jbf@ccieng5.UUCP (01/25/84)
The NAMBLA manifesto certainly inspired plenty of discussion -- most of it ill-considered. This article will be rather choppy, since it contains responses to more than a handful of other articles. Of course, the name of the society certainly contributes to its ability to enflame people. One person commented about it sounding like "a bunch of dirty old men" or something of the sort. I would have hoped that the people on this news group would be a little more charitable with the connotative load on their words; after all, this very newsgroup is based on faggots wanting to stick their weenies into other queer boys. On the whole, the content of the manifesto hardly justifies all the flaming. It is 'ideologically pure', fair, and nowhere vituperative. I find the preference of an arbitrary existing standard over something fair but possibly more difficult to administer difficult to understand. (Let's scare everybody with the word 'meritocracy' -- I was surprised not to read non-existent parallels drawn to Nazi Germany!) One person mentioned something that may help to explain it -- for any age n, everybody expects to achieve it without undue strain. Of course, this leaves out those who die before age n, somewhat limiting its fairness. I suspect it does make that sort of standard much easier to implement, though. Most people figure the easy way to escape the limitation imposed on them is simply to grow older. When the drinking age is raised from 18 to 19 (as it was in this state) the voters that were screwed (the 18-19 bracket) have little incentive to become militants in their own cause. As the laws that have protected youths since the early Latins and Greeks, it is my impression that the Greek head of household could kill or sell into slavery his dependents. If this is the sort of protection that should be extended into the modern age, I am glad someone is militating against it! Against laws based on features that merely 'subjectively correlate' with relevant ones, Azhrarn -- Reachable as ....allegra![rayssd,rlgvax]!ccieng5!jbf
wdoherty@bbncca.ARPA (Will Doherty) (01/31/84)
One way to find out even more about NAMBLA, since I and other NAMBLA supporters may not have time to type in everything we and they know, is to send $1 to: NAMBLA Box 174 Midtown Station New York, NY 10018