Juan_Bottom wrote:NS is talking about the Federal Government in theory versus the Federal Government in practice. And he's right, but kind of not. After the Civil War was lost by the Southerners, the role of the Federal Government has been assured to be a stronger one. They just haven't gone through the rig-amoral of adding that to the Constitution. Anyway, our government was designed, and intended to change. If we went back to the rules our early nation was governed by then we'd be making a huge mistake. For example, towns that had less than 50 houses wouldn't be required to send their children to school. Maybe that's not a fair example, because I know a lot of Conservatives are against the Department of Education and against education and science in general anyway. Perhaps that's because most Conservatives were never properly educated themselves. . . er, . . what was my point again?
Oh yes,
Our American forefathers were, at the time, arguably the most educated populous in the world. We had public schools in 1635, by 1637 education was no longer optional for those kids in towns with 50 households or more. Partly the reason American's had such strong resentment of the British was the fact that the colony's had created for themselves the most literate population in the British empire. In fact, they were probably the most literate in the world.
George Washington said "There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness." And the Roman slave turned Philosopher, Epictetus, pleaded "We must not believe the many, who say that only free people ought to be educated, but we should rather believe the philosophers who say that only the educated are free."
Today of course, America is populated by 40 million barely literate adults, and when compared with the resto of the modernized world our students repeatedly rank in the bottom for understanding of algebra, chemistry, science, and literacy. Though despite this two-thirds of American students say that they "are good at mathematics." Our media devotes more time to Hollywood "scandals" like Michal Jackson's doctor's trial than to even President Obama's speeches. It's no wonder Pedronicus thinks Americans are f*cked in the head. We are. We have retarded debates like this one because we have dumbed ourselves down so much. And this, Epictetus had alluded to, "only the educated are free." Here we have a good opportunity to help ourselves and save a great deal of capital in the process. And instead, we politicize the issue, we allow politicians on both sides to destroy Socialized medicine's great benefits, we listen without a skeptical ear, and we hide behind the Constitution. These idiots are f*cking things up or the rest of us. We're enslaving ourselves by not properly educating ourselves, or each other.
"American's have no interest in critical or skeptical thinking, and they have no sense of reasoning."
I'm making this my signature.
Well stated Juan.
