I currently live in an assisted living facility, Northwinds, one of the other residents of which is a man named Fred. Fred immediately called to my mind the Native American character in Ken Kesey’s famous novel of 1960s alienation, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest because, like the character, Fred rarely speaks, and when he does, he is usually incoherent. There the resemblance ends. At the risk of ruining a fascinating novel for anyone who has not read it (as in all great novels, this one contains much richness that merits exploration even for one who already knows the ending), the big difference between the Native American in the novel and Fred is that in the novel, the Native American ultimately triumphs over the system. Finding out exactly how will provide enormous fascination for anyone who knows only that much – read the book.
Fred will never triumph over the system. Rumor has it that Fred is a former huffer, or one who deliberately concentrates the fumes of gasoline and solvents and inhales them to get high. One does not need to have a Ph.D. in neuroscience to predict that this is not good for one’s cognitive skills. I think someone should take Fred around to local high school to show students what you do to yourself by huffing. It’s not a pretty picture.
Fred seems to think he wants to leave the facility, although he is mistaken – he would not fare well in the outside world, and the staff at Northwinds are very patient, kind, and compassionate with Fred.
Fred could actually escape easily, if he could read. The exit doors both plainly say on them that, although locked from inside as well as out, they will open from the inside 15 seconds after one begins to push on the crash bar. I don’t know, but I assume this is a fire safety feature.
Even though Fred is apparently incapable of comprehending this point, still the possibility of accident is always present, so Fred wears a device that sets off a piercing alarm when he gets too close to the door. This alarm makes me want to poke my own eyeballs out, I find it so offensive, but it seems to bother Fred not in the least. Most other residents also find it extremely annoying.
But Fred never learns. He will sometimes go for days without setting the alarm off, but then set it off multiple times in a single day. Fred can’t help himself, I’m quite sure after observing him for some eight month now, but I’ve concluded that his failure to learn is an anti-social act.
I think one can reasonably expand this principle to human society in general. At the moment, I have in mind those Americans who loudly oppose healthcare reform even as they rely on Medicare for their health insurance, apparently oblivious to the obvious fact that Medicare (and Medicaid) is the closest the United States has yet come to something called "socialized medicine" (the issue of what exactly that politically useful phrase really means being a matter of considerable discussion, for those who are willing to engage in discussion).
I think that, like Fred, these people are engaged in an anti-social failure to learn. Unlike Fred, I think we can and should hold them responsible. I think we should require everyone to renew her/his voter registration in person and ask each individual if they are aware that Medicare is a creature entirely of the federal government. We could use other big, hairy programs that benefit many, many people and that the inveterate privitizers want to privatize, such as the interstate highway system.
Anyone who betrays ignorance of this fundamental point will be required to take a crash course in Post World War II federal policy before registering to vote. Anyone who objects to the course is free not to take it, but that person will not be eligible to vote.
The course would be scrupulously politically neutral, as neutral as such a course can be, anyway, and we should invite libertarians and social conservatives who oppose many of the programs in question to teach the course, free of supervision (except on issues such as sexual harassment and clear-cut discrimination on the basis of any irrelevant characteristic).
But militant ignorance about the federal government and its programs should disqualify one as a voter. I hesitate to say that, because I think the right to vote is precious and we should restrict it only for the very best of reasons. But, insofar as one chooses to remain willfully ignorant of what one’s government does, why should that person have the option of contributing to the decisions of that government? That’s like allowing someone who avowedly hates pizza and will never eat it to pick the toppings for the rest of us.