During proofing this came up: What's a down-paragraph metaphor? It is an error or missing a word, perhaps? Thanks!
Okay, so Bennett doesnt seem to know what the term magic bullet means. Thats understandable; I myself used to have trouble with the term ruled out. When it was said that police have ruled out the possibility of foul play, I wasnt sure if that meant that the police had spread the possibility out on the table to get a better look at it, or rather that theyd thrown it out so that it wasnt really something they were still considering as a possibility. But that was when I was, like, 12.
Luckily, Bennett does a slightly better job of explaining the moral clarity of his position in a down-paragraph metaphor. Of course we want to teach children not to play with matches. But if a house is burning, weve got to put out the fireand weve got to grab matches out of some hands before they start any more fires. Actually, this is a terrible metaphor, unless, of course, he meant to add, and then weve got to throw the little bastards out on the street. He is, after all, talking about a mandatory expulsion policy, not a taking drugs out of some hands before they use any more drugs policy, which is what the schools have always had.