Yes, Virginia, There Is NO Santa

I have pondered at great length how I might write this particular piece without coming off like an arrogant ass.  I can’t, ergo accept my arrogant assness.

We are all familiar with the famous “dumbing down of America”, indeed, most of us see the evidence all around us (perhaps even in the mirror?).  We know that many of our young have no manners whatever, and no respect for anything, including themselves (have you read any Tee shirts lately?).  We know that our common value system has sunk to shocking lows.  For those who might consider that last comment a bit extreme, just yesterday several hundred of our fellow citizens thought a discounted TV more important than the life of a security guard, who was trampled as the horde rushed into a store, after breaking down the doors.  For sure, only a few of them actually knocked the man over and trampled him to death, but many others stepped over or around the body in their quest for a discounted price on a TV that will be obsolete in just a few weeks when the newer models hit the shelves.  The poor man’s dying body was, at best, an inconvenience to them.  Many of us have seen the continuing stories in the press of college students who can’t find Canada on a world map, who have no clue in which century the Civil War was fought.  I could go on until we are all nauseated but I think you get the point.

Why am I repeating what we all know?  Simple, because it drives the most perplexing questions I harbor right now.  I will start with the simpler of the questions:

Can an ignorant citizenry, unfamiliar with its own systems of government and economics, with no demonstrable values, be entrusted with the self government of a free nation?

I submit that the answer to this question is obviously NO and that the recent and current history of nations all around the globe proves this beyond rational argument to the contrary.

Which brings us to the harder question:

How do we allow freedom for all while, at the same time, denying the ignorant, the stupid and the indifferent the easy means to destroy our systems of government and economics?

I readily confess that I know no obvious or easy answer to this.  But I do think I know the cost of not finding an answer.  It is simply the end of everything we and our ancestors have worked for, fought for, and, all too often, died for.  True, the country has not ended yet, and may well survive the current crises… but I am less sure of that than I have ever been.  Like the guy once said “it’s not the end of the world — but, you can see it from here”.

I do know that a part of the problem comes from the fact that many in politics, in business, and in religions, prefer the ignorant because they are easy to control, especially if they can be made dependent on their controller(s).  How is this control exercised?  Usually through fear.  Fear that, if you don’t do as I say, the devil will get you and you will burn forever.  Fear that the world, as we know it, will surely end, if so-and-so is allowed (or not allowed) to do whatever (think gay marriage, prayer in school, conservative talk radio, etc.). And, most of all, fear that the handouts they so depend on will cease if those other guys get power.

As we see lately, the ignorant are also easy to manipulate through envy.  Isn’t it obvious that anyone who has more than you got it because they are evil, lucky, or both.  Never because they work harder or smarter.  Never because they risk what they have already earned investing in the future.

Is there any magic pill, any simple action, that will make all this go away?  Not a chance.  But, my instinct and my rational mind tell me there is a place to start.  That is by withholding the voting privilege from any and all who refuse to exercise it responsibly.  Do I mean by that, any who don’t vote the way I want them to?  Not at all.  What I do mean is the clueless and the “takers”.  By takers, I mean those who habitually depend on the state for their sustanance, and who use their vote to try to select people who will steal from the national treasury, and from their fellow citizens, so that they can have ever bigger handouts.  By clueless, I mean those who haven’t a clue who they are voting for, what their candidate(s) stand for, or, indeed, any of the issues in the election.

I think the “takers” can be handled by simply generating an annual estimate of the dollar value of the benefits a person/family unit consumes from a governing entity, subtracting that amount from the tax the person/family unit paid to that governing entity, then awarding a voting “ticket” to all who have a positive result.  Note that, under this scheme, people who pay taxes to multiple governing entities would get to vote in all of them for which they have a positive result.

I have not yet devised a fair, hard to manipulate method for handling the clueless.  As we move more and more into computerized voting, perhaps some qualifying question could be posed for each item on the ballot.  For sure, the straight party ticket selection should be removed immediately as should party affiliation for the candidates.  When choosing a person for office, all one should see on the ballot is a list of names of those who qualified.  Nothing else.

Note that I did not mention serious repair of our educational system.  I agree that we desperately need that, but that is a long term solution.  Before we can tackle those, we have to stop digging the hole ever deeper.

Now the last question in this set:

Do the able citizens of a free, self-governing country actually have the right to be ignorant, indifferent, and/or dependent on government?

I have written this as if they do, but I am not sure that is really correct.

I am very interested in other ideas.  Do we really have the problems I suggest?  If so, please offer some ideas for addressing them equitably.

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