There are really only three social arrangements.

The first occurs where nobody is greatly educated and the strong exert their force on the weak.

The second is called monarchy or aristocracy, and exists when the few have a higher level of education than the many.

Third, a true democratic society rises--and endures--when most of the people and their leaders have the same level of education.

In the case of the American founding, the masses and their leaders literally read the same books and discussed the same ideas.

Another way to say this is that when the masses and their leaders have a different kind of education, democracy is already in decline--it is already an aristocracy.

Indeed, that is precisely what aristocracy is: a highly educated (and, as a result, wealthy) few ruling the less-educated masses.

Or, in modern terms, those with higher education ruling a population steeped in hire education.

These are our two most likely futures: An America where a few get excellent higher education and rule the rest (who see schooling as mere job training), or a nation where the people remain free and prosperous because they have the same level and kind of education as the elites.

All of our colleges and universities need to be sure they put the higher back into hire education, and that means the great books and the great ideas.

Say what you want about the role of the great books in education, but the wealthy have always used them to keep their power and the elite classes continues to do the same.

When mass education doesn't include the classics, the gap between the haves and have nots increases.

Each of us as citizens needs to think about our own educational background.

There is an old saying that attorneys approach things very different when they earning than when they are learning.

In the same vein, do you have enough true higher education, or have you let hire education get in the way?

The future of freedom literally depends on how most Americans answer this question--and what we do about it.