Big Surprise: Elected Officials Don't Know Shit
Offline WASHINGTON (AFP) – US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday.
I know this is not really a big surprise, but I'm curious about how everyone feels this should be fixed. Am I alone in thinking that if Firefighters need to know fire safety to get a job, and teachers (theoretically) need to know their subject matter to get a job, maybe politicians ought to know economics, civics, and government to get a job?
Should we prescreen all candidates with a competency test? It seems like we could have say, 5,000 questions which would be randomly assigned to tests which would be randomly given to all candidates, and the questions, answers, and total scores published. I mean... if we're voting for someone, shouldn't we have a right to know they're competent?
Anyway, I'm just thinking aloud. What do you folks think?
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
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At present, politics pretty much operates like religion. Most people pick a candidate, a political party and an economic philosophy to 'believe' in based upon how it makes them feel rather than empirical evidence or any rational thought process. Look at the political 'junkies'.
Just as in religion, politics is a drug. Until we have better drugs, more drugs are made legal and more people realize this, we're kind of stuck with this situation. We are prisoners of our biochemical bodies that prevent us from being rational. Everyone just wants to get high.
The other thing that needs to change is our mindset from our evolutionary past where the tribal leader was kind of the God/King/High Priest/Messiah. Until this changes and politicians are treated as public servants that can be fired at any time, not much can change.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
Why hold them to higher standards than we do the citizenry at large?
Honestly, they don't normally get elected based upon what they know. They get elected because they:
A. Want the job.
B. Convince enough people that they'll do the job
C. Represent the archetype of their constituency.
D. lie really well.
If we want to start giving aptitude tests to determine eligibility for political office then we would first have to elect someone to write the test. Right? And there we go into terminal regression where the final polling is decided by the two dumbest individuals voting for each other. Kelly Pickler votes for Miss South Carolina and vise versa.
Also, there is something to be said for dumb politicians in that they may want to take over the world, but are incapable. I find that to be very reassuring. The really intelligent ones (publicly) seem to turn out to be despots. I'm hoping Barack changes this pattern as well or at least offers a bit of anecdotal evidence to contradict the 'world conquerors are smart' idea.
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Fucking 'A. That's the shitty thing about Democracy - it's as much a popularity contest as being the prom queen - except the percentage of voters who are a politicians personal friends is much less. No wonder so few get the separation of Church and State. I wonder if there was a minimum IQ to vote/run for office would it be better? Say you could have an IQ of 85 to vote in a local election but would need one of at least 120 to vote in National elections. And to run in any would need a minimum of 100 but 140 for President.
Wouldn't affect me. Not bragging but Thursday I was IQ tested for OVR (state agency that helps people with mental/physical disabilities get jobs) and the Psychiatrist said he tested 10s of thousands of people and thinks I'm the most intelligent he ever tested! I knew I was well above average but that was a surprise.
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Ummmm. Being the best of the worst does not necessarily mean that you're good.
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server, which houses Celebrity Atheists.