Re: About Bullying--My Thoughts

Thank you for another great response, Eeyore. I would just like to respond to a few of your concerns.

Though it's very much on the record that I support socialism, I do not think youth liberation requires socialism to be realized in society, even though it certainly would occur in a genuine socialist society that had no state apparatus to oppress any group of people. Nevertheless, I believe younger people can obtain a degree of equality of opportunity with older people that is dependent upon their individual merits within the context of their own economic class in present day capitalist nations. That isn't an ideal situation for me, as young laborers would still be oppressed by the wage system, but they will be able to achieve a degree of economic independence from adults and learn about things such as handling credit responsibly and managing an account from a much earlier age than they do today, and I believe this could only work to their benefit.

As for concerns about a "Lord of the Flies" scenario erupting, I do not think such a situation would be unique to younger people. I think most any group of unfamiliar people who were stuck in the same situation as the boys in that famous novel would largely act the same way. In that regard, if you divest the popular TV series Lost of all of its paranormal elements, you get a logical scenario of how even adults would act in such a situation. I think young people in a youth liberated society, despite some possible early missteps that are to be expected, would quickly learn to acclimate themselves into the now non-gerontocentric society peaceably and to take important positions within it. Discrimination and ageist attitudes certainly wouldn't end completely any time soon, but it's likely that mainstream liberals and progressives would be supporting their equality by that time, and such discrimination would rarely be legally abided. They would be held much more accountable for any instances of bullying, and as such the type of relentless and sadistic bullying we see today would largely diminish. I do not think there are any good reasons for limiting the scope of youth liberation based on individual merit even if some of the concerns about a "Lord of the Flies" style scenario are legitimate, because I believe that in a society that purports to be based on democracy and freedom, there is always a better way to deal with such situations and scenarios without having to resort to any degree of legalized discrimination nor any draconian laws. Such legal "solutions" to such problems tend to accumulate in number (if you can justify them once, you can much more easily agree to justify them again), and this always tends to backfire on all of society in a very negative way in the long run. One draconian law, one degree of legalized discrimination, is the first step towards a police state mentality in government. And this holds true even if at least some of the lawmakers have genuine concern in their minds for the people whom they choose to discriminate against or pass draconian laws upon society in order to "protect."

I understand that private tutors would be expensive, which is why I should have clarified that I do not think parents should be expected to pay for these tutors, nor the young people themselves. I think these tutors should be hired by tax payer derived money, because I believe the various educational opportunities and methods for young people in a youth liberated society (or partially youth liberated society, as the case may be) should be covered by the government, as should all forms of education. Education should be a right for everyone in a democratic society, not a privilege, and almost all possible means and methods for educating should be covered by the state for as long as such an entity continues to exist. As long as students have a vast amount of say in what the curriculum will consist of outside of learning the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, along with a large amount of input from the adults who work in the industry rather than primarily by bureaucrats who are personally far removed from the educational system on a personal or vocational level, I believe that such a system could be greatly beneficial to young and older people alike.