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Is the Ayn Rand book program a inituation of force

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Cherring109

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In the context of grade school where students have no choice to go to school or face the consequences of being tracked down by the police isn't the Ayn Rand books program a initiation of force?

1. The students have to go to that school because their parents tell them to

2. This is enforced by law.

3. The ARI gives the school the books

4. the teachers get the books and use it as a assignment

5. the students didn't choose to read that book

6. Therefore that is a initiation of force.

What is wrong here?

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What is wrong here?

I can see the following obvious flaws.

1. The responsibility for mandatory attendance laws falls entirely on the government officials who enacted and enforce them.

2. Parents requiring their children to attend school -- public or private -- is not an initiation of force.

3. A student who refuses to carry out a school assignment is not subjected to force -- they merely receive a bad grade. And trust me, there's a big difference between a bad grade and being the victim of force.

4. ARI provides books to schools at the request of the teacher, not the other way around as you imply. If your argument were valid, any book publisher would be guilty of initiating force if they sold books to schools.

The entire structure of your argument is a rationalistic deduction. It's almost too silly to warrant analysis.

Edited by khaight
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Yes, it is initiation of force. So it sending your kid to his room, or giving him a smack when he tries to cross the road without looking both ways.

Kids do not have full rational faculties, and so are given incremental rights until they demonstrate the ability to act rationally, or turn eighteen (or twenty-one), whichever comes first.

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