I’m not too impressed with the average person’s body of knowledge. I’m not gonna lie; I think many people are dumb (or at least wouldn’t have known to put a semicolon there). That probably makes me an elitist (although for the record, I do not read books per se and I haven’t memorized any literary passages, so does that count for anything?). Bob Herbert noted last week in the New York Times (The Elitist’s Bible) that:
“A recent survey of teenagers…found that a quarter could not identify Adolf Hitler, a third did not know that the Bill of Rights guaranteed freedom of speech and religion, and fewer than half knew that the Civil War took place between 1850 and 1900.”
Solution: Education. That means reading the news, going back to school, and being informed, rather than voting for the candidate who gives the best speeches or who you’re familiar with or seems tough. I know, I know, that sounds unpleasant (did I mention I don’t read books per se?). As a lazy person, I sympathize with you. I only read the news to avoid studying or doing chores…so, wait a minute, let’s try something else. To have our cake and eat it too, we have to revitalize our democracy without doing the work ourselves.
We need to make America's children do it. Pass the responsibility on to future generations! Who’s with me? We’re a lost cause anyhow. At this point, we’ve all become entrenched in our place in this democracy of (1) being judgmental, (2) singing Kumbayah, or (3) drinking our indifference away (I am torn between singing and drinking and prefer to just combine the two).
The children are our future. They could turn it around. Put them to work! Make them figure things out. Teach them how to use their minds. When they start calling us out for being idiots, we’ll know we’ve done our job. And really, they’ll have done most of the work.
Solution: Education. That means reading the news, going back to school, and being informed, rather than voting for the candidate who gives the best speeches or who you’re familiar with or seems tough. I know, I know, that sounds unpleasant (did I mention I don’t read books per se?). As a lazy person, I sympathize with you. I only read the news to avoid studying or doing chores…so, wait a minute, let’s try something else. To have our cake and eat it too, we have to revitalize our democracy without doing the work ourselves.
We need to make America's children do it. Pass the responsibility on to future generations! Who’s with me? We’re a lost cause anyhow. At this point, we’ve all become entrenched in our place in this democracy of (1) being judgmental, (2) singing Kumbayah, or (3) drinking our indifference away (I am torn between singing and drinking and prefer to just combine the two).
The children are our future. They could turn it around. Put them to work! Make them figure things out. Teach them how to use their minds. When they start calling us out for being idiots, we’ll know we’ve done our job. And really, they’ll have done most of the work.
Education: Our democracy saved. Our children prepared. We do nothing. Win-win-win!
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