The Paranoid Style in Egalitarian Politics
Via Dorian Davis [UPDATE: and Elizabeth Scalia!] I cannot believe my eyes:
But increasingly, some educators and other professionals who work with children are asking a question that might surprise their parents: Should a child really have a best friend?
Most children naturally seek close friends. In a survey of nearly 3,000 Americans ages 8 to 24 conducted last year by Harris Interactive, 94 percent said they had at least one close friend. But the classic best-friend bond — the two special pals who share secrets and exploits, who gravitate to each other on the playground and who head out the door together every day after school — signals potential trouble for school officials intent on discouraging anything that hints of exclusivity, in part because of concerns about cliques and bullying.
In part? There's something else at work here? The mind throbs in vain to take such totalitarian egalitarianism seriously. But it is oh so serious. How deep must the depths of anxiety be into which our administrative class is regularly plunged. They are getting the bends. They are seeing spots. Potential trouble. Anything that hints of exclusivity. These are operatically pathological attitudes, utterly paranoid and inimical to human liberty in any form. No matter how 'political' this insanity seems, real politics -- practiced by those who are friends, if nothing else -- is impossible in a world where no friend can be closer or better to you or I than any other.
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May '10
Re: The Paranoid Style in Egalitarian Politics
Of course educators today are concerned about micromanaging friendships (not to mention eating habits and political views). Because, you know, they're doing such a bang up job teaching kids to know stuff.
Re: The Paranoid Style in Egalitarian Politics
Now that you mention it, I'm not sure a child should be allowed to have a parent, either. Might weaken the bond between the individual and the State.
Jun '10
Re: The Paranoid Style in Egalitarian Politics
The fault is not in the stars, Horatio, it is in us. How can anyone expect educators, who spend all their work time with children, to think like adults? You expectations are too high Mr. Poulos.
May '10
Re: The Paranoid Style in Egalitarian Politics
Ohhhhhhh...
May '10
Re: The Paranoid Style in Egalitarian Politics
I think we've just stumbled upon another "original intellectual insight." Bet Palin never could have come up with this one. (Had to say it, but puh-leeeeze no one start on a Palin rant.)
Re: The Paranoid Style in Egalitarian Politics
Don't miss Jonah's take on the madness:
E.D. Kain has even more.