On Education.

[aleksandrovitch]

It is my personal feeling that logic should be taught in schools. Not logic in the mathematical or Cartesian sense, but with respect to dialectic human interaction. Most petty problems between people, as I view them, arise from one or the other not adhering to the accepted rules of logic. This is, of course, insofar as said interactions are

Comments

[aleksandrovitch]

I fear some days that I become a proponent of Aristocracy. Not, of course, the Aristocracy that exists in today's paradigm, but rather that merit-based system proposed by Aristotle. While Egalitarianism is all nice and shiny, I wonder at times. Recently, I have placed myself privy to some interesting statistics involving IQ and its relation to class structure (The Bell Curve by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, highly recommended). While the obvious direct proportions between the twelve 'high IQ' professions, that is, advocacy, chemistry, advanced mathematics, etc. is well understood, it seems that stratification is somewhat validated by IQ. However, political positions are not subject to this apparently non-categorical imperative. While a people's advocate would surely deem this a victory, declaring that the people are represented, as they should be, by their counterparts, I must confess that my gradually declining (yes, still) faith in mankind and its ilk leads me to depart from this advocate and play, as it would seem in the oversensitive, guilt-ridden society that we float in like jelly-beings in the primordial sea, Lucavis's advocate.

It is here my supposition that the masses should not make choices for themselves, indeed cannot. If not ruled by a strong, separated contingency of intelligentsia, it will be by the media and its kind. While your characterization of religion as ephemeral elevated me for a moment, I fell a moment later as I came to the realization that something else would rise to take its place.

As for this "reasonable middle", I am afraid that I perceive it as a wolf in sheep's clothing. It is a contingency of Marxism that the middle class exists as a buffer, preventing the poor from destroying the rich. If social echelons were constructed as they should be, this would be acceptable. I believe they are not, as such, there is no love lost between this "reasonable middle" and myself.

Regardless, I hope you will excuse the comparative roughness of this reply in light of the fact that it follows hard on the heels of a bi-o-lit for our dearest Dr. Foster.

~Yours, etc.