I read this article and find this quote on the results of the Fall Of Rome to be particularly important Sir Isaac Newton declared that if he saw far (and he did) it was only because he stood on the shoulders of giants. Those educated people went before him, wrote down what they learned and passed it on. Benedikt would prefer that we, instead, raise a generation of midgets, who won’t understand the world even if they bother to look around it. The fact is, as the world has become more complicated, there’s more we don’t understand. Doctors and lawyers specialize in particular areas. Few really know how a cell phone works, or how a PC connects to the internet. We can’t change our car’s oil or build our own homes. And that’s all right, as long as some people understand each of these things. That’s what we need for civilization to endure. Yet Benedikt has fallen for the illusion of permanence. She assumes that since we have smart phones, and airplanes, and safe drinking water, and flat screen TVs we will always have those things, if not better ones. But it doesn’t work that way. When the Roman Empire collapsed, it wasn’t replaced by a civilization that built larger buildings and better roads. Instead, it gave way to centuries rightly called the dark ages, when people struggled just to survive. Most forgot how to read and write. Rome’s aqueducts and walls endured for centuries. Some remain today. But it was centuries before people could start building anything like them again. townhall/columnists/richtucker/2013/08/31/ignorance-is-bliss-n1687274/page/full
Posted on: Sun, 01 Sep 2013 00:09:49 +0000
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