L.W. Nicholson 1991 Published in: The Northwest Technocrat, 4th quarter 1991, No. 325
Education “is a process, not substance.” Education is a process of learning, or a method for helping others to learn. It is a process which quite often uses language as a means of communication. And, of course, language is composed of words which are, according to the 3rd postulate of science, symbols in the mind which refer to things and events in the external world. Since words themselves are only symbols, not the real things or events they refer to, they must be defined and the definitions understood by all parties concerned for accurate communications to occur. Let us define the word, “definition”: it is an agreement, wholly arbitrary in character, among men as to what a word symbol shall refer to in the physical world. (This agreement differs with different languages). Words which don’t refer to a thing or event in the physical world can’t have a definite definition.
In order for the educational process to be effective, the student must make an effort to understand that the “mind” can entertain word symbols which do not refer to anything in the physical world, but rather to imaginary concepts so, therefore, misinformation can be a result. The difference between fact and fiction can be more easily understood if one learns to accept facts as criteria of truth. A fact is a close agreement of a series of careful observations, or measurements, of the same phenomenon, while fiction is all those “things” which cannot be observed or measured. Many things may, or may not be true, but none are facts, nor can they be proven to be real, unless they can be observed and measured. Intelligence is the ability to accept facts as criteria of determining what is real, what actually exists. It is the ability to withhold judgment until facts are obtained, and further, it is the ability to correlate, to coordinate, those facts into a unified “picture” for the purpose of reaching accurate conclusions.
Now, in view of the above, what is a government; and what is its purpose? What is an economic system and how does one measure the price of a 10 pound bag of potatoes? Why should North Americans assume that patriotism to one’s government and to their country is one and the same thing? And why should the U.S. have 30 million people living in poverty when it has all the physical requirements to produce plenty for all?
Any country which is so mixed up mentally that it allows 30 million of its own citizens to live in poverty, many homeless and hungry, and has twice that number only slightly better off when it has all the physical requirements for the production of plenty for all, doesn’t have much of a leadership, and it doesn’t have much of an educational system. On the basis of factual information, can anyone deny this?
Technocracy Inc. has been working on these problems for more than a half century and its efforts have been censored out of the press all these years. Has any nation of people ever been kept so ignorant for so long for no intelligent reason?