Oligarchy and Fascism - Lesson from Ancient Greece

a reply to: mOjOm

You'd still be left with a majority of society having little or not formal education at all. Idiots everywhere just being idiots.

Again, how is that different from our current situation?

If you take the government out of things, especially the DoD, you will have all the same basic industries that we have today. Medical, communications, retail/services, agriculture, technology, etc. It will be in their best interests to offer the best basic and vocational education. As long as you show desire and potential to absorb info and think critically, there should be no reason why one could not jump from one level to another.

Government is the universal stumbling block. The free market is simply people doing what people do to survive in a civilized society. Its mutual symbiosis. Government has too much potential to become parasitic if given too much centralized power. Giving education over to government gives them direct power over the emerging generations.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

You're not giving education over to the Government. They simply handle certain aspects of it and can do it, or should do it, in a balanced way.

It can assure that education around the nation is as close to being balanced and equal as possible allowing for everyone to have those opportunities. It allows for a certain level of standards to be met in certain areas and that certain subjects are always taught and done so with at least certain areas covered.

There will still always be specialized schools and private ones that will have their own way of doing things for those who can afford them. But for the general populace they at least have some standard level of education too.

It's like giving everyone a bus pass allowing them to get around. Sure some people with wealth won't even bother with it because they can afford a limo to get where they're going. But since not everyone can have a limo, we at least make sure everyone has a bus ride to they can join in on society.

Privatize it all and you'll have a small group riding in limos made of gold and the majority having to walk and society goes nowhere.

We're kinda going off topic now too BTW. This thread isn't about education.

Fascism is here but it is hidden -



You see there under his coat?

originally posted by: BELIEVERpriest
a reply to: mOjOm

That's kinda my point. There are people who want to be educated, and people who don't. What we have is what happens when gov't controls education. Its not an issue of funding. Public education is a financial black hole.

Education should be occupational. Let the workers work, and the thinkers think. If you privatize education, the vocational sector will seek those with best vocational potential, and the higher levels will seek those with higher drive and potential.

Personally I don't believe that anyone doesn't want to be educated. Many learn to distain education becuase of the influence of people around them - but they are getting educated by just those people.

The US school system of a hundred years ago, maybe 150, was the envy of the world. Almost everyone received a solid basic education - reading, writing and arithmetic. Our founders believed it was imperative that the populous be educated so that they could make informed decisions.

I agree with mOjOm when xi speaks of the dumbing down of education as a deliberate tactic of the right so that people will not have the ability to make rational decisions for themselves about the veracity of any given argument. Right right only speaks to the emotional part of the brain and without a solid basic education one can't see through the BS with clarity.

As PT Barnam (Barnum?) said - "There is a sucker born every minute" and that is what the right is counting on and the only defensive is a free universal basic secular education.

a reply to: nOraKat

I take it you mean to infer that these representations in US historical 'art' mean that the US was meant to be fascist. You are quite wrong as the symbol and the word are much older then the 20th century.

www.latin-dictionary.net...

fascis, fascis

noun

declension: 3rd declension
gender: masculine

Definitions:
bundle (esp. sticks/books sg.)
burden, load
faggot
packet, parcel

Age: In use throughout the ages/unknown
Area: All or none
Geography: All or none
Frequency: Frequent, top 2000+ words
Source: “Oxford Latin Dictionary”, 1982 (OLD)

the meaning could be of 'picking up a burden' but more likely the strength of 'many' working in concert.

Which was a fascist ideal - but the ideal of being the many being 'yoked' to the dictates of the 'few'.

In American iconography it is representative of the many working together in unity for the benefit of each other.

a reply to: FyreByrd

What I find most interesting is how it is hidden under George Washington's coat.

I take it to mean that he actually represents the power structures who stand behind such symbolism; the symbolism which comes from ancient times even before Rome. I do not think Fascism which is akin to the Roman state (or how they ruled and viewed things) is not dead. I think it is re-emerging.

If you think this symbolism represents the unity of the people to benefit each other, I think you are mistaken.

Everything happening around you tells me otherwise.

I think what is happening is more akin to Orwell's description of Fascism:

"It is usual to speak of the Fascist objective as the "beehive state", which does grave injustice to bees. A world of rabbits ruled by stoats would be nearer the mark." - George Orwell

or this one:

"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."