Posted on 03/20/2021 5:59:00 AM PDT by Kaslin
In the summer of 1787, close by the steamy Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, fifty-five perspiring men, unpaid volunteers representing themselves, their families, and communities, worked in a room with the windows closed so they could speak freely. They were laboring to write a constitution for the now united, no longer rebellious colonies, that were independent states with their own stamps and virtually worthless paper money. They wanted a “more perfect union” than that which the defective Articles of Confederation had produced. They were gentlemen farmers, merchants, lawyers, some highly educated. These men could pick up a text in classical Greek and sight-translate it into Latin.
In the same weeks, Thomas Jefferson, the principal author eleven years earlier of their Declaration of Independence was in Paris as the U.S. Ambassador to the Court of King Louis XVI. He spent his workdays corresponding with other diplomats and men of business, and his evenings dining with some of Europe’s most respected thinkers.
This was the Paris of Voltaire, who had died just seventeen years earlier, on the cusp of the American Revolution. When Jefferson’s European dinner companions learned what was going happening in Philadelphia -- the attempt to create a democratic republic, meaning a republic in which the demos, the common man, would have a say in the affairs of the state -- they guffawed at the foolishness of the effort. They told Jefferson it was settled wisdom that monarchy was the best system for the simple-minded and uneducated common man. For the European scene, they had a point. So many were indeed unlettered peasants and serfs.
But Jefferson countered that they did not know Americans. They were not like that at all. One historian reckoned that 93% of Americans in this period were yeoman farmers. L
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The peasants and serfs of America lost their Republic because they had been dumbed down to not even know what natural born citizen means.
In a word, the writer seems to be saying the achilles’ heel is mis-education, or mal-education.
Anyone else boil it down?
Not many can translate Greek anymore.
parasites outnumber producers = ruin
Even before that, we couldn’t decide on what the meaning of”is” is...
“The peasants and serfs of America lost their Republic because they had been dumbed down to not even know what natural born citizen means.”
Jefferson and the founders knew an illiterate, uninformed, unthinking population will fall to tyranny. They valued classical education and wanted the voting population to be not only literate but well read.
Of course the founders also valued informed, passionate and respectful debate of ideas and opinions, something today’s liberal intellectuals disdain.
I have been reading 19th century newspapers from the small rural towns in which my ancestors lived in order to gain a better understanding of their lives and the communities in which they lived. I am amazed by the quality and depth of writing as well as the international scope of the information in these publications. I have concluded our ancestors were considerably more educated than most of the high school graduates coming out of today’s public schools. As a result they were informed voters, with an in depth understanding of the issues of the day. Their knowledge was not based on 2 minute propaganda video sound bites from a professional teleprompter reader on a 24/7 news network or a “tweet” from a social justice organization.
The Library of Congress “Chronicling America” website allows one to read old newspapers from every state. The search engine allows fine tuning to state, locality and even person. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
I find my time is better spent studying reading these newspapers, and understand a time when both the leaders and people respected the role of education and public discourse in the democratic process, than watching the senseless prattle of today’s pundits.
“A democracy can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.”
There is much argument about the wise man who first promulgated this notion, but that should not take away its import!
Math is racist...
Two Wolves and One Sheep deciding what’s for Dinner.
We’re not a Democracy.
What exactly is that graph telling us?
I’m guessing it is IQ distribution, with 100 being the average.
Yep
Without the underpinning of Laws and a Republic,
‘democracy’ devolves quickly into mob rule.
Anacyclosis.
It’s the single axiom, the one great truth of nations.
No nation can escape it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacyclosis
anacyclosis.org
IQ curves.
When you’re born with an 81 IQ, you’re at a major disadvantage in life and your prospects are not good.
My ex teaches 5th grade in a ghetto school.
During virtual ed, I noticed none of the class could maket change. 25 5th graders and not one of them could make change for a dollar.
Standard curriculum for that grade is multiplying/dividing fractions, digital conversion, shapes and areas...angles etc.
Not even one knew how much change to give back from a dollar on an 87cent purchase.
And every single one of them will move on to 6th grade middle school.
I’m certain not even one has an IQ above 90. Most are likely in the 70s or 80s.
The class is even, half black and half Mexican.
100% of trouble, disruption and defiance comes from the black kids.
Yeah, it’s but a microcosm.
You can probably thank John Dewey for the deterioration of education.
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