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Voting from birth?
This morning on the BBC, there was an interview with a group in Germany that are campaigning to lower the voting age to -- well, birth, basically. The idea would be to allow kids to vote as soon as they felt themselves competent. Looking around on the Web, I find that the idea has been around for a few years.
My initial reaction was that this was amusing, but rather goofy -- that it's entirely ridiculous on its face. And yet, there is a part of me that rages against the growing infantilization of how modern society treats kids (and, indeed, adults), and a feeling that we do ourselves a damage by not teaching them real responsibility at a young age. The right to vote is the most serious responsibility we give to our citizens: important, and not trivial to do well. Humans learn best by doing, and I do wonder if the best way to teach people that voting is important, and should be taken seriously, is to let them actually *do* it from youth.
So I find myself of curiously mixed minds here. Part of me thinks the idea is fairly preposterous, and would dumb government down. Another part of me thinks that it could, instead, smarten our citizens up. Really, I suspect that a mix of the two would be true. Opinions?
My initial reaction was that this was amusing, but rather goofy -- that it's entirely ridiculous on its face. And yet, there is a part of me that rages against the growing infantilization of how modern society treats kids (and, indeed, adults), and a feeling that we do ourselves a damage by not teaching them real responsibility at a young age. The right to vote is the most serious responsibility we give to our citizens: important, and not trivial to do well. Humans learn best by doing, and I do wonder if the best way to teach people that voting is important, and should be taken seriously, is to let them actually *do* it from youth.
So I find myself of curiously mixed minds here. Part of me thinks the idea is fairly preposterous, and would dumb government down. Another part of me thinks that it could, instead, smarten our citizens up. Really, I suspect that a mix of the two would be true. Opinions?
Semi-off-topic
Re: Semi-off-topic
Re: Semi-off-topic
I think Gaiman must have been impressed at an early age by the notion "There are no bad characters, only bad authors." He certainly has shown a fondness for taking obscure characters and reinvigorating them.
His version of Prez was much more mthyological, and much less silly, but respectfully didn't contradict the original stories. For instance, the next time you read that Sandman story, be aware that the middle-aged woman, "Martha", that Prez is talking to in the White House is both his Vice President and his mom! And several of the newspaper headlines that are briefly glimpsed refer to events in the original comic.
It would be hard to be as strange as the original was. In the fourth issue, the US ends up at war with Transylvania, and Prez is attacked by Dracula. For reasons that are never made clear, this version of Dracula had no legs, and got around on one of those wheeled wooden platforms that old-time war vets used...