When you put reason above emotion, you have reason and emotion.  But elevating  emotion over reason doesn’t give you feelings and reason.  What you get is emotion and rationalization.

Most people have sharply  defined areas where they are rational and reasonable.  Look, and you’ll see that the vast bulk  of reason is devoted to jobs, to work, to getting things done.   People will subordinate their emotions to get fed and clothed and sheltered.

In other words…most people are rational only when their lives depend on it.  It’s how a person can be a genius in one area and a tyrannical madman in every other.

So possibly the worst thing the West has done is to let words substitute for action.  We’ve let our Ruling-and-Talky-Classes–government, management, academia, education, journalism, media, entertainment–get away with what they say, not by what they do.

And look at this.

The 8th grade students…were required to seek out the vulnerabilities of Republican presidential hopefuls and  forward them to the Obama campaign.

Teachers have never been worse at actually teaching readin’ writin’ and ‘rithmatic.  Apparently when they do share it’s to accomplish things like “seach and destroy” missions.  And sorry for going all Godwin’s Law here, but…a teacher is crafting a Hussein Youth and will get away with it, while the Talky Classes would shout me down for pointing it out.

Should we root for our educators to keep getting worse at education?  Are pig-ignorant students worse than skilled, brainwashed little tyrants?  Not to me.  If teachers are only going to share skills with brainwashed children, better the kids remain incompetent.  Let’s just talk ourselves to death for the benefit of whoever comes next.

 Lacuna non res.