Re: Dodgy logic

Fair point. But LA called my suggestion "insane" without any supporting argument. People can be irrational, but they are not generally irrational, and when they are we seek an explanation. If kids would choose the option I proposed in significant numbers, that at least suggests it might be a rational choice. If it isn't, but LA worries they would choose it anyway, he should have explained why. If kids would not choose the option in significant numbers, offering it poses little risk, and LA's hyperbolic commentary is gratuitous. To suggest that we cannot rely upon kids, or upon people generally, to make rational choices most of the time is to give up all hope of a politics based on democratic agency. Instead, we would have to rely upon the wisest among us to seize power and force us, even though against our will, to act in our own best interest. (I am a big fan of the Plato of the Phaedrus, who seems to me to grasp the essence of boylove. But the Plato of the Republic scares me, because he seems to have reached just that pessimistic conclusion. I am not sure people can be or become wise. But I am sure that when power is in the hands of the few, experience shows it is rarely wielded wisely.) hugzu ;-p