Dear visionaries,
Robert asked for a specific instance where government schools refused voluntary assistance from a well-intending parent. Before doing so, mindful of what a friend aptly labeled as the paradigm issues involved here, let me ask for a definition of “well-intended.” What does it mean? In full agreement with the NEA? Docile? On Ritilin like the kids?
Katie says that my claim to be speaking “cost free” is baloney, and points to the tax immunity of churches. Notice the legerdemain. When a private entity gets to keep its own money, this is called a subsidy from the government. If a mugger in the alley didn’t get to the twenty dollars in my shoe, is that my birthday present from him? And when privately earned money is taken by force to subsidize an education in a worldview I reject, that must be a contribution or something. Here is the basic question: is it possible for the government to ever be guilty of theft?
And now, to the issue of propaganda. I am sorry for the Latin, but propaganda simply means that which is to be propagated. I agree that the phrase public schools is a widely accepted phrase, one used by those who seek to propagate the notion that the schools are worldview neutral — a nice, grassy public place like East City Park, where butterflies meander and pleasant things happen all day long. The phrase government schools is gaining currency, particularly among those who see that the government owns them, runs them, taxes us to pay for them, and inculcates in them the prevailing democratic ideology of the regime. We want to propagate this view of things, believing it to be accurate. So sure, the phrase is our “propaganda.” But I would deny the pejorative connotations the term has picked up — the connotations of being deceptive and empty words. Douglas Wilson’s house is a reasonable description of the house I own. What would you call a school owned by the government?
And, since nobody ever addressed the real issues in my previous post, was Pravda simply a public newspaper?
“Apologetics in the Void” are repostings from an on-going electronic discussion and debate I had some time ago with members of our local community, whose names I have changed. The list serve is called Vision 20/20, and hence the name “visionaries.” Reading just these posts probably feels like listening to one half of a phone conversation, but I don’t feel at liberty to publish what others have written. But I have been editing these posts (lightly) with intelligibility in mind.