"In the 1950s, nobody ever carried guns to school. We did carry switchblades, but only after school or on weekends. 'You want the knife, Mr. Dadiae, you come and take it! Come on! Take it! Step right up and get a taste of this, Dadio!' We never had to use them because we had no enemies and were mostly decent kids to begin with" reminisces Dirk the Sun Warrior as he hefts the old bone handled stiletto that he used to carry for protection against perverts and murderers when thumbing over to the movies in Needham. During those years 1958-1963 he never encountered even one unpleasant person. Recently Dirk asked a physician friend about thumbing north from West Palm International Airport to Jupiter, Florida. After an initial admonition not to do this, Dirk mentioned that he could carry a knife. The doctor, in absolute earnest, warned him, "Forget it! They have bigger knives and faster hands!"

 

1. The teenager is at heart rarely a rugged individualist, but rather a gregarious tribal moralist. Adolescence is difficult because the warmth and safety of childhood is being left behind. There are many mixed emotions and signals. The parents are trying to push the fledgling out of the nest in some ways while trying to hang on to the cute little baby of memory in other ways. It's hard for the parents too. There is sadness, frustration, and anger. The kid wants independence, but not certain responsibilities. The parents refuse the independence, but insist on the responsibility. Teenagers seek with each other the total acceptance which they don't get from parents, but when given total leeway, usually end up forming group bonds which recapitulate prehistoric barbarian warrior clans. This is consistent with their level of neuronal imprinting at this age (28) and is perfectly normal when there is no other influence to offset it. Observe the rise in personal decoration expressing oath-like commitment to in-group value codes, especially tribal self-mutilation like tattooing and piercing. The real problem arises when teenagers are not forced by their parents into at least a superficial adherence to a decent role model. The undeveloped but individuating self becomes too strongly assertive and massive behavior problems arise reflecting peer clan values. In terms of personal swagger, many teenagers have begun to act the same way that self-important adults will act when they have too much authority, especially in primitive tribal cultures. Teachers today are on the defensive for allowing teaching to interfere with the disruptive free flow of personal style. All of this is consistent with today's emphasis on the quick false lift gained through posture or drugs, as opposed to a more permanent self-esteem based upon long term attainment. This is the culture of insubstantive posture (29).

 

2. Parents went wrong when they adopted the notion that self-expression is more important than education. A classroom should not be a stage upon which the youthful player acts out for an audience of his peers. It is supposed to be a place where the status quo of the unlearned self is willingly put on the shelf for a few hours, so that something new can be learned. The student should be expected to become empty of himself during school time so that he can be filled up with knowledge. Self-expression can occur during after-school hours with friends, in any arena the student might desire, from club activity to hanging out on a street corner with "attitude," just so long as something new is learned in school. The emphasis on self-expression is wonderful in itself. It began with a free dress and grooming code that made leeway for all kinds of interesting clothing and hair styles. Parents simply allowed it to go too far. Factions arose, usually based on the manner and dress of slightly older musician heroes. Identification with rock warriors in itself is fine. There is much in rock music, especially heavy metal, which is heroic in it's ferocious intensity and excellence. At some point however, all this self-expression simply became much too serious and led ultimately to tribal warfare with gun play. Recall the degeneration of schoolboys in "Lord of the Flies". Similar, but even more primitive behavior has been observed in modern warfare when discipline breaks down, such as the collecting of scalps, ears, and penises by kill-crazy soldiers (30).

 

3. Private schools can provide better education more cheaply than public schools. This would eliminate institutionalizing the culture of insubstantive posture, plus all the endless debate about what should and should not be taught. We would also be rid of most of the collectivist brainwashing of students because of the influence, through government, of international finance. Even from a Libertarian standpoint, however, it is reasonable to argue that, since we have thus far allowed the schools to produce a generation of acquiescent, drug-crazed, murdering, suicidal, Socialist cowards, that it might now be a good idea to utilize a centralized public school system for just another thirty years or so in order to produce a healthy new generation of natural kids with workable Libertarian values. Since the privatization of schools is one of the most popular objections to Libertarianism it wouldn't hurt to stress that we intend to wait thirty years. If after three decades of total Libertarian leadership the voters aren't happy with freedom, they can always vote the evil parties back into power and return themselves to slavery.