That lack of knowledge of government is significant issue.
My oldest daughter had an interesting class in her grade school years. It was called “How it Works” and it was a unique science class. Parents were asked to donate small appliances and mechanical things that we didn’t mind if they didn’t return.
The 1st class assigned the kids into teams and told them to take apart whatever item they were assigned. The kids immediately started to dismantle the items. They talked in teams about how t do so – it isn’t always obvious. Each team raced to be 1st to complete the request [competitive sort of kids…].
Then the teacher made the next request. Put it back together.
And the kids had trouble. They didn’t pay attention to how it was put together – how it worked – in their haste to take it apart.
And without that understanding, they could not put it back to its original condition.
This lesson is appropriate now.
We have a government that is full of newbies. They have never been in government. They think they understand it – but they appear to lack fundamental knowledge about how it works. The purposes behind why things are in place and why things work as they do.
And they are hell-bent to dismantle it.
And like those kids all those years ago, they don’t know how to put things back together if they break them. Because they aren’t paying attention.
So when you dismantle regulations and controls – rather than study and improve – you can cause unintended consequences.
Some may be difficult to fix later. For example, once you sell off National Lands you just might not get them back.
Some voters felt good about putting in new people who would shake things up.
Some of the new people have stated their intent to tear things down and destroy them [like Bannon].
But I don’t believe most voters wanted things broken.
They actually wanted them fixed – and didn’t think the status quo was doing anything to fix things.
But now we watch people who fundamentally don’t understand things are changing things in radical ways.
It can hurt our institutions – remember the crisis of 2008? It can poison our water – remember Flint and others? It can hurt our air – remember before the EPA?
Running a complex system, like our government, or doing a complex thing, like protecting individual rights for all, requires knowledge.
All of us need to consider that we do need the smartest people to address our complex issues. Or at least people who understand the things they are going to take apart.
Or they will break them.
And most of us did not ask for that.
Intersectionality - Being Human 