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[Arctic]

Arctic. Mads Mikkelsen tries to survive in the Arctic wilderness after his 'plane crashes.

I love tales of survival and endurance. I love tales of the wilderness. I love Mads Mikkelsen.
And I love this film.

[me]

...perfectly willing to turn a blind eye to child abuse. Tut tut tut.

How fucking dare you?

And you called me a troll.

Sintec - you're absolutely right, probably the first and most important thing is to ask the children what they want as well as the parents. Ideally, solutions should be tailored to individual circumstances.

I.P. - the elites tend to be very libertarian amongst themselves as well. I think this is because they have so much money/clout that they can basically go anywhere and do anything, hence monsters like Jeffrey Epstein. The downside is that they use all of their libertarian rights and very few, if any, of the responsibilities.

Curiously, the Earth is technically a libertarian or anarchist planet because it doesn't have a single ruler or state.

Yet.

That is what courts are for. If a child (or anyone) is being harmed then that can be lawfully stopped. If the child is not being harmed then, as unpalatable as it might be to others, there's really no cause for anyone else to intervene directly.

Advertising can get people to spend money on almost anything - including buying shares in utilities they already own. In its propaganda form it can inflame people to genocide. It's a multi-billion dollar global industry for a reason and I feel sure it can sell the idea of education to many, but probably not all, anti-educators.

I've worked for as long as I can remember. My first job was helping my Mum, Granny, and a couple of neighbours shilling shrimps. Later I worked with my Dad, who was a diesel fitter. He taught me tons of practical stuff and left me with a lifelong love for fixing things and bodging things together out of rubbish and scrap. Sure, I went to school as well but, to be honest, I preferred working. It gave me a sense of pride in a job well done and entailed lots of concomitant learning in reading and maths as well as inspiring self-confidence and exposing me to the wider world.
It was exciting and interesting whereas school was dull and boring.

I said some schools may be open 24 hours a day, not just "schools." Some supermarkets are open 24/7. Petrol stations. Hotels. Police stations. Fire stations. Kebab shops. Hospitals. Is there really no reality in which you can see some all-night schools in areas that need them?


Freedom does not mean doing whatever the Hell one wants and hang the consequences. Indeed, living in a free society places a greater burden of responsibility on everyone.

I agree that the state treating children (all of us, really) as property is wrong - but that's the way it sees us. It's one of my biggest bugbears. Thing is, if I say to the state "you don't own me," then I have to concede that it doesn't own anyone else, either. And as one only has jurisdiction over one's own property (or one's own self), then everyone else must have that same right. So if the state can't treat people as property, forcing them to do whatever, then neither can I.

If someone is teaching their children that the Earth is flat, for example, I'm perfectly at liberty to argue and disagree but not to interfere directly. That is frustrating, sure, but ultimately not my business no matter how much I might wish it was.

I'm in.

In a libertarian or anarchic society, the highest law is do no harm.

If parents are doing harm then it is perfectly legitimate for police, courts, social workers, etc. to intervene. No rulers does not mean no rules. A non-violent system does not mean no system.

Sintec:

Case 1: Religious education. Fine. In this case, the only thing to do is tempt students to your school. Advertising would probably work.

Case 2: The working child. A lot can be learned from work. In this case, if poverty is the only driver, the local community can pay the parents their extra £5 per week or provide a home tutor. If the job is actually dangerous then the law kicks in and police etc. can get involved.

3: Fallen through the cracks. Some schools may be open 24 hours a day, providing walk-in educational help for anyone at any time.

Just forcing some people (me included) to go along just turns them against the system. Helping people (me included) turns them to it.

Nope, wrong on all counts.

I was too fat.

If you want a "one size fits all" solution from me you'll be disappointed - you already have that.

So, be specific. Invent or convey a specific case, tell me about the family, their situation, their beliefs, and what the perceived problem is.

Ooh, I like those.

Something I tried recently was converting NASA photos of bits of Mars (e.g. and etc.) from orbit to greyscale and then to black and white and using the result as a base. Next time I can get my lappy near a wi-fi connection I'll upload a few.

We've got a thread for films, how about one for books and such?


The Brentford Trilogy - Robert Rankin
Odyssey/Iliad - Homer
Diary of a Nobody - George & Weedon Grossmith
Parallel Lives - Plutarch
The Bible (bits of it, anyway) - God
Conan - R.E. Howard
Discworld - Terry Pratchett
The Most Dangerous Superstition - Larken Rose
Fables of Aesop
The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Jeeves and Wooster - P. G. Wodehouse
Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkein
Anything by me!

I played football once.

I didn't like it.

I love designing imaginary maps - there's something really satisfying about it.

Again, why shift the argument to solutions when one side doesn't believe  there's a problem, or believe that the problems are different?

It always seemed to me that some executive in a pre-production meeting said, "Yes, yes, yes - but how do we get kids to watch it?"

Go for it!