[mo]

CNN would prefer Americans too under-educated to capture and comprehend all this.

[poconopundit]

CNN would prefer Americans too under-educated to capture and comprehend all this.

* * *

And yet, I refer to a statement by the late, great William F. Buckley who said:

"I am obliged to confess I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University."

And here is Buckley speaking those words in person.

Now interpreting Buckley's 1962 comment a bit further, I will surmise that "two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory" was wisely considered by Buckley.

At that time, the population of the U.S. was 186 million and about 75 percent of U.S. households had a telephone.  The average line cost was $20 a month, a considerable monthly investment at that time.

So if someone was in the telephone directory, they were a person who was used to paying his or her bills.  They were most responsible people who had "skin in the game" of American society.  They earned their keep.  And their wisdom about life came from a judgement about what made a society move forward for them and their families.

I'll note that telephone directories are not as popular as they used to be.  So we need another measure of common sense wisdom, such as owning a car, home, etc.

Food for thought.