Would we need a government if society was truly educated?, page
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reply posted on 1-6-2008 @ 03:53 AM by Anonymous ATS
reply to post by Frankidealist35


You say 'why can't we make our own decisions' you can, but you need a collective framework. Individuals cannot act against government decree - they would simply claim that you are breaking the law and arrest you. If however there was 1 million of you disobeying government decrees and you collectively and successfully defied court edicts... thereinafter you could make your own decisions about anything. It is called rebellion. They happen throughout history at times when leaders become too powerful. It requires that the people understand what is happening (most do not) and then a strategy that the majority are prepared to follow... no easy task.
In the UK such a group is forming now... if this is successful it will spread to the USA - keep your fingers crossed.


reply posted on 1-6-2008 @ 11:22 PM by sc2099
reply to post by Frankidealist35



Unfortunately, you're mistaken. The government does not exist because everyone is too stupid to govern themselves, but because there are far too many people to fit into a townhall meeting and literally govern themselves.

Even if more people were more educated (whatever that means...plenty of 'educated' people are uselessly dumb and plenty of 'uneducated' people are so smart they didn't need 'education'), there are so many people that there would still need to be representatives to run the country.


reply posted on 10-6-2008 @ 08:07 PM by johnlocke
Actually, this is exactly what John Locke was proposing when he presented his political philosophy. He said that the thing that distinguishes humans from other animals is the capacity to use reason (now, before the peanut gallery starts their caterwauling, he also said that the big problem is that most of us don't use reason). Reason is something that can be taught and if one had a society in which each person has been properly instructed, then government would no longer be necessary, except in the extreme cases of national defense and occasional internal abberations.

Because of this view, he advocated a society in which each person is given tools with which in a perfect world, each one would reach enlightenment. He was also instrumental in removing the death penalty for things like stealing a loaf of bread to feed ones family (which, in those times was a necessity for some), though the biggest influences on a reasonable criminal justice system were Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. He was also the first "significant" philosopher to propose that a bad government should be removed.

Needless to say, he was the greatest influence in the formation of the American nation and many of his ideas were enshrined, if not in the Constitution, in the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson was his most significant admirer.

It is largely because of his insistence on the ability of people to learn that the US has the best public education system in the world (if you disagree with this, then why are so many people begging to come here for colllege?) and largely why we still have the trappings of a democracy (tattered as they are) and the insistence on the ability of every person in this country to succeed.
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