Pluralism and Coercion

["Doug Jones" <credenda@moscow.com>]

Melynda Huskey wrote:

> Perhaps the confusion arises from the definition of pluralism or
tolerance
> one uses?
> I've always considered that public schools are funded by tax dollars
for the
> same reason that the national highway system is funded by them:  a
broad and
> compelling national stake in an educated citizenry coupled with a
recognition
> that local business cannot reliably meet that need.  People who can't
drive
> aren't exempted from highway taxes.

Thanks for the reply. My questions are sincere, as is your reply, but
your response is the one I already anticipated in my prior note. What if
the tables were turned and the community imposed a levy to support some
ailing private religious schools by an appeal to "compelling national
stake in an educated citizenry"? Why then would the public school
proponents cry fowl? Levy's for every school! Pluralism. We have several
religions in the Moscow community; why do the proponents of the religion
of Modernity get to coerce the others into funding their worldview and
still call it pluralism? 

(For those unfamiliar with the discussion of Modernity over the past
several decades, you might want to look here
[http://www.mac.edu/academ/ideas/ideas400.postmodern.html] for a brief
description. Scroll down to "Modernity.")


> Of course, for those genuinely convinced of the evil of public
schools, there
> is always the course of action undertaken by many of my Quaker
> co-religionists.  They annually refuse to pay that portion of their
taxes
> which goes to fund national defense, informing the authorities and
donating
> that sum of money to peace work.  Then they wait to go to jail.

To understate things, this reply is powerfully telling. The jail option
has not been ruled out. But notice how it shows the real colors of
secular "pluralism." I wrote that local pluralism is a façade for
coercion, and you replied by suggesting that I go to jail. I couldn't
have made up a better reply myself. Let's step up to the microphone and
say it loudly and clearly for the whole community to hear. Pluralism =
intolerance.

Doug Jones