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05 Oct 12
Originally posted by finneganIn the US there used to be a high school class called Civics.
So maybe you would support the need for political education, which was kicked out of the English curriculum through the 1988 Education Reform Act (Tories don't like political education, social science teaching, or anything similar but they and New Labour are promoting religious education vigorously) and for the right to media with some modicum of commitmen ...[text shortened]... the reading level of your document is is using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scale.[/quote]
This might be a survivor:
https://sites.google.com/site/carrscivicshomepage/Home/units/course-syllabus
05 Oct 12
Originally posted by JS357Yeah, that's what I meant by "a responsibility to be informed". Unfortunately few people take this responsibility seriously.
You are applying Kant's moral question -- "What if everyone did it? -- which is reasonable enough, but I suggest the moral imperative is to for citizens to improve their historical perspective, judgement skills and knowledge of political issues, and only then should they vote. I say this because there are some basically clueless people who I don't think should be encouraged to vote. Of course I would not support any sort of "test" being required.
05 Oct 12
1 edit
Originally posted by KazetNagorraAlways the individual's fault. Never a social responsibility. Yet governments can have a huge impact on the way young people are socialised and educated. They can insist on teaching "civics" and history and related skills to produce effective and informed citizens, or they can ban politics from education (as the English Tories did) while promoting religious education (as Tories and New Labour have been doing to damaging effect). Governments can also have a huge impact on the quality of the media available to their citizens, for example by placing obligations on public broadcasters such as a requirement to broadcast news and current affairs programmes, and by challenging monopoly ownership of key media as with the Murdoch / News International empire, maybe even demanding that broadcasters have fit and proper people in charge and have effective ethical controls in place. Measures like the obligation to broadcast party political broadcasts also ensure that citizens are exposed to more than one view and that parties seeking election cannot be excluded from the public debate.
Yeah, that's what I meant by "a responsibility to be informed". Unfortunately few people take this responsibility seriously.
Passive, misinformed citizens are not an accident of nature. They are a product of the resources we collectively put into our democracies.
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06 Oct 12
I realize, that not being an American, I'm marginal in this debate. Nevertheless, for people with their eyes open inside and out of the US, it should be easy to see that as the indoctrinated supreme value in that country is what serves you the one more dollar than the other choice, and no presidential candidate will challenge that value, there's no way that your vote will do anything but speed up or - in the better alternative slow down a little, the march towards catastrophy.
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06 Oct 12
Originally posted by oldfoolIt's a little more complicated than that as the supreme value, there are (yes) financial but also social and plainly ideological values driving things here. There are a large number of people who do not vote in favor of their own financial interests; some consciously and some fooled into doing so.
I realize, that not being an American, I'm marginal in this debate. Nevertheless, for people with their eyes open inside and out of the US, it should be easy to see that as the indoctrinated supreme value in that country is what serves you the one more dollar than the other choice, and no presidential candidate will challenge that value, there's no way that ...[text shortened]... but speed up or - in the better alternative slow down a little, the march towards catastrophy.