don’t teach children to rely on authority for everything, but when people are causing physical injury, then this ‘teaches helplessness’ isn’t far off ‘don’t snitch’ IMHO. When people commit crimes (and, remember, in the adult world, violence against another is a crime), then they need to be reported and punished. And kids need to learn that.

7

Excellent. And it sounds like we don’t need this thread any more.