Eema,
I definitely agree with you re the importance of education for the sake of it. When I look at what has happened to political debate in here in Australia over the last few years (which is widely agreed to be somewhere near rock bottom), I can't help but think we'd be in a much better place if there was a broader understanding of history, politics, the international community etc.
What makes this a pressing issue as far as I am concerns is that here in Australia most states have only one major newspaper, all of which are owned by the same corporation. The same corporation also shares ownership of Australia's main cable TV provider and currently has one of their executives managing one of our free to air channels. So much for plurality of views!
I guess I see an educated, informed society as essential to enabling democracy to function effectively. Particularly when there is so little diversity in our media (here any way).
I am sitting here wondering if we've ever had such a society (in the US, or Australia, or anywhere) in history.
I think the majority of the population has likely always been mostly uninformed and preoccupied with their day to day survival needs and thus didn't pay much attention to whatever those in power were up to. What do you think?
Maybe we actually have the most educated people in the history of the world, but it still doesn't seem to be enough. Maybe most people just have enough energy to get their day to day survival stuff done and not much left over for the big stuff. Maybe the majority of people just want to watch American Idol and ignore current events.
Is the behavior of most people a function of personality, IQ, income, and / or educational attainment...? (or something else?)
If personality or IQ has anything to do with it, then I'd say things are likely to always be this way. Only those with certain personality traits and / or above a certain level of intelligence will be interested in fixing the problems in society.
If income is the reason, then you'd think all those people not living paycheck to paycheck would be informed active citizens (are they?) If it is educational attainment, we just need to improve our school systems.
