A great comment has just appeared at my Education Blog, on a piece about how schooling cranks out socialists. Classrooms are centrally planned, and the people who thrive in them spend the rest of their lives believing that that's how it should always be. That kind of thing. And then I flew off at a tangent about the alleged bullying nature of sports jocks.

Here's what Stephanie Herman added:

Well, I don't have any comment on the bullying by sports participants (although I did write an article on bullying and economic incentives on my website), but I do agree that the centrally-regulated classroom could lead the intellectual toward socialism. The same is true in centrally-directed symphony orchestras. I used to play in one, and have yet to meet a capitalist II violin player. :)

:) indeed, but also, given how I adore symphonic music but abhore socialism, :(

Seriously, this makes me want to write a long but good essay speculating profoundly about the relationship between the work of (and remuneration of)classical musicians and the beliefs of classical musicians. But these are the small hours. I'm tired. The choices are (as they usually are when I'm wide awake come to think of it): short and sweet, or long and ugly. No contest.