【正文】 fluence. Secondly, subsidizing cultural traditions is not a necessary role of government. A lack of private funding might justify an exception. However, cultureby which I chiefly mean the fine 8 artshas always depended primarily on the patronage of private individuals and businesses, and not on the government. The Medicis, a powerful banking family of Renaissance Italy, supported artists Michelangelo and Raphael. During the 20th Century the primary source of cultural support were private foundations established by industrial magnates Carnegie, Mellon, Rockefeller and Getty. And tomorrow cultural support will e from our new technology and media mogulsincluding the likes of Ted Turner and Bill Gates. In short, philanthropy is alive and well today, and so government need not intervene to ensure that our cultural traditions are preserved and promoted. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the speaker unfairly suggests that large cities serve as the primary breeding ground and sanctuaries for a nation39。s youngsters would be worse off as a result of their ignorance about the traditions, values, and cultural contributions of all the people whose citizenship they share. 5 Finally, it seems to me that imposing a uniform national curriculum would serve to undermine the authority of parents over their own children, to even a greater extent than uniform state laws currently do. Admittedly, laws requiring parents to ensure that their children receive an education that meets certain minimum standards are welljustified, for the reasons mentioned earlier. However, when such standards are imposed by the state rather than at the munity level parents are left with far less power to participate meaningfully in the decisionmaking process. This problem would only be exacerbated were these decisions left exclusively to federal regulators. In the final analysis, homogenization of elementary and secondary education would amount to a doubleedged sword. While it would serve as an insurance policy against a future populated with illiterates and ignoramuses, at the same time it might serve to obliterate cultural diversity and tradition. The optimal federal approach, in my view, is a balanced one that imposes a basic curriculum yet leaves the rest up to each stateor better yet, to each munity. Issue 4 The video camera provides such an accurate and convincing record of contemporary life that it has bee a more important form of documentation than written records. According to the speaker, the video recording is a more important means of document hag contemporary life than a written record because video recordings are more accurate and convincing. Although I agree that a video provides a more objective and accurate record of an event39。 disagreement can cause stress and inhibit learning. Do we learn more from people whose ideas we share in mon than from those whose ideas contradict ours? The speaker daims so, for the reason that disagreement can cause stress and inhibit learning. I concede that undue discord can impede learning. Otherwise, in my view we learn far more from discourse and debate with those whose ideas we oppose than from people whose ideas are in accord with our own. Admittedly, under some circumstances disagreement with others can be counterproductive to learning. For supporting examples one need look no further than a television set. On today39。s claim overstates the importance of video records, at least to some extent. When it es to capturing, storing, and recalling temporal, spatial events, video records are inherently more objective, accurate, and plete. However, what we view through a camera lens provides only one dimension of our life and times。 big cities are where we deposit, display, and boast the world39。s social problems, and the escalating costs of addressing these problems, a global university makes good sense. And, since all nations would have a mon interest in seeing this endeavor succeed, my intuition is that participating nations would be able to overe whatever procedural and political obstacles that might stand in the way of success. As long as each nation is careful not to neglect its own unique social problems, and as long as the university39。s attention and resources, which areas of academic research are worthwhile, as well as agreeing on policies and procedures for making, enforcing, and amending these decisions. Query whether a functional global university is politically feasible, given that sovereign nations naturally wish to advance their own agendas. A second problem inherent in establishing a global university involves the risk that certain intellectual and research avenues would bee officially sanctioned while others of equal or greater potential value would be discouraged, or perhaps even proscribed. A telling example of the inherent danger of setting and enforcing official research priorities involves the Soviet government39。 (2) government support is needed for our large dries and cultural traditions to survive and thrive。s diverse population. A national curriculum might not allow for this feature, and California39。s typical television or radio talk show, disagreement usually manifests itself in meaningless rhetorical bouts and shouting matches, during which opponents vie to have their own message heard, but have little interest either in finding mon ground with or in acknowledging the merits of the opponent39。 written documentation will always be needed to quantify, demystify, and provide meaning to the world around us. Issue 5 It is often necessary, even desirable, for political leaders to withhold information from the public. I agree with the speaker that it is sometimes necessary, and even desirable, for political leaders to withhold information from the public. A contrary view would reveal a naivetd about the inheren