[MD] Value and the Individual

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Platt]
Thus we had the deliberate starvation of millions under Stalin, the 
Holocaust under Hitler, and terrorist killings under Bin Laden to 
name but a few of the horrors perpetrated in the name of the "public good."

[Arlo]
OMFG! Those who believe in public education are not only equated with 
the "deliberate starvation of millions" but with those who flew the 
planes into the Twin Towers!?! My God! All these murderous, 
villainous, evil terrorist, commie, Stalinists who want "public 
education" (and fair wages, and workplace safety, and pollution 
regulations) must be stopped before their secret agenda of genocide 
and terrorism can be realized!

Commie Pig Dog: Public education best serves the community.

Noble Neocon Hero: Genocidal terrorist!

Commie Pig Dog: No, really, a public education guarantees access to a 
quality education for all citizens, regardless of wealth.

Noble Neocon Hero: What you really want is for the rich to be tossed 
into gulags and the poor to slaves to government.

Commie Pig Dog: It is in everyone's interest to have an informed and 
educated citizenry, for reasons touching on citizenship duties like 
voting to meeting labor needs, to ensuring that the greatest number 
are given the ability to realize their potential.

Noble Neocon Hero: Ah, so you admit you favor the mass graves of 
Stalin and the killing fields of Pol Pot as the way America should be!

And that's pretty much a sum of the dialogue.

I'm sorry, Craig, but having Platt come out in support of you like 
this must make you feel like you need a hot shower.

[Platt]
Unfortunately, the lessons of history are lost on many of today's 
young. Government schools have indoctrinated them into believing that 
government is beneficent and exists only to "help" while private 
corporations engaged in producing goods and services that actually 
improve the quality of life are evil profiteers. The tragedy is that 
so many believe the propaganda.

[Arlo]
If "many of today's young" believe this, it is not because of 
"guvermint" indoctrination, but because they listened to the stories 
their grandparent's told, or read first hand historical accounts of 
the maladies associated with the unregulated market of the 1890's.

The real tragedy is the Raygun propaganda that proclaims the 
"guvermint" to the enemy. No wonder America is so schizophrenic, if 
the government is "we the people" and the government is "the big evil 
that wants to enslave liberty lovin' individuals", then we have a 
huge crisis of identity.

Again, the social mandate of regulation enacted by THE PEOPLE on the 
markets was not the result of some evil, outside agency coming in and 
ruining it for all the happy people, but the direct result of the low 
quality life they experienced. If people were happy with the Chicago 
River being a festering soup of coagulated blood, they would not have 
demanded pollution regulations. If people wanted toxic chemicals 
dumped near their communities, the EPA would never have been formed.

And, if the citizenry was happy with the stratified and unequal 
educational opportunities preceding "public education", they never 
would have demanded it. And this underscores a more important point. 
The success or failure of any school, public or private, rests on the 
VALUE those involved place on education. And from that value they 
know why there are there, they know why they are involved, and they 
CARE. When this happens on the community level, as it has in Finland 
and Japan, public education is fully successful.

But hey, that's a mute point for those who equate the public funding 
of education with the mass murders of Stalin and the terrorist 
bombings of the Twin Towers.