[geeks] Small children...

[Joshua D. Boyd]

I get your point, but it isn't really the same.  Toddlers only learn from
their own experiences, they don't yet learn from others.  On the other
hand, people who are old enough to be able to drink themselves to death
before their parents can do anything about it, or who can drink and drive,
are certainly old enough to see that drinking too much brings death, and
that drinking and driving bring death.

The difference between our two examples is kinda like the difference
between handing a gun to a toddler and a gun to a teenager.

Of course, saying anything about life being pain instantly scares people
away, not to mention that they don't like the idea that death might
actually be allowed.

But, one of my theories has always been that you can't have a free society
if adults are free to die due to their own stupidity.  It isn't that I
want more people to die.  I just think that that is the freedom that
people first give up because they are afraid of it.  And I think it was
Ben Franklin who said something to the effect that if you give away any
freedoms, soon all of them will be taken from you.

The problem is balance out the freedom of people to kill themselves
through their own stupidity, and their freedom to kill other through their
own stupidity.  To that end, just dropping the minimum drinking age should
be changed to slowly lowereing the minimum drinking age till it is
significantly lower than the minumum driving age before dropping it
altogether.

I'm just hitting every hot button possible today.

--
Joshua Boyd

On Tue, 19 Jun 2001, Ken Hansen wrote:

> Personally, I think they should hand every toddler a plastic grocery bag. Sure, the infant death-rate will rise temporarily, but, life is pain... And the next generation will probably be a lot smarter (fewer inquisitive kids putting bags over their heads).
> 
> Ken :^I
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joshua D. Boyd [mailto:jdboyd at cs.millersville.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2001 11:38 AM
> To: geeks at sunhelp.org
> Subject: Re: [geeks] Re: [rescue] RE: Small schools...
> 
> 
> Personally, I think they should drop the minimum drinking age.  Sure, the
> death rate will rise temporarily, but, life is pain...  And the next
> generation will probably be a lot smarter (fewer bad influences still
> alive).
> 
> --
> Joshua Boyd
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