The Engagement Question

Ben writes:

I wonder how capable normal citizens are of being informed. I wonder if the problem isn't structural rather than personal, and, if it is structural, if the best, most virtuous option isn't simply dropping out of the political theater altogether.

In 40 words, he articulates something I've grasped at, embraced, but been unable to express just right. My most recent attempt was here. I quote it again to amplify it. I hold mightily to this belief, even if Ben in part rejects it; it has been central to my human-humanistic turn of philosophy.

Speaking of things central to turns of philosophy, Ben mentions Wood's Creation of the American Republic. The latter's Radicalism of the American Revolution changed my life as a pup politico; I've been meaning to read it again. Like many things one reads, it wowed me perhaps more because of when I read it than what I read: it's not what it says about the Revolution, but its discussion, shocking to someone brought up on the bland civics of "democracy," of the sources of American values and institutions, with much more personal implications.