Very interesting, but nothing new. Plato's Republic says functionally the same thing - that an educated citizenry is essential for the proper function of the polis. Plato takes it to an extreme in the Republic, and people are still arguing whether or not he was serious about the extent to which he argues the point, but he definitely argued that education was essential.<p>And Aristotle says similar things in the Politics and Poetics. The citizens of Athens who participated at the Agora were literate, concerned men (unfortunately, only men).<p>The Roman Forum was open to any citizen, who bore the responsibility of educating himself before speaking.<p>Even modern political philosophers recognize that without an educated citizenry, democracy is impossible. Alexis de Toqueville in "Democracy in America" found the concern of the commoner for the welfare of the nation to be a key to the success of the American experiment of self-government under law.<p>Looking at how poorly educated our citizens are about the real issues of the day, it's no surprise that we are seeing problems in public policy. I'm not suggesting it's inevitable that the nation will collapse, in fact the article gives me hope we can turn it around. But it has to start with educating citizens about their basic responsibilities.<p>Of course, there are good and bad ways to do this. Heinlein had a model to ensure only concerned/educated citizens, and he presented it in Starship Troopers. So some thought should go into HOW we educate.