The problem with Westerners is that they taught that we were all “equal”. We are not equal, not even legally in the fiction.

What amazed me about that survey was the number of people who chose “The Pentagon” as one of the branches! And this was from the people who, I assume, pass the laws telling the rest of us what we can and cannot do!

If you return to this thread of comments…. I wish to acknowledge you as fool or idiot. Or, perhaps both. Under the rule of law, the Constitution, we survive as a sane society. Otherwise, it is the capricious rule of power hungry men and women and transsexuals.

They are finding them everywhere. It’s not hard to do.

I was once rather shocked when a group of my friends (there were about 12 people there) had asked me something about politics (they know I’m a blogger) and I mentioned something about our federalist form of government. None of them had a clue what I was talking about, and this was a group of smart, college-educated women with varying degrees of interest in politics but mostly not all that interested. I had to explain what I meant, and even then I could see their eyes glazing over with boredom. I never asked them about the three branches of government (it’s not something that ordinarily comes up in conversation) but I have little doubt that at least 1/3 of them would not have been able to tell me what they were.

And that’s bright and well-educated people who are mostly older than 50 (the composition of that group I was talking to). In younger people and/or those who are less well-educated, such ignorance is probably at least 1/3. I don’t know why you would doubt this.

Of course, basic system, and more advanced legal and policy knowledge would help for judging candidates, but voting serves a particular function. It’s one check in the system, and a restricted check at that. Voting is not a be-all, end-all law-making, law-enforcement tool for the people. Nor was voting designed to be a complete solution. Republic, not Democracy.

Neo:
If you think about it, it’s not at all surprising that the generations coming up are so ignorant about our political system. And this is not the result of accident.”

Defining the problem frames the solution. It does for activists, anyway.

Participatory politics subsume electoral politics. In and of itself, voting is contained within a greater social cultural/political context.

Voting is better understood as social action rather than individual action in aggregate. Nick mentioned Game Theory, which cites trust as a key for cooperation. Building and reinforcing trust on the social cultural/political level is an activist function. Sowing fractural distrust among the competition in the arena is also an activist product. Activism is the power of the people available to anyone for any cause. And to use against anyone for any cause. Voting is a reflection of activist competition (or in the case of conservatives, the refusal to compete for real).

For the people, the primary value of elections for affecting government is not the direct designed popular check on government, but rather the ready setting to organize a social activist movement that is capable of affecting government on the long term and broad range of participatory politics including but not limited to elections.

For example, acquiring the social dominance required to reconstruct the critical social nodes, foundational, pre-conditional building blocks of academia and education.

Since you recognize about political ignorance that “this is not the result of accident”, then by the same token, you recognize that political ignorance can be fixed with methodical de-construction and reconstruction. Pointing out the fundamental change in civic education is a recognition that the solution is within reach.

The creative destructive and reconstructive method needed to compete for real is, of course, activism on the full social cultural/political spectrum.

So where are they finding all these folks? There is so much fake “journalism” out there now.

Fear the grim auditor.

What happened in Babylon is not confined to Babylon.

Mene, Mene, Tekel and Parsin…

Has a universal, timeless, haunting warning.

A nation that denies its youth judgment — is damning them with false praise.

In binary, 2^n-1 AND 0 are information flat… no matter how high ‘n’ may go, no matter how many zeros are in the register.

All ‘1’s and all ‘0’s — that’s what our pedagogues are preaching.

BTW, it’s the lazy way out for any pedagogue.

‘Teaching’ without correction.

Wow, now that’s hip.