Ben Stein's "Museum of Liberal Thought"

The world does not "owe" anyone a living, altho it provides livings to many undeserving rich kids and denies the means to many motivated, bright deserving poor kids to obtain the education that would pay all kinds of dividends to society and to the individuals in question(ie. GI Bill education benefits, which were available to all service people no matter how great or small their sacrifices and contributions to the war effort). Can anyone deny that our history is replete with endless governmental and sanctioned private behavior that repressed whole classes of our fellow humans & citizens, contrary to the stated principles of our founding documents? ie.Blacks, Native Americans, Asians, Irish, Jews, Italians. & many other immigrant groups and women. If the young are disgusted with the disparity between our best ideals & the reality of our history they will eventually agree with Winston Churchill, "Democracy is terrible but it is better than all of the other forms of government". It will not be moved towards its ideals by cheap flag waving & complacent self congratulation. The internal critics of that disparity are the citizens who help us to achieve progress and to reach a closer proximity to our ideals.

Posted by Darrel Blaine Ford at September 27, 2003 10:40 AM