A Tragedy of Thought

I was at the airport recently and overheard a woman saying “I don’t let my children read Harry Potter. There are things in there that they don’t need to be thinking about.” I can understand her concern. If parents allow their children to think, they might grow into thinking adults, and what a tragedy that would be.

There are two groups in the US that are terrified of a thinking population: politicians and evangelical Christians. Who can blame them? A thinking population would not be so easily distracted from the real issues in our country and so foolishly focused on flag burning, prayer in school, gay marriage, and other non-issues that really have little or no real effect on their lives.

“Everything I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.” People actually believe this. We, as a nation, get what we deserve.