DB> As defined by the fundies; I will accept the more perjorative in use
 DB> here, as well as accept the perjorative view of fundamentalist Christian
 DB> conservatives. I am neither; I am Machiavellian.
   Well, (grin) I would say that stamps you as a non-ideologue because I 
on't
view Machiavelli as one.  I will concede that when YOU say you're a
Machiavellian you know what that is.  Many only know the part about "evil"
ends justifying "evil" means which you and I know isn't anywhere IN
Machiavelli.  He left his PRINCE free to believe and act in any way he might
choose, only pointing out the almost certain consequences for the State (his
power in terms of that day) if he leaned too far in certain directions.  He
couldn't be stamped a heretic because his description of humanity looked a
great deal like "original sin" which is a Christian symbol!!
 DB> Now if you wanna restrict citizenship to only those who can pass a
 DB> literacy test, I have no problem with that.
   Nor do I as long as games aren't played as they WERE played by voting
registrars in the fifties.  I saw that first hand.  Like so much else at the
time it came to hurt the white people who took refuge in it much more than 
he
"Blacks" who all had coaching and the power of the courts behind THEM.
 DB> If I, for one, were given the opportunity to raise a family in a nation
 DB> that only allowed in citizens who could pass a test on the works of
 DB> Machaivelli and Plato, I would expect that nation to be very well
 DB> educated, have very high job skills, and be positioned very
 DB> competitively for the global 21st century economy.
   I heard and read Peter Bertocci of Boston University closely on that one.
I don't think all of our plumbers or janitors or other quite good and
respectable people care to sit down and pour over the Republic or the Gorgias
but Bertocci did not think that should be an excuse for not introducing them
to the existence of such a world.  I'm almost a void when it comes to serious
mathematics despite a college education but the small amount of math I can
understand as it has to do with elementary computer programming fascinates 
me.  
That's something of what I mean.
Sincerely, 
                                     Frank
                                                                              
                                                       
--- PPoint 2.05
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