Comments on: Petition: ban music on mobiles

By: Toby

Toby — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:06:01 +0000

As a concerned youngster, I’m very intrigued by Mr. Withey’s comments. As one who is currently suffering through school, and as one possessing friends who go to a variety of schools, I ask him: Where on earth is he getting the ideas that the youth of the day are getting their every whim indulged? And punishment, though, currently, not corporal (or, thankfully, capital) is hardly not “frowned upon”. I welcome Mr. Withey to spend an hour in a detention room. Perhaps he shall see that children are not only assumed to be demons by the peons of everyday life, but by their teaching staff as well, typically.
And while he imagines a Locke-based society, where children are second-class citizens (or, perhaps, not citizens at all?) I ask him to think of a new scenario, where he is the student being treated as an ignoramus.

And I’m also confused by the idea that it’s only children who do these things – frankly, I’ve also noticed that it’s adults, typically youngish but not too young ones, who play the vile music on their phones, and use their age as an excuse to do such a thing. Perhaps, too, they are fond of Locke?

By: Michael Withey

Michael Withey — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:53:01 +0000

Mr. Cole,

Although this is an excellent idea, I fear that it is fundamentally flawed. The tide of impudence and rowdiness so prevanlent in the youth of today cannot be stemmed by banning such gadgets – these hobble-de-hoys will merely find a new way to inflict their mischief upon the public.

We must attack this problem at its root: philosophy. Our schools have been corrupted by the philosophies of Montaigne and Rousseau, who held children to be essentially good, and held that their education should bring this good to its fruition. As such, punishment was to be frowned upon and their every whim should be indulged.

Contrast this with Thomas Hobbes. He, having a greater insight into man’s bestial nature than almost any other philosopher (Arthur Schopenhauer is perhaps his equal in this), knew that children were essentially uncontrollable savages who needed to be constrained by fear. The liberalism of Locke – a thinker noted both for his idealism and his common sense – stops at the education of children, who are not to be treated as our equals, but as self-centred ignorami who need the imposition of the law to be transformed into citizens.

I fear, sir, that until our education system is re-established upon the sublime Anglophone thought of Hobbes and Locke, our children will continue to be a bother to right-thinking people everywhere.

I remain &c.

By: dave

dave — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:34:36 +0000

One country at a time!

By: Stefan

Stefan — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:17:28 +0000

Could this petition please be extended to the whole of europe?

By: dave

dave — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:23:00 +0000

I’m becoming increasingly grumpy in my old age, so I tend to ask people to turn off the music. Usually, they will without too much fuss so long as you do ask rather than tell.

I’ve found that people in the quiet carriage on the train are less responsive, even if they are talking about their dahlias in an excessively loud voice.

xD.

By: septicisle

septicisle — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:15:10 +0000

Some urchins were doing this on a bus I was on. Then the drivers swapped over. One stop later and the driver pulled over, said words to the effect of, you can either turn that off or I'm going to come back there and ram it down your throat. They stayed deadly silent for the rest of the trip. septicisle’s last blog post..I love the smell of propaganda in the morning...

By: dave

dave — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:06:55 +0000

LT by-laws, I believe.

The point is that current laws aren’t working, so we should look for a technological solution.

By: Sim-O

Sim-O — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:05:25 +0000

Aren't the little shits the play that rubbish wailing R n B and the like breaking public performance laws or something like that already? Sim-O’s last blog post..IT fail