“And if enough of us turn out at the polls in 18 months, we may be able to pull it off.”
But, when does hoping against hope and indulging in obsessive optimism become self-sabotage? Does buying a little time substitute for taking meaningful action, or does it mean giving fascism more time t…
“And if enough of us turn out at the polls in 18 months, we may be able to pull it off.”
But, when does hoping against hope and indulging in obsessive optimism become self-sabotage? Does buying a little time substitute for taking meaningful action, or does it mean giving fascism more time to spread and grow its roots and branches?
Knowledge is power; but only if it is consciously and purposefully acknowledged and only if put to use in taking power from those who have illegitimate power and authority or from those who use their power and authority illegitimately. It is not enough to merely know that Kevin McCarthy, MTG, Gym Jordan, Mitch McConnell, and the other hate and fear mongers are power hungry, delusional, corrupt, and anti-American. They will practice their corrosive politics and propagandizing until they are stopped by activists and advocates for the people who are aware of the danger they pose and who take effective action to dethrone them.
However, voters in barely adequate numbers who are informed can temporarily put a crimp in the style of such miscreants and send them home from Congress. If they are just puppets, they will be replaced by others like them and the problems they bring will come back again and again.
There must be dramatic, comprehensive, and holistic systemic change from the bottom up if democracy is to be preserved and enhanced. Changing the names or associations of malefactors and corrupt leaders will not suffice. The changes that are necessary for meaningful progress must happen among the people, who after all were responsible for giving unwarranted power and influence to those who could not be trusted.
The unpleasant questions must be asked relative to how the people have been misled or improperly educated for making our democracy function adequately, and the unpopular answers must not be dodged because they might offend certain people or because they may challenge certain universal false beliefs and illusions. The buck actually stops with ‘we the people’ and not with the place-fillers.
The moment of truth has arrived. The time for excuses, diversions, mythology, and polite evasions has long since passed. Our schools have not lived up to their promises and reputation. Our citizens are not being given the most fundamental opportunities to learn citizenship, the most basic skills for discretion and “critical thinking”, or the proper grounding and experience in what living in a free and fair society necessarily entails. The result has been a generations-long slide towards authoritarianism, plutocracy, oligarchy, and theocracy. Now, we are witnessing naked fascism.
I was born an optimist. I have remained an inveterate optimist for 80 years. But the silly kind of Polly Anna encouragement that educators foist on students to try to motivate them to take up fights which they shied away from when they had their chance to work to rectify a deplorable situation will not cut it. I am very reluctant to borrow cheer from someone who is so deluded about our failing school paradigm that he actually gives it a rating of AAA+. In what universe? Where is the solid empirical evidence documenting that fact? It’s all smoke and mirrors and failing to recognize that is just our first collective mistake.
“The vast majority of Americans just want peace.”
“And if enough of us turn out at the polls in 18 months, we may be able to pull it off.”
But, when does hoping against hope and indulging in obsessive optimism become self-sabotage? Does buying a little time substitute for taking meaningful action, or does it mean giving fascism more time to spread and grow its roots and branches?
Knowledge is power; but only if it is consciously and purposefully acknowledged and only if put to use in taking power from those who have illegitimate power and authority or from those who use their power and authority illegitimately. It is not enough to merely know that Kevin McCarthy, MTG, Gym Jordan, Mitch McConnell, and the other hate and fear mongers are power hungry, delusional, corrupt, and anti-American. They will practice their corrosive politics and propagandizing until they are stopped by activists and advocates for the people who are aware of the danger they pose and who take effective action to dethrone them.
However, voters in barely adequate numbers who are informed can temporarily put a crimp in the style of such miscreants and send them home from Congress. If they are just puppets, they will be replaced by others like them and the problems they bring will come back again and again.
There must be dramatic, comprehensive, and holistic systemic change from the bottom up if democracy is to be preserved and enhanced. Changing the names or associations of malefactors and corrupt leaders will not suffice. The changes that are necessary for meaningful progress must happen among the people, who after all were responsible for giving unwarranted power and influence to those who could not be trusted.
The unpleasant questions must be asked relative to how the people have been misled or improperly educated for making our democracy function adequately, and the unpopular answers must not be dodged because they might offend certain people or because they may challenge certain universal false beliefs and illusions. The buck actually stops with ‘we the people’ and not with the place-fillers.
The moment of truth has arrived. The time for excuses, diversions, mythology, and polite evasions has long since passed. Our schools have not lived up to their promises and reputation. Our citizens are not being given the most fundamental opportunities to learn citizenship, the most basic skills for discretion and “critical thinking”, or the proper grounding and experience in what living in a free and fair society necessarily entails. The result has been a generations-long slide towards authoritarianism, plutocracy, oligarchy, and theocracy. Now, we are witnessing naked fascism.
I was born an optimist. I have remained an inveterate optimist for 80 years. But the silly kind of Polly Anna encouragement that educators foist on students to try to motivate them to take up fights which they shied away from when they had their chance to work to rectify a deplorable situation will not cut it. I am very reluctant to borrow cheer from someone who is so deluded about our failing school paradigm that he actually gives it a rating of AAA+. In what universe? Where is the solid empirical evidence documenting that fact? It’s all smoke and mirrors and failing to recognize that is just our first collective mistake.