Un-Civic

Back in 1907, a fellow named Maurice Switzer penned a children’s book titled “Mrs. Goose: Her Book.” In it, he offered the aphorism:

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

Thanks to the Internet, we witness a near-infinite stream of affirmations of this bit of wisdom. What’s an enormous shame is how so many of these displays could be pre-empted by someone taking just a moment to run a search on whatever hot-take he wants to fire off.

The one that caught my attention today?

I offered a comment.

Yes, plainly and blatantly unconstitutional. The language in Article VI could not be clearer.

Even worse, the McCarran Walter Act of 1952 did not, near as I can tell, have anything to do with restricting Muslims from holding political office. In fact, it had nothing to do with elections at all. It was about immigration quotas.

The only thing more entertaining than a giant swing-and-a-miss when someone is voicing some highfalutin outrage is an aggressive defense of the swing-and-a-miss. In the case of Mr. Smith, the prudent thing to do would be to do a quick search and, upon discovering that I was right, delete the post.

Many lament, with good cause, the state of our educational system. Many also lament the demise of civics education, which would pre-empt such blatant displays of arrogant ignorance. While some believe that civics was displaced in order to make room for more trendy topics, I would not discount the possibility that civics was displaced to promote ignorance of how the country is supposed to work.

The first goal of primary and secondary education should be to teach fundamentals. Reading, ‘Righting, and ‘Rithmetic. Teach children how to think and how to communicate their thoughts. Mathematics is fundamental to “how to think,” language skills are fundamental to “how to communicate.” Then, teach them how the world works and give them the tools to function in that world. Civics is part of that. And, yes, it’s OK to teach them that some systems work better than others. After all, we don’t teach Lamarckian evolutionary theory alongside Darwin’s, and we don’t offer flat-earth or sun-orbits-the-Earth falsehoods alongside the current understanding of astronomy. By all means, teach and invite critical thinking, but also point out that rights-based representative democracies work better than dictatorships or socialistic government structures.

And, while we’re at it, teach the Declaration and the Constitution. They are two of the greatest achievements in human history.

Just a bit more of that, instead of cultural relativism and other such folderol, and we may get fewer John Smiths beclowning themselves in public forums.