callmeslick wrote:before we launch into a battle of semantics(stupid vs uneducated, lazy vs. a society that encourages it),
I want to say that I tend to agree with you, CUDA. However, by placing the blame on politics(liberals are the cause), you are blind to a society that has willingly allowed standards to slip. It's everyone who tolerates an education system without critical thinking, without real research papers for high school kids, without value for intellect, that is to blame. Liberal, or conservative, has nothing to do with it.
actually I agree with you. we ARE all to blame, but my point was it was the intrinsic liberal line of thinking that has been brought into the education system that is "A" (not soley) root cause of this problem. schools now days do not just teach the 3 R's (and they do a poor job of that) they try to teach you how
they want you to think not how to think
callmeslick wrote:You cite, by the way, the 'tone' of early 19th century politics. Bear in mind, that sort of nonsense was limited to the mass media of the day in the narrow timeframe near elections. In between, the focus was nothing of the sort, as the public dealt with real-life issues. Now, everything gets distilled into political vitriol, every day. It matters not at all if the lunacy comes from Glenn Beck or Keith Olberman. It's all poison, and despite your claims to the contrary, the public might have access to more information, but UNDERSTANDS far less of the actual complexities than our predecessors did. Further, most actual political and social change came not from the common man, but from the landowners and business owners of the day, who were, by and large, VERY well educated for the times, and not given to buy into the inflamed rhetoric of some of the worst of the contemporary journalists.
again agreed with the mass media. in those days it would take weeks for information to get to the populace. now that information is MUCH more easily available, which in itself is better to the people. BUT there was merit to only the land owner having a vote, and in some repects still is to this day. when you have ownership in something you tend to take better care of it. when you work for something you tend to value it more. thos people who LIVE off of welfare do not care about their station in life. have you ever driven through a public housing development and look at how things are maintained? then drive through a more affluent neighborhood and notice the difference.
just because you are poor does not mean you shouldnt take care of what you have, and those same people treat their country the same way. they dont have the same investment in it as others do and there fore only look at it as a rental tool that they will turn in when done, and the sad part is many in our government facilitate this kind of thinking.
"I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."
— Benjamin Franklin
