53 unchanged lines collapsedBecause he wants to make exceptions, you can tell immediately that Cooper does not actually support the “national advancement of colored people”. He’s lying, whether he realizes it or not. It’s just like Caplan pretending when he says “We should have a strong presumption against paternalism […]. The value of math, however, is great enough to overcome this presumption.” (Link removed.) Caplan might as well be saying: ‘I’m all for the liberation of children, but I do not believe they should be liberated to the point they don’t have to domath!’↵ ↵ In somemath!’↵ ↵ Yet *Mad Men* highlights more than that. While virtually all of the show’s viewers recognize the horror in how black people were treated back then, viewers fail to see that same horror in how our treatment of children has *not* meaningfully changed since. I suspect it’s not even something the creators of the show intended to convey – but they did, to some. In several ways, black people were better off even in the 60s than children are today: Harris strongly implies that what Cooper requests is illegal, but there is no law against forced education of children to this day. On the contrary, in many jurisdictions, the law *demands* such force. [Even the UN demands it.](/posts/the-right-to-education-is-bad) In addition, I understand that psychological and scientific ‘findings’ justifying segregation were receding by the 60s, yet Caplan references both psychology and medical science to justify – and shift responsibility for – hisstance on children.desire to deny children freedom. Also, Cooper doesn’t pretend that his ‘request’ is for the black employee’s own good, whereas Caplan does just that when it comes to children.17 unchanged lines collapsed
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Because he wants to make exceptions, you can tell immediately that Cooper does not actually support the “national advancement of colored people”. He’s lying, whether he realizes it or not. It’s just like Caplan pretending when he says “We should have a strong presumption against paternalism […]. The value of math, however, is great enough to overcome this presumption.” (Link removed.) Caplan might as well be saying: ‘I’m all for the liberation of children, but I do not believe they should be liberated to the point they don’t have to do math!’
Yet Mad Men highlights more than that. While virtually all of the show’s viewers recognize the horror in how black people were treated back then, viewers fail to see that same horror in how our treatment of children has not meaningfully changed since. I suspect it’s not even something the creators of the show intended to convey – but they did, to some. In several ways, black people were better off even in the 60s than children are today: Harris strongly implies that what Cooper requests is illegal, but there is no law against forced education of children to this day. On the contrary, in many jurisdictions, the law demands such force. Even the UN demands it. In addition, I understand that psychological and scientific ‘findings’ justifying segregation were receding by the 60s, yet Caplan references both psychology and medical science to justify – and shift responsibility for – his desire to deny children freedom. Also, Cooper doesn’t pretend that his ‘request’ is for the black employee’s own good, whereas Caplan does just that when it comes to children.
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