My internet mate John Peachey sent me this excellent First Dog cartoon. As always it had a lot of thought-provoking truths.
At sixteen we can make lots of life-changing decisions:
a. We can join the army and go and get ourselves killed.
b. We can get married and have babies (and what can be more important than being responsible for a baby?)
c. You can drop out of education go to work and start following the wrong career that’ll mess up your whole life.
d. You can drive a motorbike and become a menace to yourself and others.
e. You can make legal decisions, open bank accounts and sign contracts that could end up bankrupting you.
Of course, you can’t drive a car, go to a pub or buy cigs – strange anomalies.
As a biologist I am aware of crucial brain development. A human brain does not become fully adult until around the age of twenty-five. Does that mean we should not make any major decisions until then?
I’ve known many twelve and thirteen-year-olds who seemed immensely capable, intelligent, perceptive and compassionate. I’ve known many thirty, forty, fifty and sixty-year-olds who are immensely stupid, uninformed, selfish and inconsiderate who are completely incapable of making an intelligent decision and never will be.
In the course of my teaching career I’ve had reams of fantastic debates with students ranging from twelve to eighteen. We covered a wide range of topics – politics, environment, abortion, sex, contraception and war. I found them well able to argue rationally and usually very well informed, interested and idealistic.
My experiences have made me really think about my commitment to democracy. Do we really want our futures decided by the majority? Half the population have an IQ below 100. Many people are manipulated by conspiracy junk on the internet or propaganda from right-wing media. Most of the population don’t read, think or involve themselves with anything. In my experience we’ve become largely a nation of mindless sheep controlled by multimillionaires through populist nincompoops like Farage, Tice and Trump. Is that democracy? The stupidity of Brexit and hysteria around immigration (exploited by the media and every populist politician) have shaken my faith in democracy.
All told, I’d be happier with a system decided by enthusiastic, idealistic sixteen-year-olds. Mind you, half of them are stupid and most of them get their views from the internet!
