Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdcad!decwrl!ucbvax!rutgers!princeton!phoenix!ahwatson From: ahwatson@phoenix.UUCP Newsgroups: alt.flame Subject: Privilege and Education (Was: Re: Why call 'em dirtballs) Message-ID: <1046@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> Date: Wed, 4-Nov-87 12:37:20 EST Article-I.D.: phoenix.1046 Posted: Wed Nov 4 12:37:20 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 7-Nov-87 13:32:49 EST References: <602@auscso.UUCP> <932@ih1ap.ATT.COM> <1203@puff.wisc.edu> <2133@encore.UUCP> <1211@puff.wisc.edu> Reply-To: ahwatson@phoenix.UUCP (Arthur H. Watson) Organization: Princeton Univ. Computing and Information Technology Lines: 30 In article <1211@puff.wisc.edu> mading@puff.wisc.edu (Eric Mading) writes: >So the University, while not advocating drug use, >I think that anyone should get drinking privliges when >they get their high school diploma or GED. Give us a break. Many of us, including me and Mr SF, could have gotten GED's before hitting the double digits, agewise. If that would have entitled us to drink alcohol, of course we would have, just to feed our (then) juvenile egos. And yet, our (then) tender young bodies might have been wrecked by alcohol, instead of our (then) tender young minds being wrecked by school. Level of education is a singularly stupid criterion for allowing people to poison themselves. But indeed, Eric's idea could be usefully applied in another context. How about allowing people to vote as soon as they pass a written test demonstrating that they understand how governments work (and not before). Thus we would be faced with the anomaly that certain chief executives (whose identities I choose not to disclose) could have become president, but could not have voted for themselves. And the kids who haven't yet been retarded by alcohol, school or the net could contribute their wisdom to society. >Eric Mading. Disclaimer: These views were concocted as a result of exposure to the views of Eric Mading. Absorb with caution. -- -Arthur Watson "I don't want to rule the world"