Wait, they let babies into college now?
There is an article making the rounds right now that was initially posted on Slate.
In it, a Law Professor at U of Chicago, Eric Posner, argues
that college students (he interestingly doesn’t specify age, just college
students) should be denied most rights (such as free speech) because they are
too immature to handle having rights and freedom.
The initial reaction, one would hope, is to decry this faux-intellectual
milquetoast as an authoritarian monster who is damaging children. Don’t bother. Reason.com took that tactic already.
While Reason.com (and I’m sure other sites) has pointed out
that Mr. Posner has issues, let’s agree on three things.
- Yes. Mr. Poser is an authoritarian monster.
- Telling Mr. Posner that he’s an authoritarian monster isn’t likely to stop him from being an authoritarian monster. So why bother telling him?
- Why can’t we persuade Mr. Poster that he’s a monster? Have you ever known someone to give up power willingly because you asked them nicely? Being in charge of thousands of college-age adults is essential to Mr. Posner’s identity. He needs to think of them as children so he can think of himself as an adult; even if he’s accomplished nothing of note that would otherwise signify adulthood. The childhood status of these legal adults is how Mr. Poser brand-identifies himself as an adult by proxy.
So, Mr. Poser is not going to have his mind changed on this
issue. And regardless I’m sure many other people have written enough
hate-pieces on him/to him. None of that helps solve the problem.
What we need to focus on is people who are persuaded by Mr.
Posner’s arguments, and look to persuade them away from Mr. Posner’s arguments.
The person who reads Posner’s piece and thinks “He’s got a point. College kids today do
seem awfully immature. ” – Those
people. How can we persuade them? How can we persuade them to reject authoritarianism
and instead invest in the future of our younger generations? They are our only
hope after all; who else is going to pay for our/Posner’s Social Security?
So these people who are sympathetic to Posner’s view point.
How can we construct an argument to ‘save’ them?
