Rod's Alter Ego

Undutiful

Suffered through a severe bout of agraphia these past few days. The computer was booted, the mouse was active, the cursor pulsing black against white, paws rested on the keyboard and everything was set to go. Except the mind -- it wouldn't engage, the words wouldn't come. Mental constipation. You grit your teeth and squeeeeeze, but still, nothing. Even the best remedies failed me.

Then I read a post from the proto-blog of Theodore Rooseevelt, 1894. It got things moving again, in particular this excerpt (emphasis mine):

To the great body of men who have had exceptional advantages in the way of educational facilities we have a right, then, to look for good service to the state. The service may be rendered in many different ways. In a reasonable number of cases, the man may himself rise to high political position. That men actually do so rise is shown by the number of graduates of Harvard, Yale, and our other universities who are now taking a prominent part in public life. These cases must necessarily, however, form but a small part of the whole. The enormous majority of our educated men have to make their own living, and are obliged to take up careers in which they must work heart and soul to succeed. Nevertheless, the man of business and the man of science, the doctor of divinity and the doctor of law, the architect, the engineer, and the writer, all alike owe a positive duty to the community, the neglect of which they cannot excuse on any plea of their private affairs. They are bound to follow understandingly the course of public events; they are bound to try to estimate and form judgment upon public men; and they are bound to act intelligently and effectively in support of the principles which they deem to be right and for the best interests of the country.

Higher education may have conferred an exceptional advantage back in 1894; proportionally fewer individuals attended colleges and universities as compared to today. It also seems reasonable to assume that your typical 19th century college graduate availed himself to more life-improving opportunities than the rest of the disadvantaged mass. (Though, as today, a college degree was unlikely to provide a guarantee of an advantaged life). But for those who did earn an advantage, by what reasoning does this commit one to an oath of fealty to the state? If the state had paid for the institution and the expenses to keep it running, as well as the tuition and all the expenses of the graduate, maybe; but short of that, the state has no “right” to a man’s earned advantage, even if the “state” did possess rights, which is an incoherent claim. Any benefit the state receives is incidental, not payback on a debt owed, or far less from compulsory duty.

Hard to believe Roosevelt actually penned this, given his acuity in other matters:

"The Airedale can do anything any other dog can do, and then lick the other dog if he has to."

Damn straight.