The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Having It Both Ways

5.23.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 4 of 4)

Having taken a degree in Philosophy, therefore establishing my own opinion of its value, I have often been forced to encounter the disrespect it receives as an academic endeavor. However, this disrespect is not unique to our own time. In every era there were those who criticized and ridiculed the contemplative predilections of the philosopher. Even Socrates lamented the preference the Athenians showed to the athlete rather than the philosopher. And we all know how that scenario played out.

And yet, there is something in us as human beings that demands we process our experiences into some sort of system that makes life comprehensible. Like it or not, we all live with the results of this intellectual pursuit, taken in earnest or done haphazardly. Philosophy led to the examined life in the Academy and the Lyceum. Philosophy was religiously considered by the Scholastics through the Trivium and Quadrivium. Today, in an age of voluminous information overload, Philosophy is indispensable in any attempt to discriminate between the things that are worthily meritorious, the merely inconsequential, and the outright decadent.

The problem in colleges today is of a more mundane nature. Colleges were once places of contemplative speculation at the highest intellectual levels. A college diploma was a rare thing. Now, colleges have become egalitarian centers of the lowest common denominator, becoming nothing more than technical schools. A college degree today is akin to what a high school diploma signified forty years ago. But without the demonstrated knowledge base that previous generations came to expect.
-- Henry Hill

THEIR FAIR SHARE
Re: Peter Ferrara's The Strategy of Smart Surrender:

Perhaps Mr. Ferrara could throw another wrinkle in to the mix in his discussion on who pays taxes and who doesn't. How about government employees, one of the largest and fastest growing groups of "workers?" This is another group that pays no taxes, regardless of income level. Of course, they think they pay taxes, and their government checks indicate that taxes are withheld. But what is really happening? They are paid out of tax revenues, so when "taxes" are withheld, the money is for all practical purposes, making a "U-turn." The net amount added to federal revenues from government employee tax payments is "$0" since the money started with the treasury anyway. Government employees "pay" taxes only through fuzzy book keeping. WE, the People of the private sector pay their taxes through our taxes.
-- Albert Frevele
Walnut Creek, California

THE GENUINE ARTICLE
Re: George Neumayr's Dog Food for Sale:

The "RINO-ization" of the Republican Party has reached critical mass. And when they take the licking they're likely to get in 2008 as a result, maybe this question will occur to some of them: why vote for faux-socialists when there are genuine ones available in the other party?
-- Arnold Ahlert
Boca Raton, Florida

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Foreign Policy, Education, Health Care, John McCain, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Economics, Business, Religion, Law, Supreme Court, Military, Iran, Israel, NATO, Communism, Energy, Oil