The Natural Linguist

I've always thought it was right and proper for individuals to base their decisions primarily on self-interest. After all, who better than oneself to know one's own needs and wants? We invented and have been tinkering for millennia with this idea of government to try and find a way so that my self interest can exist harmoniously with yours. Or even better, that our self interests can complement each other's. In the US, as is the tendency of democracies, some are more equal than others and can, in the pursuit of their own self interest, gradually appropriate for themselves a disproportionate share of control over the levers of government and wealth. This is a failure of our checks and balances hiding mainly behind the Shield of Personal Freedom. I think this is why we have in some measure lost sight of our shared responsibility to try to cultivate a society where quality health care and education are attainable by all ordinary people and where no exceptional mind need ever g