Althouse: "Better-educated citizens improve government by complaining more."

June 4, 2012

"Better-educated citizens improve government by complaining more."

"Educated people are more likely to complain about official misconduct and report crimes, even in autocratic regimes."

21 comments:

Mark O said...: This explains the behavior of Wade and James in last night's game.; 6/4/12, 10:14 AM
gerry said...: They always come for unconverted intellectuals first, don't they?; 6/4/12, 10:21 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Goggles that... make biscuits appear larger

Reminds me of a Garry Shandling joke.. he hanged a mirror up his bedroom ceiling that said "objects in mirror are larger than they appear".; 6/4/12, 10:36 AM
edutcher said...: "Better-educated citizens improve government by" not voting for the latest Messiah to come down the pike.

If the last 2 generations of school kids hadn't been taught by union teachers whose curriculum had been developed by that "distinguished educator", William Ayers, and his friends at Columbia, a no talent hack and fantasist like Barry Choom wouldn't have even made it to the IL Senate.; 6/4/12, 10:44 AM
Matt Sablan said...: In other news, people who tend to have more disposable income, higher levels of personal financial and physical security, and more exposure to current events are willing to take more time talking about current events.

Maslow called, his hierarchy is waiting for some credit.; 6/4/12, 10:48 AM
Scott M said...: Define education especially in terms of this article. A person could never have attended college, but have a passion for history and have a mountain of self-education on the federal and his/her state constitutions. That would make that person very qualified to spot government maleficence, wouldn't it?; 6/4/12, 10:49 AM
BarryD said...: Reporting "crimes" in autocratic regimes is a virtue, now?; 6/4/12, 10:50 AM
Matt Sablan said...: Isn't this the whole point of Maslow? Better educated people have more resources, in general, and are more secure, in general, to spend time on these things.; 6/4/12, 10:52 AM
FleetUSA said...: But the Dims depend on the uneducated to listen to their lies and vote for them.; 6/4/12, 10:53 AM
sakredkow said...: This seems like a no-brainer - better educated citizens complain more, expect more.

The problem often is that better-educated citizens take for granted that *everybody* should respond as they do. They often have a hard time empathizing with people who have more limited resources, and often end up blaming them.; 6/4/12, 10:56 AM
BarryD said...: BTW a cocktail party with university faculty will certainly confirm that the "better-educated" are really good at bitching, if nothing else.; 6/4/12, 11:01 AM
Robert Cook said...: "If the last 2 generations of school kids hadn't been taught by union teachers whose curriculum had been developed by that "distinguished educator", William Ayers, and his friends at Columbia...."

Do you post such baroque and paranoid fantasies because it gives you a thrill, or do you think anyone else may actually see some sort of sense in your nonsense?; 6/4/12, 11:15 AM
ricpic said...: The educated want a boutique world imposed on and paid for by them. Oh yes, it also must be a vibrant boutique world...the vibrant part in another county.; 6/4/12, 11:36 AM
ndspinelli said...: edutcher, I'm guessing you skipped right over your youth and never blew weed. You're obsessed dude. You are now either ASS[Althouse Sycophant Society] President or ReeferMadness, depending on your comments. You've earned both monikers.; 6/4/12, 12:23 PM
Synova said...: In all likelihood there would also be a correlation between access to medical care and better governments.

And a correlation between better roads and better government.

The correlation between religion and better government would be an interesting one, too.

Or economic freedom and security and better government.

Of course, how did they judge "better" government? And how did they decide which was the cart and which was the horse?

I'll bet that there is a correlation between rural electrification and better government, too. And car ownership.

And carbon emissions.; 6/4/12, 12:53 PM
Synova said...: Ayers was always pretty up front about his intentions wasn't he? Same goals in the end, for the unrepentant terrorist, but go after the kids.

The inherent conflict of interest in having government itself educate children about government has always been there. As has been the preponderance of collectivist philosophy related to education. Ayers in the pool is unlikely to make anything like a splash.; 6/4/12, 12:58 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Orwell made this clear in Ninteen eighty-four. It's not the lowest level of society that revolts against the ruling class, it's the educated class.; 6/4/12, 1:21 PM
Rocketeer said...: Do you post such baroque and paranoid fantasies because it gives you a thrill, or do you think anyone else may actually see some sort of sense in your nonsense?

Cookie, I'll give you this: If nothing esle, you are an endless font of amusing irony.; 6/4/12, 1:44 PM
Methadras said...: And yet the bureaucracy will still find a way to road block them at every turn.; 6/4/12, 2:18 PM
Known Unknown said...: Reporting "crimes" in autocratic regimes is a virtue, now?

Isn't that part and parcel of an autocratic regime?; 6/4/12, 3:42 PM
Jose_K said...: That is why most of the informers of the Stasi were educated people while rednecks refused to inform.

Gide,Sartre,Beauvoir,Koestler,Orwell,Hemingway, Dos Passos,Hitchens, Amis Sr,Malaparte supported communism
Schmitt, the most powerfull juridial mind of the XX century after Kelsen,Celine,Gentile and almost every italian intelectuall,Junger( perhaps),Heiddeger supported fascism and nazism.

Who said tht must read:
The Opium of the intellectuals. Aron
The treason of the cleckrs. Benda
The Captive mind. Mislov
and Why intellectaulls support socialim? Nosik
all try to understand why the great mind from Socrates lover and master of Alcibiades on, sold themselves to tyrants; 6/4/12, 5:35 PM