Pun Salad

[Hal] Varian, the Chief Economist of Google, was on a panel of like-minded speakers called “fighting back against antitrust populism.” Varian fought back with data that said that most searches are not for products or services, and sellers of products and services get most of their traffic from something other than ads. He pretty much said that the reason Google doesn’t have competition in search is that search is a lousy business—you have to respond to lots of queries, few of which generate revenue. Somebody should have asked him whether Google’s shareholders see it that way.

Let me begin to answer that question with a quote—perhaps a familiar quote to some or most of you. But it’s apt, and there’s always a chance some of you haven’t heard it, and/or that others can use a refresher.

The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected. Even when the revolutionist might himself repent of his revolution, the traditionalist is already defending it as part of his tradition. Thus we have two great types—the advanced person who rushes us into ruin, and the retrospective person who admires the ruins. He admires them especially by moonlight, not to say moonshine. Each new blunder of the progressive or prig becomes instantly a legend of immemorial antiquity for the snob. This is called the balance, or mutual check, in our Constitution.

Those words were spoken by G.K. Chesterton, a Brit, in 1924. He was speaking of the British Constitution, not ours. But the words strike me as especially apt to our situation.

What have our conservatives conserved? But before we answer that—hint: almost nothing—let’s first ask: what were they supposed to conserve? What do they say they are conserving in all those fundraising letters they send out that have been netting them hundreds of millions per year for most of my lifetime?

It is imperative, therefore, that the proponents of a free society support the “Separation of School and State” principle, which means we must be abolitionists.

So, how do we get from here to there? Here is a back-of-the-envelope, five-step program for abolishing the government-school system. We must:

1. Delegitimize the government schools not only as failing in practice but as immoral;
2. Encourage ordinary Americans to JustWalkAway;
3. Rescind all laws regulating homeschooling and the creation of micro schools and education pods;
4. Require all Republican politicians to pledge they will support abolishing the federal Department of Education and its 50 state surrogates;
5. Take whatever steps necessary to “decertify” the so-called “ed” schools.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the revolution, and the leaders of the revolution are ordinary Americans. This movement will not be stopped, and the revolution will not be televised. We have achieved critical mass and there is no going back.

Dusk is approaching and the owl of Minerva will soon spread its wings.