RANT WARNING!

On Wednesday, March 29, 2017 at 11:04:22 AM UTC-4, Foxs Mercantile wrote:

Snippage

On truth and democracy:
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there
always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been
a constant thread winding its way through our political and
cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy
means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

ISAAC ASIMOV, "A Cult of Ignorance", Newsweek, Jan. 21, 1980

As we are quoting fairly a learned writer, and one who also wrote a great deal of science fiction, here is an equally appropriate quote from another learned writer, who also wrote science fiction:

"You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. Nobody is entitled to be ignorant."

Harlan Ellison

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index

Democracy arises only from exceeding wealth readily shared at every level of society. And even a brief look at other so-called democracies in this world, starting with India, and that obvious reality becomes clear. The United States is 21 (of 76) on a world scale, between Japan and Italy - both very recent converts to the title of 'democracy' on a world scale. A pretty sad condition for a so-called Beacon.

And to the extent that we fail to protect our least able citizens and residents, that is the extent to which we fail as a democracy. To the extent that we fail to educate our young to live, play, work and grow on the *WORLD STAGE* is the extent to which we fail as a nation to grow and participate in that world stage. We cannot go it alone - hell, we do not even make one single simple LDC screen in this country. We are a net-importer of agricultural goods (due, in large part, to the consumption of illicit pharmaceuticals), we cannot meet any of our most basic requirements from steel to energy to minerals to necessary pharmaceuticals to much of anything else solely from domestic sources - NOR CAN THE REST OF THE WORLD FOR THEMSELVES, EITHER.

So, we are necessary participants whether we recognize it or not. Best to learn about all this and understand it, rather than be caught blindsided by it, perhaps? We need to be smarter, harder working, faster, better educated, more thoughtful, less ignorant, cleaner and brighter than the rest of the world at every level of our society or we *will* fail. We need to make use of our incredible wealth, and not concentrate it into the hands of a very, very few - or we will lose all of it. We, the United States, are 5% of the world's population. Yet we consume just about 25% of the world's total resources.

Ignorance will not protect that primacy. Nor will denying the consequences and necessities of that primacy. For us to live as we live, individuals in China, North Korea, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Congo, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Haiti et.al. *MUST* live as they do.

Stop whining about what you don't begin to understand, stop living by received wisdom, and start to understand reality.

As we are quoting, here is another one:

€œBut you were always a good man of business, Jacob,' faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.

Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!€�

Charles Dickens

America is no greater than the least of us.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA