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Indirect support of the ideas of liberty?
I've come across people(professors, lecturers, etc) who have a solution to a certain problem that paralells a voluntary solution.
Take for example, Sir Ken Robinson. He is a creativity expert and has given several lectures on creativity. His most famous one was at a TED conference a few years back on how schooling destroys creativity in children. Its quite a good lecture and is definately worth listening to.
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Its amazing how simular his ideas on education are to the liberty circle (minus the cohersive part of it). He points out the inherit flaw that the education system is set up to create workers for a future we cannot grasp; we don't know how the world will change next week, how could we possibly educate for 20-30 years down the line? He also points out that kids are creative, and that schooling destroys that creativity, that the industrial model of education is incredibly out of date and destructive.
I rarely see those who are liberty-oriented working with those they disagree with but could use their support. Gard is an exception to this with the some of the guests I've heard on the show. I think its incredibly important because it makes voluntary views less extreme and more practical. I've shared this video with plenty of people, and I use it as a tool to explain how easily this is addressed in a free society.
It really is interesting to listen to. He nails clear problems with education, but still makes the suggestion that "we" need to educate differently to solve these problems. The solutions he would like to see can only come when nobody can decide for any other parent what education will look like. The product of involuntary education necessarly will be good taxpaying citizens lest the beast destroy it's own food supply. If creativity was necessary to obediently support the state, there would probably be great progress in education in that area.
"Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe."
Frank Zappa
Yeah, like I said eariler, I don't agree 100% with him, but I'm able to pull some of his arguements and use it in support of a voluntary system. He clearly bashes the industrial nature of the education system, acknowledging that this standardization and 1-size fits all system just doesn't work. The thing is, in order to achieve what he wants to achieve, schooling as to be decentralized, which in my opinion, a very good thing and a step in the right direction. While I'm against compulsory schooling being funded through force, if a system could be put in place thats a step away from the production line style of education, it would support the ideas of liberty and choice. In fact, such a system that supported creativity may help implode the system.
I think you are right. The allowance and encouragement of free thought could potentially bring the unraveling of the system. Right now there are difficulties in the U.S. because of the lag in school performace in comparison with other countries. This provides an opportunity for state and federal candidates to blather on about "fixing it" and run on a platform promising to do something to "help". Usually those ideas add centralized control. We do have some legislators beginning to talk about more local control as a solution.