Something else I’m thinking is, if your only concern is the minds and attitudes of the people, why are you so unconcerned with the education system? You poo-pooed the Gary North’s prescription of targeting the public school system, claiming that it would take “a full generation until changes in the education system can begin to matter.”[1] (Something to which I asked if you had a faster alternative, and never got an answer. Unless of course you believe that your notion of reaching people one by one through the Mises Institute like Hoppe describes will be faster than “a generation”, which, if that’s what you think, then feel free to say so.)
But again, if your target is people’s minds, and your goal is to educate them and ultimately have them come to adopt behavior in line with your own philosophy, why do you not have any interest in making your job easier by getting them when they are younger and more impressionable? Or at the very least, preventing your enemy from doing so. I seriously doubt you would disagree that it’s much more difficult to reverse years of indoctrination than it is to simply raise a child with the truth to begin with. Indeed, you yourself alleged that your being homeschooled was a large part of the reason you were able to make the journey to liberty…and what’s more, that you can see that most of your public-schooled friends “will never make it out of the Matrix, so to speak.”
So my question is, what makes you think it is faster, more effective, and more efficient to target people when they’re at least in high school, if not college or beyond?
Why is it not a useful strategy for people to move to take control of their local education system and at the very least remove the barriers that prevent parents from having the freedom to choose what school their child goes to…let alone more say about the curriculum and the instructors?
That is a very reasonable, attainable goal. (And no, before you put words in my mouth and go off on a lecture about compromising on the end goal like Hoppe warns against, blah blah blah, I’m not saying it is the end goal. I’m saying it is small, relatively easy battle to be won.) Again, even you admitted small things like this are the way to go. And yet, North says basically the same thing: “That is a practical goal. […] A political movement needs small victories.”
I don’t think you would disagree (and again, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong), the more local the tyranny is, the easier it is to oppose and defuse it. And there are few things average people care more about than their kids having a decent life, preferrably better than their own…and in most people’s view, that starts with a decent education. (Again, I’m not denying there are plenty of useless people out there who have happened to have kids they didn’t want and don’t really care about, but there are a lot more who do. Again, even people whom you probably wouldn’t think that would be the case. If you’d like examples of this, see the film The Lottery, or this clip from Stossel.) So it’s one of the easier battles to be won, and it’s one people care a great deal about…and it’s one that will probably make the most difference, especially in a “pound for pound” sort of way…that is, the return on investment is incredibly high.
So I’m gonna ask my question again, why exactly do you think that it is more effective, and more efficient, and concrete results will be seen faster, if you ignore the schooling of young children and simply try to get people to engage with the Mises Institute in high school and college at the earliest? Or if you prefer, why is targeting the school system on a local level a less efficient, less effective way of going about rolling back the State?
[1] —which, on its face I would argue is not necessarily true. Again, if you see North’s actual strategy, it could change things in one semester. This is not to say that I agree with all of North’s plan or that I think it’s the most feasible, but for one thing, it would take a huge bite of one of the most powerful and parasitic and damaging unions in the country…thus making it easier to reach people…and for another, it’s an actual point by point strategy…as opposed to “I’ll fight a revolution in the battleground of ideas, man. And once me and the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar unplug enough people from the Matrix, I’ll just sit back and watch the fireworks.”