As early as the late nineteenth century the US Federal Government has sponsored the development of computer machines to help the government manage itself. By the 1880s the US population rose so rapidly that the US Government hosted a competition to develop a machine to help the US perform the 1890 Census. An important question is what cause this sharp rise in population. There were a number of reasons for this: both political and economic.

America Opens to Immigrants: A Policy

After the Alien and Sedition Acts expired with the beginning of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, America welcomed European immigrants.1

Most European immigrants fled their home countries—tired of lack of economic opportunity in their homeland. By 1800 CE, most European countries adopted feudal systems where wealth was distributed based on inheritance, religious affiliation, or royal ancestry.2

America’s founders were frustrated by unequal wealth distribution seen in European countries and believed a person should be rewarded based on merit and not one’s hereditary, religious, nor even royal authority—hoping it would grow the US population, help pay US debts, and satisfy worker demands.3

Thomas Jefferson argued the importance of allowing immigrants arriving to the US. James Madison argued the importance of ensuring no one had absolute authority over them—insisting noncitizens still had certain rights protected by the US Constitution (Madison was one of the authors of the US Constitution). Still, to prevent foreign interests from conflicting with US interests the Naturalization Law of 1802 extended citizenship to all white citizens “of good moral character” as long as they lived in the US for more than five years and declared their desire to be naturalized at least 3 years before doing so.4

Because of the efforts of US Founders the US became a common destination for immigrants. Many of these were religious and political minorities in Eurasia.

With the passing of the Naturalization Law of 1802 America became open to immigration. Beginning from 1830 European immigrants arrived often to escape poverty and for their own safety from violent European political revolutions.5

President Abraham Lincoln further improved immigration to the US by signing two bills: The Homestead Act of 1862 and The Contract Labor Act of 1864. The Homestead Act of 1862 offered land grants to both US citizens and immigrants that were eligible for naturalization. The Contract Labor Act allowed employers to hire foreign workers, pay their transportation costs, and contract their labor. Corrupt rulers, high taxes, and a lack of land all drove German emigrants to migrate to America. German emigrants to the US wrote about their positive experiences in America. One of the most important works—Report on a Journey to the Western States of North America and a Stay of Several Years Along the Missouri (During the Years 1824–1827)—convinced Germans to migrate to US states such as Missouri 67

Lincoln also helped Chinese citizens emigrate to the US by appointing Anson Burlingame as the US Minister of China in 1861. Burlingame convinced the Chinese Government to allow Chinese citizens to emigrate to the US under the Burlingame-Seward Treaty.8 This was a great benefit to Chinese citizens since it was previously illegal in China. Although the treaty did not guarantee a Chinese-American immigrant the right to naturalization—millions of Chinese emigrated in response—boosting the US population by 14.4% as the Founders of America wanted.9 It took until 1898 for the federal government to allow Chinese immigrants to have birthright citizenship after the United States vs Wong Kim Ark trial.10

By 1890 the foreign-born US population was 14.8%. Many migrants decided to work for a period of time before returning to their home country.11

As we can see in the chart below the US population rose more rapidly than any other nation from 1800 - 1900 CE12:

Still, immigration alone cannot explain the standardization of computer technology in the US. It took place in the US but South American countries lagged. To understand why I would like to cite important insights offered by Acemoglu and Robinson in their book “Why Nations Fail” and “Capital” by Thomas Piketty.

Technical Innovation Amongst Countries

I have given evidence that immigration rose rapidly in the United States in search of better standards of living.1314 Immigrants rushed to the US since employers offered better wages than what immigrants would receive at their birthplace.15

There were several important events in the nineteenth century that compelled the US Federal Government to adopt computer technology by the end of the 19th century16:

1. The US Constitution recognized the importance of private property rights. The US Homestead Act that President Abraham Lincoln signed encouraged immigrants to settle to the United States to claim ownership of fresh land as private property. Moreso however American born on US soil spread to lands in the Midwest and West. The US Homestead Act did not require citizenship to claim land—and US railroad companies advertised the sale of land grants in Europe to attract settlers. The US Federal Government and railroad companies reasoned this would attract immigrants to the US—who would work on the newly settled land and allow railroad companies to transport valuable goods for sale. This led to the rapid rise of the US population—mostly from immigration. This improved farming efficiency in the US. It took less farmers to produce more agricultural surplus. Now that there was more food available and less need for labor people could spend time doing extra beneficical tasks that an agragarian lifestyle would not have given them. This is why businesses profited from technological innovation in the US—especially in the North. The North would later win the US Civil War and require the South to adopt some of their customs afterwards—including access to public education and increased civil rights for people of all races.1718

2. An accessible US Patent System—which granted affordable patents to an inventor regardless of their background—even to non-US citizens. In 2012 intellectual capital makes up 55% of US GDP. Intellectual capital makes up to 80% of market value of all public companies in the US.19

   1. Patents grant inventors the exclusive right to profit from their invention for a fixed period of time. After the patent expires anyone is welcome to profit off the invention as they can. This was unique to the US Patent System—it did not discriminate based on one’s social class, wealth, or even citizenship.20

   2. Patents in the US were less expensive than other countries and it thus made business sense for inventors and businessman to found their companies in the United States. The US Patent System was unique in that it allowed anyone regardless of status—even without US citizenship—to file a patent. The selling point of having a patent was the exclusive right to profit off an invention idea. Let’s say you are a person that does not have the resources to build the invention on our own. Such a person can first file a patent and then license the patent invention to another company that would, in turn, build the product and sell it. The inventor receives royalties for inventing the idea—a win-win for both. This concept gave non-wealthy, non-elite citizens a strong incentive to invent technology to benefit American society. Even rich businessman such as Thomas Edison sold patent licenses to others to profit from royalties this way. 2122

      1. Important inventors such as Samuel F.B. Morse (inventor of telegraph), Alexander Graham Bell (founder of AT&T), Cornelius Vanderbilt (improved efficiency of railroads and therefore transportation in the US), Andrew Carnegie (founder of Bethlehem Steel), John D Rockefeller (founder of Standard Oil), Henry Ford (standardized assembly line and made automobile transportation affordable), and Thomas Edison (founder of modern General Electric) all benefited from the accessible US Patent System. All of these inventors except Bell and Morse were not from wealthy families. Alexander Graham Bell was the only immigrant in this list to be awarded a US patent for his invention of the telephone—yet Bell was not a US citizen when he was awarded the patent in 1876! Bell was granted US citizenship much later in 1882.2324 All these inventors increased spread of information (a critical part of protecting freedom of speech and boosting commerce), job options for American citizens, and electronic commerce—the beginning of the Global Information Age.

         1. The Information Age continued in the twentieth century as the US struggled against Russia during the Cold War for military and economic dominance. During this century the US found DARPA under President Dwight D. Eisenhower—the military program that birthed the Internet with the assistance of Stanford University and UCLA to protect the US against potential nuclear threats. The US Government also funded several military contracts in the 20th century that led to the rise of Silicon Valley—a well-funded area for tech companies. Several “Big Tech” companies including Intel, Microsoft, Apple, Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic were all founded in Silicon Valley—and the US Federal Government either directly or indirectly made all happen through the US Patent System and US Federal Government contracts.2526

      2. The US Patent Act of 1870 allowed non-US citizens to file for US patents.27 All of the factors mentioned above made the United States one of the most attractive places for technical innovation in the world—and it still is to this day. The US Patent System was unique in that it awarded ideas based on merit—not one’s status. No other major country in the world in the nineteenth century was this open to patent grants.

3. US President Abraham Lincoln 28 signed the Morrill Act of 1862. This act required the US Federal Government to grant land to states to build public universities. Several important universities including Cornell University and the University of California system continue to exist because of this critical land grant. These universities train highly skilled workers to work for companies that powered the US economy—a fact that remains true to this day.29

4. Unlike other countries US banks could not simply buy their way to power. The US Federal Government system was designed to only allow people to stay in office after each election for very short periods of time—including the US President. Frequent elections prevented banks from sponsoring politicians that would grant them monopoly banking power—as such politicians would often be rejected from office after doing so the first time (Andrew Jackson is a notable exception—who adopted the spoils system)30 Without the existence of serious banking monopolies in the nineteenth century there were tens of thousands of banks scattered throughout the US forced to charge low interest rates for loans due to fierce, nearby competition. This made it easier for businesses to risk taking loans to start a business—arguably easier than in any other nation.31

5. The United States is unique in its endorsement in allowing freedom of speech—even allowing public speech deemed morally offensive—including speech promoting racial or ethnic superiority to control others (unless it involves violence or false alarm). There were cases where this was undermined such as during the US Civil War (muting speech in favor of slavery) and World War II (muting antisemitism to promote US propaganda in favor of supporting Allied Powers). Still, moreso than not the US protects even “hateful” and offensive” speech in public. No other nation in the United States allows freedom of speech to such a degree in their modern Constitutions. Freedom of the press promoted economic growth and resisted monopolies. For example telegraph companies including Western Union used to set unreasonably high prices for sending data through their telegraph service. Public dissatisfaction with these prices as seen in the press led to the passing of acts such as The Communications Act of 1934—granting the Federal Communications Commission the power to regulate pricing of telecommunications. A second case study is the collective criticism of monopolies in the Progressive Era by critical journalists (coined “muckrackers”) during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency.32 The muckrackers convinced the US Federal Government to pass bills such as The Sherman Antitrust Act to break up monopolies that have proven to stifle economic growth through ruthless deletion of competition.33

The five above key reasons support the thesis of “Why Nations Fail”: the design and practice of political institutions determine the success of economic institutions in a nation. No other nation other than the US optimized the recognition of innovative ideas based on merit—not prejudice. The design and execution of US Federal and State Governments allowed this to take place.

By the late 1880s the political situation in the US not only caused a sharp rise in the population. It also led to the sharpest rise in social mobility and complexity as technical innovation and the federal funding of US public colleges allowed for narrow specializations of labor.3435 By the 1880s the combined problem of accounting for a rapidly rising, diverse population and increasingly complex jobs from tech innovation compelled the US to host a national competition to build a US Census Machine.3637 The winner of this national competition was Herman Hollerith—who would co-found International Business of Machines (IBM) with Thomas J Watson.3839

IBM Began the Global Computing Revolution

Hollerith’s machine was so successful in helping complete the US Census that other nations in Eurasia adopted his technology to help complete theirs.40 Hollerith’s machine set the standard of using Gottfried Leibnitz’s binary numeral system to perform calculations. To this day all computer machines around the world execute code using the binary numeral system.41

Hollerith’s punched-card system to write programs was inspired by the punch-card system used by railroad conductors to record traveler details. IBM improved Hollerith’s technology. Aside from the US Census the US Federal Government used IBM punched-card machines in Social Security Administration.42. Businesses around the world quickly struck business deals with IBM or were inspired by IBM’s “Tabulating Machine Technology” to save money and time with tedious tasks—from helping police manage criminal records to helping libraries keep track of borrowed books.43

Indeed the US Government Accounting Office (G.A.O) attests it would be impractical for the US Federal Government to serve the rapidly rising US population—which skyrocketed from about 80 million in 1900 CE to over 280 million by 1980 CE.44 Without computing technology the US Federal Government would have fallen short of its federal duties—and the US G.A.O points out Presidential actions such as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and Harry S. Truman’s approval of the US Atomic Energy programs greatly expanded the US Federal Government’s civic duties in the 20th century—making completing tasks and record-keeping ever-more complicated against an ever-expanding population.45

In the next article I will explain how the US persisted its leadership in technical innovation in the twentieth century during the US Cold War despite major changes in society—including the rise in costs and complexities of Patent and Copyright Laws to the development of Silicon Valley and Big Techs.

One day in a class on Genetic Engineering at UCLA my professor asked us to write the following down: the reason college education gets more expensive the bureaucracy gets bigger and bigger. Professor Jiang Xueqin, a Youtuber, that went to Yale—complained about the misplaced prestige these universities get—and how unjustly expensive they are.

As it turns out colleges are little better than greedy companies—they charge high prices for tuition and invest it in everything else besides improving the student’s critical thinking skills. Even in Jefferson’s time the University of Virginia over-invested in building fancy buildings (even though Jefferson knew students would suffer in the intense heat from the material) and lavish meals—believing that would convince students to come to the university.1 This is what we still see today—elite universities continue to improve the university’s appearance at the price of raising the student’s tuition. If you are reading this you probably despised the college experience—overcrowded schools with disinterested professors and the stunning price tag of close to $100,000 for the entire tuition.

Throughout US History there has been a struggle to provide education that gives an equal and fair opportunity to everyone. I will now narrate the history of the rise of US public education and its sharp decline beginning in 1981.

Again, during Jefferson’s lifetime the situation was no different—at one point the tuition for University of Virginia became so high only the wealthiest of the elite bothered attending. Meanwhile other bright kids attended university in other states.2

Before 1837 most schools were run locally—addressing the needs of the community. Starting with Horace Mann this began to change. Governments and businesses designed public school systems throughout the US to have several qualities3:

1. Train workers for corporations. Leading corporations including Ford Motors, Standard Oil, and Carnegie Steel Company funded schools so they can hire workers later. This did boost the economy—however it did emerge a culture of uniformity and obedience in children. This is what every hiring manager wants: workers that can read manuals, perform simple calculations, and follow directions. The grading system, modeled after the Prussian school system, is designed to distinguish people that are best at this. Just as the original Prussian education system was designed to make obedient citizens to the Prussian military government—so did corporations want obedient workers.

2. Horace Mann wanted schools to filled with students from different cultures, religions, and customs. This would teach young students to respect everyone equally regardless of their background. This was arguably the best aspect of the standardized public school system—whose effect is still enjoyed to this day.

3. However Mann was still biased towards Protestant values—believing that instiling a Protestant work ethic was best to promote the nation’s growth.

The downsides, as the article I cited points out, are known to every student:

1. There is little room for personalized learning.

2. They do not allow for a flourishing exchange of ideas or innovations

3. Although both cause people to not be innovators they give what corporations want: workers that produce reliable, reproducible results.

Mann’s reforms alone did not fully solve the issue of allowing access to public education. Prior to 1862 higher education was inaccessible to the rural and working class. College already was very expensive by Jefferson’s time in the first place!

US President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act. This important act allowed US states to use royalties they received from the US Federal Government to fund the development of universities specializing in the applied sciences. It was through this act that crucial universities were formed including, but not limited to, Massachusetts Institue of Technology, Cornell University, and Brown University. Later this act was improved in the Morill Act of 1890 to require states to fund the development of universities for African Americans. Researchers including Isaac Ehrlich, Adam Cook, and Yong Yin conclude the Morill Act played a crucial role in the United States’s development as an economic superpower.4

The Morill Acts certainly did. And they were not the only cases where the US Federal Government invested in public education that made this happen.

The next major event to improve public education in the US was US Reconstruction after the US Civil War. Before the US Civil War the only Southern children to receive an education were the ones who could pay for it. Reconstruction required Southern states to fund for US public education although this was initially only allowed in the South to whites. For the first time under federal law people that used to not have access to education—African Americans, the poor, the disabled—were allowed to have an education.5

However white Southerners made intense efforts to resist allowing African Americans within the Jim Crow era. Organizations such as the NAACP worked for decades to make the case that segregated schools were hurtful to education—an argument that won in US Brown vs Board of Education. Even after Brown vs Board of Education only 2.3% of the nearly 3-million former Confederate States attended racially integrated schools. It took US Court Case Green v. County School Board of New Kent County to ensure African Americans could safely enroll in public schools. By 1970 90% of African American children in the South attended integrated schools. Unfortunately this would only last a decade thanks to Supreme Court.

There were two more legal bills that boosted US public education. The GI Bill of Rights was passed in 1944 to help US WWII veterans readjust to civilian life—including funds for education, government-backed loans, unemployment benefits, and help with finding jobs. The GI Bill made higher education accessible to veterans—allowing the rapid expansion of colleges and universities. The GI Bill helped veterans emerge from a potential life of poverty into the middle class.

US public education reached its peak when US President Lyndon B Johnson passed the Higher Education Act of 1965—offering federal grants (e.g. The Pell Grant) and low-interest loans to college students, gave federal funding to US colleges, and founded the National Teachers Corps. Lyndon B Johnson stressed the importance of such actions to provide opportunities for low-income and middle-income families, supporting struggling colleges, and improving access to literature at higher education institutions. In 2015 the National Education Association praised the program for making a college education affordable to low and middle-income Americans.6

Unfortunately, as early as 1967 US public education began to decline. Then Governor of California Ronald Reagan argued integration in public schools was just as bad as segregated schools. Reagan7. Ronald Reagan campaigned to end free tuition for colleges, reduced funding for the construction of state campuses, fired Clark Kerr—the respected President of the University of California, and declared that US states are not responsible for “subsidizing intellectual curiousity”. Reagan denied additional funding even for basic education.8

US school students still suffer from the downsides of these budget cuts to this day. Students suffer from overcrowded classrooms (this hits hard to college students) that lack individual attention. Outdated textbooks. Worn-out buildings. Tired teachers. Half of LAUSD students in 1970 went on strike from lack of funding. Reagan continued cutting funds for US public education as President. Reagan cut federal funds from local school districts throughout the US and transferred them to state governments. It is clear Ronald Reagan has helped made US public educaiton significantly worse than what it was when he began his presidency. He succeeded for the same reason Jefferson failed: wealthy businessmen found no reason to support the well-being of others through public education. Thankfully, Reagan’s attempts to get rid of the US Department of Education and to reduce bilingual education failed. Still, by the end of Reagan’s presidency US Federal Budgets for education was down to 6%.9

The US professor I cited for sources 8 and 9 (the same source) is an Emeritus Professor of Education at La Salle University since 1969 CE—so he lived to see the effects of Reagan’s budget cuts first-hand in both California as Governor and once again as President.

US college education continues to grow more expensive and worse as we speak. It is my fear we will once again return to the earlier days of American education where the only wealthy families can afford education—barring the middle class and poor from receiving it. Once education becomes the sole intellectual property of the rich people will leave the United States and look for economic opportunities elsewhere as young students left Virginia to seek affordable education elsewhere.

In my last blog article I explained education in America is in decline as prices rise and its helpfulness today questioned.

I explained Thomas Jefferson believed “Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind”. Jefferson insisted people be educated not just for the economy but also to ensure they were an effective checks and balances against government.

Thomas Jefferson spent many years of his life persuading the Virginia legislature to pass the bill for universal education for all white citizens—rich or poor ; men or women (unfortunately Jefferson did not believe in educational rights for African Americans).

Jefferson’s attempts failed despite help from good friends like James Madison. The wealthy amongst the Virginia legislature did not feel it should be their burden to pay for another’s education in need. This pained Thomas Jefferson bitterly. Jefferson truly believed education was not just about prosperity but also about ensuring people were responsible with it—and that includes distinguishing if rulers were responsible with their power. And Jefferson believed a lack of access to universal education would be a huge hindrance to that.

Jefferson based his educational ideals from the mistakes other nations made from his time. Jefferson visited France in his lifetime and was aware of the civil struggles that led to the French Revolution. The wealth inequality gap between the rich and the poor was atrocious. In France, unlike the US, universities served the rich and the church only. Both of these institutions suppressed Enlightment ideals—such as those of John Locke that threatened the control the church and monarchy’s control.

From the case of France we learn education can be misused to oppress and control

people when used for the wrong reason.

Britain, Spain, and the Ottoman Empires were just one of several other governments / religious institutions that used education to stay in power. All of these national governments faced rebellions for their oppression and ultimately lost power.

Jefferson’s personal battles with Britain in the United States and the civil tension he personally saw in France inspired him to invest in education: co-founding the University of Virginia and several failed attempts to convince the Virginia legislature to pass free education.

There are a bunch of sad lessons to be learnt from Jefferson’s failed—sometimes even hypocritical—attempts to “improve” education in Virginia.

After Jefferson proposed “Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge” The white, wealthy of the Virginia population did not believe it was worth paying taxes to support the poor.

I will give case studies here to remind readers why tragedies like this happen throughout world history.

1. Even Thomas Jefferson contradicted his own ideals. He founded the University of Virginia targeting the sons of wealthy landowners, lawyers, and merchants. The University of Virginia was maintained by slaves. Worse still—the slaves were often harassed, bullied, and in extreme cases dissected after death.1

2. Like other slaveowners Jefferson wanted to keep their slaves illiterate to avoid spreading ideas of legally required freedom for slaves—a concept called abolition. Slavemasters hoped restricting access to education would prevent slaves from launching successful rebellions. Sadly this strategy worked—with the Haitian Slave Rebellion being the only successful slave rebellion in history.2

3. The citizens of Virginia were also unwilling to help poor people receive an education. Several political figures including Thomas Jefferson and John Tyler Sr failed despite their best efforts. The citizens of Virginia believed they could have a republic without paying for the next generation’s education.3 A fate that is taking place today in America through skyrocketing tuition costs. A fate that is taking place today in America through skyrocketing tuition costs. Most Virginians quit education only after a few years of schooling to work at farms or shops. 4 Saddened, Jefferson said “No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness”5

It is ironic that Jefferson’s own people wanted democracy yet were unwilling to invest to protect it—favoring wealth attainment over protecting everyone’s rights—a common cause of downfall in history. In his work “The Republic” Plato warns the downfall of society begins when people lose power to the wealthy and those of high status—yet take no civic action to disengage this. Gradually the society depraves to an oligarchy—where only the rich rule silently as monarchs. Left unchecked a desperate people powerless in debt before the wealthy allows a tyrant to assume emergency powers—forgiving debts—and quietly executing anyone that stands in his way—assuming rule as an authoritarian.6

In Taylor’s work we read that the South falls to an oligarchy controlled by landowners enslaving a people for their own gain. To this day wealth inequality and racism remain a problem in the South. At this time US President Trump holds more popularity in Southern states than in the Northern states. The parallel to Plato’s “tyrant” and Trump is striking. In the past Trump has managed to convince supporters to riot at the State Capitol and a second time with the Iranian War—which the US Military has promised will bring the Second Coming of Jesus.78

My main point in narrating this to you is that the downfall of society begins when value wealth, honor, and status over ethics. Nations including Ancient Greece and Rome—which the United States is modeled after—have fallen for this reason—even though they predicted it! Entire nation’s economies in World War II collapsed thanks to this greed—having to rebuild their economies from scratch. The good news is that these European nations—especially Germany—have thankfully learned their lesson. By now nations in the European Union feature accessible public education that instruct both civic and economic education to prevent the horrors that took place in the war. Judging by the war, increasing wealth gap, and increased executive powers Trump is gaining—the US is headed towards the same economic collapse and the rise of tyranny.

If the wealth gap keeps getting worse unchecked, if colleges become too expensive just as education became too expensive to afford in the South, if we do not teach our youth who we should trust our lives with as leaders in civic education—we are destined to suffer the fate of the nations that collapsed in World War II.

The current situation in the US was not, on average, as bad as it is today. US public education reached its peak by the late 20th century. However starting from Ronald Reagan’s Administration this went on decline. In the next blog post I will explain how the US went from lacking public education, to education for all, and finally to the current situation where it is destined to be affordable only to the wealthy.

Hi. I am FOSRES (Free and Open Source Security Research). You may know me from my technical blog to prepare for Security Engineering interviews. You may find it unusual I am now speaking to you directly rather than allowing Claude to do the work for me.

I decided to make this blog series about teaching three things:

1. Teach people how to distinguish who is trustworthy with their lives. It is not sufficient to be technically excellent. You need to be socially aware of the ethical decisions people make with them.

   1. This includes being able to detect lies, deceit, and manipulation.

   2. This includes being able to earn the trust of the trustworthy.

   3. It also includes being able to work productively with the trustworthy.

2. Teach people how to manage their information safely with such trustworthy people. Unlike my technical blog this blog explains how to deal with human in protecting human communication.

3. Teach people how to ethically earn a living working with such trustworthy people. From employment to business. This blog will explain how to identify people that one should look forward to working with—as well as distilling the work opportunities one should stay away from and why.

To summarize it bluntly: Influence people to make the right decision.

Train people to predict, detect, and resist lies, deceit, and manipulation.

In the real world cybersecurity leaders deal with reluctant, overconfident staff. When it comes down to setting up proper defenses—teams hesitate due to cost concerns. Being a good cybersecurity leader does not just demand technical excellence.

It demands empathy, rhetoric, applied knowledge of how the past can help us predict the future—the social skills that are not taught at school nor work.

Cybersecurity professionals are admitting cybersecurity issues continue to plague the world and are getting worse. Most college programs do not educate their students on how to use technology safely—even if one is in a computer science program. Worse, College programs only are getting more expensive with time. And that is why my interest in writing about this began with a simple question I asked Claude: why is college so expensive?

The results shocked me. And led me down a historical investigation on what the original leaders of America envisioned education to be, what American education became up to its peak though not what the leaders wanted, and why it is now in sharp decline.

This blog article explains the history of accessible public education in the US starting with Thomas Jefferson. I will explain what Jefferson believed should be taught and why. I will next explain why Jefferson insisted education should be accessible to all US citizens. I will finally conclude with an explanation on why Jefferson’s principles are important for cybersecurity professionals to be aware of.

Since America’s founding the United States Federal Government believed education is a critical resource to grow the nation’s economy as much as a resource to protect the integrity of democracy. American leaders have written notes on why they believed education is crucial to sustaining democracy. One of the most well documented is Jefferson’s writings on education.

The following is a critical excerpt on why Thomas Jefferson believed this:

I am a great friend to the improvements of …schools…the literary fund is a solid provision…it would set agoing at once, and for ever maintain a system of primary or ward schools, and an university where might be taught in it’s highest degree every branch of science useful in our time & country: and it would rescue us from the tax of toryism, fanaticism, & indifferentism to their own state which we now send our youth to bring from those of New England.

…if a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was & never will be. the functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty & property of their constituents. there is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

— Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, 6 January 1816

As we see in the excerpt Jefferson believed a literate, informed society with access to a press that allows them to speak their minds would ensure society was resistant to people that would hoard power for themselves (toryism), a government biased towards a religion (fanaticism), or a lack of care on how their lives were governed.

Here is a summary of the subjects Jefferson deemed indispensable for democracy that I deem relevant today (so not all of the subjects Jefferson recommended are listed here due to lack of relevance today):

1. Reading and Writing: Like many Jefferson believed literacy was important to allow a person to make independent decisions as a free, responsible human being. A skill that would be useful, though alone insufficient, in business, finance, and legality. Everyone can agree with his reasoning. Without literacy a person will forget critical details and their analysis will be weaker.

Here is a direct quote by Jefferson on literacy’s importance:

2. Classical Works on Government, Law, Politics, and Rhetoric from Ancient Greece and Rome

I admit Thomas Jefferson insisted every American citizen be trained in Classical Greek and Roman—not just read the translations of great Classical Works such as “Politics” by Aristotle. Jefferson believed learning Classics would build one’s reasoning skills. Here is a direct quote from Jefferson:

I would disagree with Thomas Jefferson here. Today, almost no members of European Union government are formally trained in Classics! Starting from the 19th century in Europe there was a movement to phase out training in Classics in favor of training students in modern sciences and technology. One of the most important legal bills protecting privacy in the European Union, the Global Domestic Privacy Regulation, was written by lawmakers with no documented formal training in classics for this reason! Today if you were to walk into any security conference you will find people openly discussing the importance of GDPR as an authentic and effective lawcode to protect the privacy of consumers in online e-commerce—even from Americans themselves! GDPR is one of the strongest and most respected legal bills protecting online privacy in the world—if not the most reputed.

And with saying although I see a lack of evidence that learning the Classical Languages themselves is important studying the Classical works in translation still are!

In the United States (American students that take more humanities and social science courses read Classical works (in translation!)—and engage more in civic discourse thanks to the critical thinking skills they gain from them.

Specifically, students with more social science and humanities or arts courses show higher levels of civic engagement, suggesting that these fields are strong contributors to higher education’s civic mission. — SAGE

I conclude with saying that studying translations of Classical works will make any person more informed when engaging in civic discourse with others—it has a proven history that goes as far back as Ancient Greece—through America’s founding—and even as late as the Civil Rights Movement!

Notable figures including Adams, Madison, Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, and W.E.B. Du Bois all were familiar with Classical works and drew inspiration from them in their activism.

Thomas Jefferson’s writings and our nation’s reliance on Classical Works in legality nad politics made me interested in reading them. People that had an impact on US politics and government were familiar with the classic works of Greece and Rome. And every cybersecurity professional must be familiar with how laws and government affect how cybersecurity is practiced. They must be able to engage in civic discourse on how privacy should be respected. They must observe the words and actions of political figures and analyze how they affect how we protect this important civil right.

Politics, business, and economics affect the practice of cybersecurity as they do in every field. The aforementioned works will help one analyze how politics plays a role.

There are many important works from Ancient Greece and Rome that have influenced democracies including—but not limited to—Aristotle’s “Politics”, Plato’s “Republic”, and Cicero’s books on Rhetoric. Since these works have played a role in democratic governments around the world I am convinced such works are must-reads.

Without education in politics one cannot determine if the people that run these institutions are trustworthy. From politics we learn how to distill an organization’s true interests from the mere claims we hear. Without rhetoric security professionals will struggle to persuade staff to setup critical security defenses—especially when those defenses often are costly! Rhetoric also gives one the skill in detecting lies, deceit, and manipulation. Cybersecurity is no stranger to the effects of propaganda, fads, and foul ideas that amass huge profits in the marketplace! Detecting these issues and addressing them with people face-to-face are the skills a cybersecurity leader must have!

With saying I hope my introduction to Jefferson’s emphasis on Classical Works has now sparked your interest in reading them. They expand one’s skill in persuasaion as much as build one’s resistance to deception—an essential complement to one’s technical skills in the workforce.

Critical Resource: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/04-01-02-0289

3. Mathematics: Thomas Jefferson not only believed mathematics was important for commerce but also to teach people to spot fraud. It is a pity modern schools do not teach people to detect fraud when interpreting financial statements.

Here is an essential quote by Jefferson on why basic math is so important:

Jefferson was arguing above that without basic arithmetic people would not be able to tell if the government was managing the economy responsibly. Its a shame political economics is not taught in schools. Even cybersecurity professionals should pay attention to political economy. The government affects the cybersecurity industry—and I will write more blogs in the future on how that happened later. As a brief reminder tax dollars cover important programs such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology—which publishes industry-recognized standards for digital security to this day. Without that international ecommerce would never exist as we know it today.

Throughout history people have been able to keep corruption in check thanks to literacy. Following the invention of the printing press a literate people in England were able to deduce that it was best to permit freedom of the press for the sake of economic growth as well as speaking out against someone’s mistreatment. A literate American people decided to allow unrestricted use of the Telegraph—a necessary strategy to win the US Civil War and to grow the US economy afterwards—as well allow the press to spread uncensored news. A literate people read Ida B Tarbell’s “The History of the Standard Oil Company”. An enraged American people decided to pass The Sherman Antitrust Act—a law banning monopolies to allow free competition.

Today these problems have taken new forms. Where social media and data companies in the Tech industry are deemed a threat to our freedom of speech and thought. These same companies are now being called out for restricting our freedom of choice—even being compared to the tyranny of empires.

Just as people applied their skills in literacy and arithmetic in the historical cases we mentioned so too must we apply these skills to determine how these companies should manage our lives. And to do that laws must be written and checked.

4. Law

Thomas Jefferson believed citizens should be educated enough to determine for themselves if laws protected their civil rights—not merely rely on the Judicial Branch to verify for them:

To expound the principles & structure of government, the laws which regulate the intercourse of nations, those formed municipally for our own government, and a sound spirit of legislation, which banishing all arbitrary & unnecessary restraint on individual action shall leave us free to do whatever does not violate the equal rights of another. — Jefferson from “Report of the Board of Commissioners for the University of Virginia to the Virginia General Assembly, [4 August] 1818”

Citizens must take an active part in legality in order for the law to remain just—that is what Jefferson believed.

US Congress has passed legal bills regulating how people must manage others’ lives with computers since the Banking Privacy Act of 1974. Since 1974 to modern times businesses, nonprofit organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and computer security professionals like Bruce Schneier have all argued how our lives should be managed by others when using digital machine. During the time between 1974 to the present there have been several critical debates on whether the US government truly cares to protect our civil rights—with the most controversial incident being Edward Snowden’s leakage of NSA Classified documents—revealing the US Federal Government has spied on the Internet activity of its own citizens since the passing of the Patriot Act following 9/11.

As a security professional you should be making a decision on whether the laws the US Government pass protect our liberties—or are secret strategies to take them away from us. Just recently the US Department of Defense decided to weaponize OpenAI’s technology for the first time. Many American decided to switch to competitor Claude in response. Do you think that’s the right move?

Here is a critical resource on Jefferson’s views on Education. In it he stresses the importance of people applying their history knowledge to prevent corruption (Notes on the State of Virginia).

As I said earlier the US Federal Government has abused its powers to spy on its citizens several times in the past without their consent—arguably a violation of the Fourth Amendment. The US has even hid its surveillance activities from the public and has also lied about its surveillance activities before being caught.

Since 2018 the US has passed the CLOUD Act which requires all US Tech companies to hand over user data to the US Federal Government at any time.

Legal bills such as the above are complex and in depth. Yet they are used in political discussions everywhere. Naturally the actual interpretations and even words of the CLOUD Act are sometimes perverted—an unfortunate side effect that takes place whenever political conflict takes place.

In future blog articles I will explain in detail how this happened and how this ties to historical events. This is becoming an even more major concern since the US Department of Defense began using AI as a military weapon. One of the first public concerns was mass surveillance and although OpenAI established a policy with the Department of Defense to not spy on citizens—the US Federal Government’s past actions makes that hard to believe.

5. Geography

Although no official writing by Jefferson explains why he believed it to be essential Geography was taught in Jefferson’s time—not to memorize the names of places on the Earth—but to teach people how physical limits affect a nation’s power. Even in modern times geography affects cybersecurity. Different countries have different laws governing how a person’s data must be managed. Countries that are part of The Five Eyes are infamous for spying on each other’s citizens!

I already earlier mentioned the European Union is well known for the Global Domestic Privacy Regulation. So if you use a privacy service from a EU country you are not subject to US Laws and Customs as said service is not hosted on US territory. This matters when you realize ICE has been authorized to spy on people’s phones—just as the NSA was allowed to before the Snowden Leaks. By now ICE has deported over 396,400 people. This is what the Anti-Federalists feared—unreasonable search and seizures. And because of the debates between Federalists and Anti-Federalists the Fourth Amendment was ratified.

6. History

Jefferson argued we should not only be aware of historical events as we learn today—but we must learn to recognize patterns in corruption in organizations:

Cybersecurity professionals must predict what a leader’s true motives are and predict future outcomes—which always have a similarity to past actions. This will prepare cybersecurity professionals to handle political situations that affect the honest practice of cybersecurity. History is thus a complement to rhetoric—which was partially taught to teach people how to spot deception.

At work you as a security professional will be forced to deal with political decisions being made behind the scenes—even though your employer commands you to not discuss politics—you still have to be mindful of how it affects everyone’s work lifestyle. You will see people being treated unfairly—you will be treated unfairly at some point! You will see people forsake ethics for power, money, and status—the exact things Plato warned were the downfall of a democracy to an oligarchy—the final step before the rise of tyranny. A great book that teaches one to spot these problems is Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power—a book every young person should read right before they begin their college education. College is every person’s first introduction to the corporate world—and Greene’s books apply there as in any other field in the workforce. I daresay Greene’s books are closer to the history Jefferson wanted people to be taught—but never were.

Unfortunately Robert Greene’s only explain how the powerful stay in power. Whereas Jefferson insisted we need to be taught how to resist oppression:

Conclusion

I began this blog with a complaint that cybersecurity education was in a state of decline. For this blog I only touched on what Jefferson believed education should be—a means to enrich America and even moreso an essential defense against corruption.

I am sorry to tell you the second half of Jefferson’s vision of education has mostly been ignored in the public education system. The next blog series will briefly touch Jefferson’s fight for accessible education. A fight he lost in own lifetime.