Thursday, 13 September 2007

Celebrating Ny New Career With a Shared Lunch

I've been keeping it a secret for a long time, but now it's out: I'm officially a columnist for the Free Radical. I was lucky enough to celebrate it with a shared lunch (despite being for my leaving form teacher at the end of the term), but nevertheless it was a joyous event, and I'm also pleased to announce that my form class is surprisingly pro-Capitalist (except for one guy who considers himself a Communist), being in a public school and all. Maybe, to get my class more interested in Libertarian politics and Objectivist philosophy for the smarter ones, I should give out my blog's address-it may be rather interesting!

My one concern though, is that the school may use it as if I was something of their creation; even though teaching is an almost exclusively Socialist career, it's still good publicity for them.

But anyway, so far so good!

~Callum

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

So far so good, indeed! Regarding the class Comrade: ask him if he'd *seriously* consider living (starving) in North Korea, and if not, why. That usually puts an end to any nonsensically romantic notion of communism.

To allay your fear of the school "using" your success to promote them: If a PR coup for Tawa College is the work of a capitalist, let them go to town! Having socialists promote The Free Rad is a dream come true! :)

(Besides, you're probably achieving in spite of them, not necessarily because of them!)

Callum said...

Thanks for the reply, Sus. As for North Korea, apparently it "just ain't real Communism"-of course, neither is the USSR, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, or those little African/ South American nations which consider themselves that!

I think I will certainly allow the school to promote the Free Radical, Sus. The problem that I can think of is that the govt will probably devise some way to close it, if I get on their nerves enough. After all, they don't want public education churning out Objectivists and Capitalists.

Anonymous said...

So what is "real" communism, then?

Always *question* detractors, rather than answer with a statement. It puts the ball back in *their* court, requiring *them* to defend *their* opinions.

Not easy to do, especially on the trot - but a really powerful tool to employ if you can. Gets them nicely tied up or makes them mad. Usually both!

Callum said...

Will do, Sus. But I generally don't expect an answer immediately.

Anyway, keep in mind that this is the same guy who said that "a good mix of fascism and nationalism is always good for the economy. Examples: Nazi Germany, and Soviet Russia. Seriously.

Anonymous said...

Ah, I see.

Is his surname Bradford by any chance? :)

Callum said...

Not. But it's a bit of his shame, he told me his father is pro-Capitalist, Classical Liberal/Conservative.

Anonymous said...

Callum, I am sure your grandfather, a former teacher, would not enjoy being characterized as a a socialist.