Flat world' requires pushing harder in education 1815

There really isn't a right or wrong on this deal, Kolker. That is what seems to align people such as yourself with the Republican "right"; this claim of perfect knowledge. In Republican America the real people are given pompoms and "terrible towels" to cheer on their leaders. The leaders drive by in their limos and the rest are standing there with their thumbs stuck out; and that isn't really the finger of choice. And a lot of this is caused by fear and ego which is the elixir to which you seem to subscribe. We all have this affliction of fear in some quanbreasty; this need to dominate for fear of being dominated. But like it or not, Kolker, it is not ego that differentiates us from the other animals. It is, in fact, our ability to plan ahead and to act in concert with others in order to relieve ourselves of undue burdens. The focus of political economy is the life style of the vast majority, and life style includes freedom from the oppression of domineering power in the hands of prancing pigs.

Where there is anything like an equal distribution of wealth - that is to say, where there is general patriotism, virtue, and intelligence - the more democratic the government the better it will be; but where there is gross inequality in the distribution of wealth, the more democratic the government the worse it will be; for, while rotten democracy may not in itself be worse than rotten autocracy, its effects upon national character will be worse ...

... but in a corrupt democracy the tendency is always to give power to the worst. Honesty and patriotism are weighted, and unscrupulousness commands success. The best gravitate to the bottom, the worst float to the top, and the vile will only be ousted by the viler. While the national character must gradually buttimilate to the qualities that win power, and consequently respect, that demoralization of opinion goes on which in the long panorama of history we may see over and over again transmuting races of free men into races of slaves."

Progress and poverty -- Henry George. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- "I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education." - Thomas Jefferson