A State of Ignorance and An Ignorance of State

[Valin]

According To Hoyt:

Sarah A. Hoyt

3/14/13

 

Okay, I’m sick and tired of this meme, and you guys know that when I’m sick and tired of something, I usually go to the keyboard and start typing away. This is, after all, how Darkship Thieves was born!

 

(Snip)

 

However, let’s dispose once and for all of the meme all over conservative websites that goes something like this “the citizenry doesn’t know x” (the number of judges on the Supreme Court; the name of their local representative, the color of underwear the president prefers) — ?????? – “Game over, man, game over.”

 

Then there’s the slightly saner version – why only slightly saner? See first point – which a) assumes that most people only know about the country what is on Jay Walking. that this is a unique form of ignorance in history. c) That the republic can’t survive without precise knowledge of the founding documents and the arcana of government. The ?????? comes in where, apparently, without being able to quote verse and line of the constitution, people won’t know when things get so bad they want to throw the bums out.

 

(Snip)

 

I have reliable information that the people actively involved were around 3%. The sympathizers probably were around 25%. Even after the revolution more than half the people were royalists, just not engaged enough to do anything about it. And I bet you given the state of communication in those days most of the royalists were sort of royalists. They had a vague idea we’d always had a king. They had no idea what was going on, but by gum, they didn’t want their lives disrupted. IF the royal mercenaries burned their house they might become ardent patriots. Or they might turn even more to the king, because if it weren’t for those danged revolutionaries, the burning wouldn’t have happened.

 

THAT was our founding. That was our inception. And I bet you since then the rates of engagement, wrong headedness and “get your politics off my face, I’m getting on with life” is about the same.

 

 

(Snip)

 

 

Pray. Pray very constantly that the crash isn’t bad enough to wake the rest of the people. PRAY that there is never a state of affairs where your survival depends on almost everyone knowing the constitution and being able to tell you if they’re for or against each amendment.

 

Because that will mean a state of unimaginable chaos and fear and possibly a tri-or-four part civil war.

 

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Let’s hope it’s never required that the majority of the people be THAT well informed.

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