The Price of Ignorance

Cal Thomas has a column today at Townhall.com in which he comments on Intercollegiate Studies Institute study which showed a significant number of Americans could not pass a 33-question Civic Test. What is Civics? Civics is the study of the rights and duties of citizenship. In other words many Americans don't understand what it means to be a citizen. Considering the implications of this Thomas writes:

Ignorance of America's history and heritage is a setup for politicians and others who want to manipulate us into a way of thinking that allows them to make decisions that are unconstitutional and unwise. More than repeating phrases and figures, knowledge of the past prepares us for a future based on unchanging principles. That's why knowledge matters and ignorance endangers our government and threatens our way of life even more than terrorism.

I would encourage you to read the rest of the column: The Other Deficit.

This is also an illustration about what happens when we allow government to run vital institutions: they break them. Do we really want government doing to health care what it has already done to education? Ignorance has a steep cost, and that cost is the gradual loss of our liberties.