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RE: Socrates and Individualism, Part III - Historical & philosophical underpinnings of a graphic novel
That's a good point, a philosopher for Shepherds would have been more accurate. I feel like as far as democracy, giving control of the schools to government was probably our biggest mistake. An informed public is the biggest threat to a corrupt democracy, or philosopher king/dictator. They have no real motivation to create a well informed citizenry. Looking at the state of the union, I feel like Socrates was definitely right about voting for sweetshop owners.
I'm going to have to disagree there. Public schooling is absolutely necessary for an informed citizenry. We can certainly debate on whether or not public schooling is as effective as it should be, and attempt to adjust accordingly - but without "free" education, the lower levels of society wouldn't have a chance to better themselves. And, really, that means society does better as a whole.
Opportunity for education is one important thing. But I think there also has to be some kind of consensus on what exactly is being taught too, and that is really only going to come from government. If everyone is fractured in their basic facts and values, well, we get the current state of social media. :)