Tom Watson writes:


My point was that our focus, as a culture and as "The Man Writ Large"
has shifted from the duties and responsibilities of Citizenship to the
irresponsible category of Consumer.

Consumers are not responsible for anything other than getting the best
deal; a Citizen, if I rightly understand the term, is responsible for
the health of the Polis, being a full and mindful partner in the
process that brings the Polis into being.

Democracy demands reciprocity between the governed and the governing.

Our current culture treats those who run our affairs as professionals,
who must be given great latitude as regards the affairs of state,
rather than treating them as fellow amateurs, who must be guided by
the fellows that put them in such high regard.

This would be a mistake.


It IS a mistake and a very, very bad one. AFAICT, it is a tendency that
accelerated after WWII, too, though there were early practitioners in the '20s
and '30s (the Roosevelts come to mind as professionals in a basically amateur
field).

People who have children must have some great fun trying to figure out what the
kids are going to inherit as a country and as, yes, citizens. They're not being
educated to do the job of a citizen, but they're going to have a much heavier
civic load to tote than most of us have had.

Charlie Self
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you
nothing. It was here first." Mark Twain

http://hometown.aol.com/charliediy/m.../business.html