In the great 1986 Sci-Fi movie, “Aliens,” the movie’s heroine, Ripley, asked the pointed question that has sprung to mind for many of us in the recent past: “Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away?”
And in yet another Sci-Fi classic, it was no less than Capt. James Tiberius Kirk — in “Star Trek 2, The Wrath of Khan” —  who explained, “You have to learn WHY things work on a starship.”
More and more frequently, we are surrounded by people in public positions who seem bent on proving Ripley right; that IQs have dropped sharply.
And we are also surrounded by people who seem to think they can lead, even on the local level, without having the least grasp of WHY things work as they do.
They don’t understand our government system, such as the separation of powers.
They have never bothered to learn the ins and outs of taxation.
They show no interest in finding out the realities of running a major budget, nor do they care that you are not allowed to just take state or federal money and then do whatever you want with it.
Or maybe they do understand.
That is the more distressing option.
It may NOT be IQs that have dropped sharply, but the interest in telling the truth has.
It may well be that we have people in office, supposedly in positions of responsibility, who know that you cannot accept state funding for one project and then just shift it over to whatever you want, and yet they will argue such because they think it makes them look like a maverick thinker.
Sadly, it just makes them look like they don’t have enough on the ball to handle our public affairs.
They may know that we have three branches of government — executive, judicial and administrative. They know this, they just don’t care. They want to have their way and their say, no matter how our Constitution says government is supposed to work.
Ignorance can be cured.
Folly, however, has proven itself to be resistant to change.
— Chuck Smith