Richard Posner Quote

“Now that eighteen-year-olds have the right to vote, it is obvious that they must be allowed the freedom to form their political views on the basis of uncensored speech before they turn eighteen, so that their minds are not a blank when they first exercise the franchise. And since an eighteen-year-old’s right to vote is a right personal to him rather than a right to be exercised on his behalf by his parents, the right of parents to enlist the aid of the state to shield their children from ideas of which the parents disapprove cannot be plenary either. People are unlikely to become well-functioning, independent-minded adults and responsible citizens if they are raised in an intellectual bubble.”

~ Richard Posner

American Amusement Machine Association, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Teri Kendrick, et al., Defendants-Appellees (2001)

Ratings and Comments


Mike, Norwalk

I'm not quite sure how to rate this. There is a giant string of truth that weaves from the base through the rest of the thought - only to make lies and distortions an admorally accepted norm. Theocratic seminaries (government schools), the MSM ecclesiastical propagator's and other political disceminators speech - in most part - is very censored (or at least heavily biased). I would ask the readers here, how many 18 year olds have a working knowledge: of natural law (the laws of nature and of nature's God) vs. legal positivism / legal realism - reletivism, etc.; or, of true and absolute liberty; or, of what the difference between canons and secular rules are; or, etc., etc., etc. so that not just a blank mind but rather, a biased ignorant mind is what goes to the ballot box to vote. The plenary scale of censored knowledge given by the State (parents, children, generational, etc.) does not rise to the level of well-functionoing, independent-minded adults or responsible citizens capable of voting outside the imposed intellectual bubble.

SCSURFR, La Mirada

Correct Mike. I might expand the thought to most people, not just the young.

Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown

The young should be educated to speak in their own behalf and take a stand for forward progress, not rely on the criminal political voting game.  

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