quarrel | checking people's barrels

Some months ago I surveyed several friends on basic politics and political education:

Here is a hypothetical scenario for your consideration. Imagine, say, that you have a neice going to college next year, or you get recruited into the local high school's PTA, or some other situation arises where you find yourself with the power to determine how a class of young U.S. high school or undergraduate citizens is educated about politics, economics, and civic responsibility. What essentials, what fundamentals, do you feel would be a bare minimum for such a course so its students got a firm foundation and a reliable head start toward competence and self-sufficiency?

What topics would you make sure the class covered? What terms would you make sure were included? What concepts?

What material would you have them read? What books? What famous documents? Is there any material you'd caution against?

What people would you have them study?

What would you teach about the structure of government? How much would you stress federal vs. state vs. county vs. city?

How would you encourage the kids to stay abreast of current events? What sources of information would you recommend for common news coverage? What resources would you suggest for followup investigation?

How would you encourage the students to use what they learned?

What would you do that I haven't covered here?

About half the people I surveyed answered. Here's roughly what they said.

Person #1

Recommend everyone read some Noam Chomsky and watch the "Speaking Freely" series on Netflix. Also good are The Problem with the Media by Robert McChesney and the BBC series "The Power of Nightmares". Unfortunately, this amount of left-biased material cannot get past any school board without counterbalancing conservative material. Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Ann Coulter are all unacceptable choices for this since too much of what they say is fabricated. More serious convervative or neoconservative philosophers, like Leo Strauss, might work.

Person #2

Terms & Concepts

The difference behind the philosophies of being conservative (self reliant) and Liberal (having the state solve people's problems)
The difference between Miltonian and Keynesian economics, and how that builds the different approaches our elected officials take.
Recognizing media bias. Conservatives in the country outnumber liberals 2 to 1, yet liberal journalists outnumber conservative journalists 4 to 1. This affects how we get our news. Logical fallacies are handy here too, but that's an entire course in itself.
Which Republicans are actually progressives. Too many kids get caught up in the team sport aspect of politics and don't get that Bush was a liberal and that true conservatism in a president is pretty rare.

Books

Freakonomics
The 5,000 Year Leap
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (a marketing book)
Manufacturing Consent

News

www.drudgereport.com
hotair.com

Person #3

General Goals

Understand the relationship of axioms, observations, goals, logic, and conclusions
Exposure to the practical consequences of historically significant political and economic philosophies.
Immunization against propaganda.
Understand that "right" and "wrong" are relevant to philosophy and economics.
Understand that correctness is evaluated by real-world results.

Books

The Law by Frédéric Bastiat and Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt cover the fully rational side of things. But humans aren't rational, so temper with something like P. J. O'Rourke essays from Parliament of Whores and Eat the Rich. Counterpointing abstract and concrete approaches like this also helps instill healthy skepticism of philosophers, economists, and politicians.

Key Concepts

What are the facts?
How do you know?
What non-factual arguments are being offered?
Who benefits from each possible course of action?
How can each course of action be exploited or worked around later?
What are the side effects?
Is there a simpler way to achieve the same result?
If you're trying to encourage an action, is the action good in itself or merely associated with people you like?
If you're trying to prevent an action, is the action bad in itself or merely associated with people you don't like?
Would you really force someone, at gunpoint, to do what you want in this situation?

News

Anything. Stay current from several sources. Avail yourself of everything at first, regardless of its reputation. Form your own opinion regarding what to trust.

Person #4

Terms & Concepts

Government (literally guberno (to steer/control) + mens (the mind)
Law
Property
Sovereignty as the base of authority behind all laws, sovereign people vs. sovereign ruler
Natural rights theory vs Social Contract rights theory, i.e. rights granted by an authority vs having all rights so long as they do not interfere with others.
Fiat currency (debt) vs hard currency (based on commodities or other hard limits).
Free market economies vs. central planning.
Principles, and why they matter more than short-term gain.

Books & Other Media

The US Constitution and the arguments that lead to it, including all Federalist Papers.
On the Horns of the Beast: The Federal Reserve and the New World Order by Bill Still
Free to Choose: A Personal Statement by Milton & Rose D. Friedman
Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom by Ron Paul
The Century of the Self, directed & produced by Adam Curtis
The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek

News

Every single bit of information one can digest. Be your own editor so you serve your own agenda, not someone else's.