Tuesday, May 13, 2008

On the Cutting Edge of The New Barbarism

......is the outbreak of Whooping Cough in a private school in California, established in the first quarter of the 20th century by a reformer who believed:

1. Kids achieve health by proper diet alone.

2. Kids needed to contract diseases in order to be healthy.

You go on believing that. I just hope your kids don't die for the sake of validating your beliefs.

All covered by this bit of doggerel, I believe:

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man-
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:-
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wobbling back to the Fire.

-Kipling

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