Comment Re:education (Score 1) 306
Replace 'government' with a better word, and you are spot on. I do not see government as something bad. Your or others' implementation might not be good, but government is needed.
I would suggest 'oppressors', as that also would fit for other, non government, groups that have power but equally want a dumb populace. Radical religious groups have the same problems.
Expanding your horizons frees up the mind. People who are not given that chance are fearful. They do not know the world and are afraid. They also do not realize there are different ways to think/do/live. Perhaps not better or worse, just different.
No more smart people means people working in low paying jobs. Combine that with an education system that highly favours an 'elite' clientèle (i.e. the same group of people that are in charge), and you have the old multi-class/-caste system again.
A saying I remember, 'someone worrying about where tomorrows meal will come from has no time to think about rebellion'
Just make sure that you indoctrinate the 'you are free, you are created equal' into the poor as a way to accept their fate.
Btw, this is similar to the tactic the British did in their colonies (it also has a name I cannot remember). All smart people would be shipped off to other colonies to remove them from influencing the local (same 'race') populace. In the other colonies, they presume, they would not be able to cause problems. Gandhi is a prime example.
A similar tactic is also done with troops, but that is going OT.
Education of our children is and should be our PRIMARY goal. Nothing is more important.
"let's make college tuition either free or really low and if you have a country full of whip-crack smart people you have a country the rest of the world will fear."
~ Henry Rollins
If you pay your [sport] coach more then your Maths/[Language]/Science/Arts teachers, you have a problem.
Finally and not to forget, the US imports a large amount of foreign elite students. I read somewhere about 70% are foreign.