Mar. 16, 2006 Logic Lesson for Today
I was reading this dumb comment at SpunkyHomeschool's site:
"Public schools are what distinguish democracies from every other
system in the world," and a country without strong public schools
"lends itself to authoritarian thinking."
I saw a problem with this statement from a logic standpoint. So, I'm going to rephrase this so it is a bit more obvious:
"Mandatory socialistic educational systems are what distinguish democracies from every other
system in the world," and a country without strong mandatory socialistic educational systems
"lends itself to authoritarian thinking."
Socialism
1 : any of various economic and political theories
advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of
the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3 : a stage of society
in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and
distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to
work done.
Democracy
1 a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majority b :
a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and
exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of
representation usually involving periodically held free elections
2 : a political unit that has a democratic government
3 capitalized : the principles and policies of the Democratic party in the U.S.
4 : the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority
5 : the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges.
Authoritarian
1 : of, relating to, or favoring blind submission to authority authoritarian parents>
2 : of, relating to, or favoring a concentration of power in a leader or an elite not constitutionally responsible to the people
So, based on these definitions, this statement is a fallacy. To make this statement logical, we would have to reword it to this:
"Public schools are what distinguish authoritarian thinking from every other
system in the world," and a country without strong public schools
"lends itself to democracies ."
Logic was one of my favorite subjects in high school and college. 
Original Source: John Stossel
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