A few years ago, the United States congress passed and the president signed an absurd piece of legislation called "No Child Left Behind." I haven't the time to take it apart piece by piece (at least not at this moment), but I would like to bring up an observation.
One of the provisions of this act requires that teachers be "highly qualified." This means that teachers teach in either their major or minor, provided they have passed certification exams on the subjects. That's what highly qualified means. It sounds good, but anyone familiar with secondary education knows its hidden flaws. It means that teachers who have been instructing a given subject for thirty years may suddenly be considered not "highly qualified." Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and many other great teachers would have been rendered unemployed by this federal legislation--all of which is unconstitutional, as the 10th amendment reserves such powers for the states or the people.
I wonder if there is any way for us to devise some method for ensuring that our governing officials are "highly qualified." The democratic process certainly has not worked well. Ironically, you have to major (or minor) in social studies to teach government, but you don't have to have even gone to college to "serve" in government.
More than likely, the halls of Congress would soon empty on both the House and the Senate wings. The White House would sit vacant. The elderly sophists on the Supreme Court would die off and not be replaced. A new dawn of liberty would descend, and, for the first time in nearly two centuries, we would be free to enjoy our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
I think most Americans would use their freedoms of rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to steal your TV.
ReplyDeleteOf course, you could always use your own freedom and take the liberty to shoot them...
It wouldn't be right to kill someone for stealing a television, especially my television. My television is such a piece of crap, that it actually steams in the Winter and attracts flies throughout the Spring and Summer.
ReplyDeleteStill, I don't think that most Americans would use their liberty to steal my TV, even if I had an awesome TV. Most people, when left alone, will leave others alone. The others will exist no matter what.
The presence of a powerful and violent police force does not presently deter criminals. Murder is illegal and punishable by death in many states, but it still goes on. No one ever said, "I'd murder that guy if it wasn't illegal."
So the argument that there would be crime if the state shrank a little (or a lot) is bunk. There's crime anyway, and the state is impotent in its wake.