I am reading a book about the constitution of the United States. So interesting!
It discusses the commonality of the founding fathers — their education and their beliefs. It mentioned that these men came from widely disparate walks of life — farmers and wilderness pioneers to presidents of universities. However, they were all remarkably well read.
Care to take a guess at the names of the folks that they read? Was it a popular author of pulp fiction of their day? Their version of Stephen King, Clive Cussler, John Grisham, Danielle Steele, or Nora Roberts? Did they read a National Enquirer, or a People’s Magazine, Newsweek, or Times? Possibly. But those weren’t the things mentioned in this book.
Our mighty founding fathers read folks like Polybius, Cicero, Thomas Hooker, Coke (isn’t that a soda pop???), Montesquieu, Blackstone, and John Locke. (Ever heard of these guys?) Our founding fathers had great breadth and depth in their reading — even the farmers and the wilderness pioneers!
Amazing, isn’t it?
I would be surprised if more than five percent of our elected officials in Washington have read (let alone even heard of) these men. (They probably have at least heard of Cicero and possibly John Locke . . .) I have even less faith that our state officials have read the writings of any of these people. I know I haven’t. And I have a Master’s degree — which means according to today’s academic standards, I should be fairly well educated . . . I guess I’m a rube and not as well educated as the farmers in the late 1700s in the United States . . .
The second intriguing thing was that one of the principles they based the constitution on was that of developing a spirit of public virtue by having elected leaders with strong private virtue. Boy have we strayed far away from that! I don’t think that virtue and the name of many of our congressmen, previous presidents, and some governors could be used in the same sentence.
Another item of interest was that they felt that high-salaried public officials was repugnant. Benjamin Franklin warned that high salaries for government offices was the best way to attract scoundrels and drive away from office men who possessed true virtue. This describes the US perfectly! It would be nice to go back to that belief today. But I don’t think it would happen. Would the elected officials do away with their high salaries and their fabulous pension for life? No way!
My reading has humbled me. (And that is a HUGE miracle!) Not only do I not know much about the constitution, I feel that I’m poorly educated when it comes to the foundational reading that our founding fathers had.
Guess I’d better get on the stick and change my reading habits. . . .
Luckily I don’t read Stephen King, Clive Cussler, John Grisham, Danielle Steele, or Nora Roberts … or National Enquirer or People Magazine. BUT, I’ve also never read Polybius, Cicero, Thomas Hooker, Coke, Montesquieu, Blackstone, and John Locke.
Sheesh! I consider myself a reader, but what exactly AM I reading!?!
I know I’m uneducated … but maybe that makes me fit for political office. I’m pretty darn sure I could do a better job than the majority of those “educated” folk filling those seats now.
Lisa, you’ve got my vote! Whaddya say about running for president of the United States??