If you think the reading list doesn’t matter, you are profoundly blind to the facts. And the military is run by top-down control, now isn’t it? If all you can see is “Federal Government BAD” ... I guess I’d have to see if you’re consistent in that by asking your take on abortion and gay marriage. If you are indeed consistent, I’ll take you for a Libertarian, and there’s nothing more to say. If you aren’t, I’ll take you for a hypocrite and there’s nothing more to say.
“And the military is run by top-down control, now isn’t it? “
Apples and oranges, and clearly you have no idea about the military and their approach to education and training, let alone strategy and doctrine development and operational practices.
Ever hear of “Centralized control - decentralized execution?”
I bet not.
Centralized control means leadership sets the objective and the unit (’local’) commanders control how that is done.
Ever hear of LBJ and his approach to military operations?
I bet not.
“Centralized control - centralized execution” (CC) was his approach. . .and abject failure was the result.
CC is nothing more than LBJ, in a way.
Federal government is bad at many things, actually bad at most things, which is why the Founders tried to limit it to those things it might do passably well.
One problem with top down is that the effect of mistakes gets magnified. Another is that without effect feedback, top down organizations don't change. Agencies of the Federal Government don't have competition, don't really change across elections and so cannot learn. And when the fail, the bigger the failure the more money they get next year.
Reading lists matter, but they've gotten worse over the years as schools got more and more regionalized, more centralized. The fix isn't even more centralization. That just sets us up for a bigger fail.
More federal control just means more control by unaccountable educrats, of the type who did New Math and Whole Word and all the other failed but trendy teaching techniques.
It matters greatly whether or not a Federal educrat can decide that every school has to use the Howard Zinn American history book.