From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu From: "Douglas A. Gwyn" Message-ID: <3B28D9AE.70B44F44@null.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <200106121541.RAA29551@boris.cd.chalmers.se>, <20010614020335.19148.00003704@ng-fi1.aol.com> Subject: Re: [9fans] How do you teach people to think Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 16:01:51 +0000 Topicbox-Message-UUID: b8bac59a-eac9-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 Barry wrote: > You can't MAKE someone think..... Our Constitution accepts stupidity as > right. Not really. The US Constitution imposes structure on the federal government. Assuming you mean the principles on which the Constitution is based, it would be much more accurate to say that they include the right to make one's own decisions insofar as they don't involuntarily impact on others. That implies stupid decisions as well as smart ones; the mitigating factors are (1) it keeps others from deciding for you what is stupid or smart and (2) so long as you get to suffer the consequences of your decisions, it is a self-correcting system. To the extent that there is currently a problem, it's mostly due to attempts to violate (2).