The politics of ignorance

I’m not sure why hurtling along at thirty-five thousand feet always brings out the philosophical in me, but this time I have a definite excuse.

I’ve been reading Adler’s Philosophical Dictionary (Scribner, ISBN 0-684-80360-7) and it has found me enlightened, challenged, and provoked to thought. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a thinker of thoughts.

It is an excellent starting point for countless philosophical musings, and could serve as a defining reference for philosophical discussion so otherwise susceptible to foundering in the quagmire of semantics. For this use, it is not important that the parties present agree with Adler, only that they agree to use his work as a fixed point of reference, semantically if not philosophically.

This book will make excellent starting points in teaching philosophy to my boys, just pick a word, read Alders definition, discuss what he meant, consider the implications of his statements.

This brings me to the discussion of education. Why is it that we teach only symbol manipulation, political dogmas, and rote memorization of culturally significant “facts” to our students?

Conspicuously absent are critical, logic, and thinking skills – the very skills essential for every participatory citizen to have. Surely we must be able to read, write, and make change – but to govern ourselves mustn’t we at least be able to consider issues and alternatives intelligently?

After all, in a society of citizens, those governed of their own consent, the responsibility of the poll and jury should not be taken lightly. To do so is to risk government by industry, media, or whoever else can influence so gullible a population.

It is the poll that guides our nation, and the polls are guided by the populace. If the people cannot distinguish between fact and fallacy, between innovation and farce, then we are destined to stumble in the dark until the enlightenment or the loss of our sovereign, whichever comes first.

The lack of thinking skills in the majority of high school graduates may very well pose the greatest threat to the future of this nation yet.

Ignorance in itself is not dangerous, but an ignorant person armed with the force of governance is a dangerous person indeed.

To understand why, one must only understand the nature of government. Government as we currently understand it is merely the rule of society by virtue of a monopoly of coercive force.

This begs the question of who should be in charge of such a force? Surely the answer is thoughtful, intelligent, sensitive, and educated persons. To this end I submit that insofar as we fail as parents, educators, and human beings to provide succeeding generations with these qualities, we fail our nation, ourselves, and our children.

It is time that those among us who have abdicated these responsibilities be called to answer as to why, and for what. By those among us, I mean the parents of any child over five who cannot demonstrate the process of elimination, of any child over twelve who cannot list at least two common fallacies.

That’s right, I mean parents. Not educators, not politicians, not somebody else that spends more time with your children than you do. It is your responsibility to see that your child receives a proper education. The schools are merely one of your tools. The hammer takes not the responsibility for the house that collapses; it is the fault of the architect or the builder.

If you cannot find a way to be sure that your children possess efficient analytical skills, the least you can do is to discourage them from participating in government, a task for which they will be ill equipped without them.