On Sep 16, 10:56*pm, wrote:
On Sep 16, 9:44*am, dave wrote:





Kevin Alfred Strom wrote:

But it's worse now. Multiple-thousand-page "laws" are passed by
legislators who never even bother to read them. And really, they
couldn't even if they wanted to -- there are too many. It's beyond
insane, beyond Kafkaesque. May the gods end it all soon.

With all good wishes,

Kevin Alfred Strom.

Why stop with the Constitution? *210 years ago people were generally a
lot smarter than they are now. Hell, look at the way they talked.

I'm all for returning to the principle that only Congress can declare
war. I'm also for confiscatory taxes to prevent family dynasties and
concentration of power at the top. *I'm for import duties to protect
domestic industry and for the abolition of standing armies. And the
pre-Marbury v Madison Supreme Court.

When you start pinin' for the good old days where do you stop?

And how, may we ask is it "that 210 years ago people were generally a
lot smarter than they are now" ? *I was always told that most people
(worldwide) were mostly illiterate until very recently. And how can we
sample a spoken recording of *such a time???

I think that the people of the time who *were* educated, without
knowing nearly so much as is known now, were far more philosophically
and classically trained as a rule. Reason and logic were held in high
esteem, unlike these days when instinct seems to be making a comeback
and narrowly-focused hedonism is more prevalent.

However, you are right - the ranks of the illiterate and substantially
uneducated were legion - and for most vocations of the time it
probably was not critical anyway. Formal education for farming,
blacksmithing, coopering, tailoring and etc. was apprenticeship.