The Prince of Wales

[SwordsMaster]

You don't? Well, then your job is to educate them.

Not MY job. It's their job to educate themselves if they wish to be relevant. Or their parents' job to point out the need for them to educate themselves. I will do my part when or if I'm a parent or I'm setting up my own country.

Maybe people should only be able to vote if they go to government run education camps?

What's the public education system?

[HoreTore]

Not MY job. It's their job to educate themselves if they wish to be relevant. Or their parents' job to point out the need for them to educate themselves. I will do my part when or if I'm a parent or I'm setting up my own country.

You don't see the obvious benefits of having a well-educated work-force...?

Idiots affect you, whether you want to or not. And they will affect you economically in a dictatorship. The more educated a people are, the better your economy becomes.

And in a democracy, it will also affect your way of life, as they can vote for their government.

But hey, if you want oppression, who am I to argue? Some people desire freedom, I guess some people desire mistreatment.

[SwordsMaster]

You don't see the obvious benefits of having a well-educated work-force...?

Idiots affect you, whether you want to or not. And they will affect you economically in a dictatorship. The more educated a people are, the better your economy becomes.

And in a democracy, it will also affect your way of life, as they can vote for their government.

But hey, if you want oppression, who am I to argue? Some people desire freedom, I guess some people desire mistreatment.

I've already answered that I don't want oppression. I just want leaders worthy of their name and I want my independence which I cannot get if my political opinions are determined by a few million other people whose opinion I didn't actually want to know.

As of having a well-educated workforce, as I said that's te government's responsibility if they want one, or the individual's responsibility if they want to move up in the world.

[HoreTore]

I've already answered that I don't want oppression. I just want leaders worthy of their name and I want my independence which I cannot get if my political opinions are determined by a few million other people whose opinion I didn't actually want to know.

So.... Basically, anyone who disagrees with you is stupid?

Have a nice life. I sincerely hope you will never hold public office anywhere, and especially not where I live.

[SwordsMaster]

So.... Basically, anyone who disagrees with you is stupid?

Have a nice life. I sincerely hope you will never hold public office anywhere, and especially not where I live.

Not what I said. There are many people's opinions I respect that are different than my own. As I said, I don't want to have their opinion considered in the same bag with people who can't find themselves on a map.

Or people who have been contributing with taxes for 20 years vs people who have been living off scamming the welfare system.

[Rhyfelwyr]

What's the public education system?

Well since everyone goes through that, do you not come full circle and say everyone should vote?

[SwordsMaster]

Well since everyone goes through that, do you not come full circle and say everyone should vote?

Well, considering its quality, probably not. Besides, there are a great many who don't even finish that...

Even from my class in primary school, as many people went on to college as went on to prison. So odds are not that good.

What? You've been living far too long in dictatorships to even remember how a democracy works, mate.

You have a couple of months to make that vote. It takes 20 minutes to do. Even the busiest man in the world has 20 minutes free in a period of a couple of months.

Haha, that just may be true. It's been too long since I voted... As far as my memory goes, electoral colleges are open only 1 day though.

Regardless though, I'd like to know of those 30% who vote how many have finished secondary education and their occupations.

[Beskar]

The 30% was the rough British turn out in the MEP elections, the American election was around 50% mark, if I remember correctly. In some countries like Australia, you have to vote.

[HoreTore]

Haha, that just may be true. It's been too long since I voted... As far as my memory goes, electoral colleges are open only 1 day though.

Make that 2 months. At least. Our election is 14th septembre, if my memory is sound, and the voting started a couple of days ago.

And all you have to do to vote is mail a letter anyway.

Regardless though, I'd like to know of those 30% who vote how many have finished secondary education and their occupations.

The voting percentage gets higher with more education. Why do you think people without education are the ones voting? Political interest usually goes roughly hand in hand with education, and those without any political interest don't vote, except for the odd protest party.

Anyway, why do you think that being a doctor of philosophy, for example, makes you qualified to come up with proper working conditions for industrial workers? Don't you think that the industrial worker knows what's best?

[Rhyfelwyr]

Regardless though, I'd like to know of those 30% who vote how many have finished secondary education and their occupations.

I would think most of them did, voter turnout is always particularly low in poorer areas. And if an educated person chooses not to vote, I don't see how they can complain about those who do, if they want to be heard then they can vote themselves.

[InsaneApache]

You're all wrong.

as usual.

[tibilicus]

Just watched something on BBC1 called the Richard Dimbelby Lecture or something and the Prince of Wales was on it. he actually came across as an intelligent guy with some interesting points to raise.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Just watched something on BBC1 called the Richard Dimbelby Lecture or something and the Prince of Wales was on it. he actually came across as an intelligent guy with some interesting points to raise.

How dare you come in here and write an on-topic post!


No, thanks for that of course.

The Richard Dimbleby Lecture, titled “Facing the Future” as delivered by Tampax Man:

So, Ladies and Gentlemen, we may well be told that we live in a “post-Modernist” age, but we are still conditioned by Modernism’s central tenets. Our outlook is dominated by mechanistic thinking which has led to our disconnection from the complexity of Nature, which is, or should be, equally reflected in the complexity of human communities. But in many ways we have also succeeded in abstracting our very humanity to the mere expression of individualism and moral relativism, and to the point where so many communities are threatened with extinction. Facing the future, therefore, requires a shift from a reductive, mechanistic approach to one that is more balanced and integrated with Nature’s complexity – one that recognizes not just the build up of financial capital, but the equal importance of what we already have – environmental capital and, crucially, what I might best call “community capital.” That is, the networks of people and organizations, the post offices and pubs, the churches and village halls, the mosques, temples and bazaars – the wealth that holds our communities together; that enriches people’s lives through mutual support, love, loyalty and identity. Just as we have no way of accounting for the loss of the natural world, contemporary economics has no way of accounting for the loss of this community capital.

[...]

It seems to me a self-evident truth that we cannot have any form of capitalism without capital. But we must remember that the ultimate source of all economic capital is Nature’s capital. The true wealth of all nations comes from clean rivers, healthy soil and, most importantly of all, a rich biodiversity of life. Our ability to adapt to the effects of climate change, and then perhaps even to reduce those effects, depends upon us adapting our pursuit of “unlimited” economic growth to that of “sustainable” economic growth. And that depends upon basing our approach on the fundamental resilience of our ecosystems. Ecosystem resilience leads to economic resilience. If we carry on destroying our marine and forest ecosystems as we are doing, then we will rob them of their natural resilience and so end up destroying our own.
That is why it seems to me of such profound importance that we understand that we are not what we think we are. We are not the masters of creation. No matter how sophisticated our technology has become, the simple fact is that we are not separate from Nature – like everything else, we are Nature.
The more you understand this fact the more you see how our mechanistic way of thinking causes such confusion.

Okay, so like a Christmas speech, it is entirely gratuitous. Every stoned 15 year old can give a grand oration on everything that is wrong with our greedy capitalist system.
Even so, there's a glimmering of intelligence and an independent mind. Or maybe I just think so because I agree with Charles. Community, urban and natural capital are where it's add.


Especially for Furunculus :

We also know that global warming

We also need, dare I say it, new forms of international collaboration