Borys Bradel's Blog: On Ron Paul and education

On Ron Paul and education

Tags: politics November 6, 2008

I've recently read up on Ron Paul because of the recent election. He's is an interesting character. He believes in personal freedom. While that is good, there are certain needs that people have, such as access to medicine, which they cannot afford. His solution to that is for physicians to have a responsibility to treat poor people without charging them for treatment. His view is similar on all topics in that people have freedom as well as responsibility. Although that is the right approach, the government needs to put in place mechanisms that prevent abuse. Just expecting people to live up to their responsibility will most likely result in unmet expectations. Although I agree with his viewpoint on all of his policies, I disagree with his view that the government should get out of the way. The government needs to place appropriate bounds. Yes, these should be minimal and at a local level. However, they should be there. Maybe he's just not getting his view clearly across with regards to what the government's role should be.

Also, Ron Paul's views on education are similar to those of John Taylor Gatto. The following is a summary with some quotes of an article in Harper's by John Taylor Gatto. The school system's purpose is to create "not only a harmless electorate and a servile labor force but also a virtual herd of mindless consumers" by turning children into non-responsible, non-thinking people that conform to power, are isolated from others, and create temporary and highly exclusionary cliques. To counteract that is to control boredom, have a strong inner life, grow up, think critically and independently, and take up serious material "in history, literature, philosophy, music, art, economics, theology".

There's a lot of truth in both of their viewpoints. Unfortunately, there's not much chance of a large scale implementations of what they propose.