Unless we soon hold them accountable for their damage to America and the Constitution in a way they will understand and take seriously, this will continue and get worse. If we fail, G-d help us.
The "they" whom we should hold most accountable, at this moment of greatest "Peril" (another Bob Woodward must-read), comes down, really, to just one little man: DONALD JOHN TRUMP. He is certainly not the only despicable bastard -- God, there are so many! -- who deserves the modern-day equivalent of the medieval pillory and public-square-humiliation "remedy" (within the law), but he is certainly the de facto figurehead and primary inspiration for the true enemies of America -- fanatical domestic fascists -- and it would be a significant and necessary blow not only to their perverse personal psychology but also to their perverse political ideology to hold him personally accountable.
The "moral arc of the universe bends toward justice" ...mostly by giving it a mighty shove now and then. Taking down the whitest and most sacred symbol of authoritarianism -- the man himself -- will go a long way in educating future generations of small-d democrats on the correct response to an insurrection. Think of the iconic Nazi emblem blown to pieces on the roof of the Reichstag. Don't worry about the usual refrain about making Trump, the sad-mad-crazy clown that he is, a martyr for their "lost cause" and the champion of their pathetic resistance; let them wallow in their defeat.
Our laws absolutely MUST spell out a bright red line that cannot EVER be crossed no matter the circumstance or perpetrator! Let democracy's detractors fume and spit all they want; let them show their true colors for all to witness. The ugly truth of the Republican Party must be fully recognized and confronted head-on -- no more wishful thinking and happy talk about some bygone world of bipartisanship that no longer exists.
We're in the middle of a new civil war started by one-party, evangelical, white-nationalist, REPUBLICAN insurgents -- i.e., "the base" (al-Qaeda in Arabic). It is way past the time for every single citizen in this dying democracy who cares about their children to wake up, face the truth, and act responsibly.
And it is also way past the time for our justice system to step up to the plate and act responsibly -- NOW! -- before the timing of the next election season once again makes going after a front-runner legally and politically unviable. Rinse-and-repeat, kicking-the-can never solves a damn thing. How many times must DC politicos prove that axiom to the American people, Charlie Brown?
The phenomenon described so well in this piece is what has become known as “The banality of Evil”, which most of the readers and viewers here will recognize as the book by Hanna Arendt who also examined how the German people were lulled, lured, and progressively guided into accepting the unacceptable.
In a spectacular speech on “Our Greatest Antidote to Evil” Joseph Brodsky said in 1987,
“What we regard as Evil is capable of a fairly ubiquitous presence if only because it tends to appear in the guise of good.”
That quote, along with a lengthy discussion are included in my book. I will copy a short section here:
Hannah Arendt wrote the book entitled, “The Banality of Evil” in which she describes the creeping and unobtrusive nature of inchoate, innocent appearing, and incubating evil. This was brought home by Dr. Edna Friedberg, a speaker on a recent C-SPAN panel on combatting the increasing rate of hate crimes in the US. (Edna S. Friedberg is a historian at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. I failed to record the date of the C-SPAN panel).
Dr. Friedberg stated that studies of the Germany prior to the Holocaust reveal that racial hatred was NOT the most prominent reason for the conditions which ultimately allowed the Nazi party to undermine social values and norms and to virtually obliterate all conscience and tolerance for cultural differences. Long before there were crimes against the people who were considered the out group, there were more subtle ‘crimes against nature’ within the social order. There was an unmistakable erosion of spirit and of connections to others in the larger group, for example, which inexorably weakened the moral fiber of the populace. Obsequiousness and blind obedience had been drilled into the students, workers, and military personnel for decades prior to the ultimate rise of fascism. (End of excerpt).
While I am not one to quibble over semantics and do not disagree with the premise of this rant, I would highly recommend, as I have previously, that ‘trickle-up authoritarianism’ is no less a part of this equation than trickle-down authoritarianism. The most efficient and effective way to predispose and precondition a society and a nation for either good or evil is to assemble youth into scheduled, organized, and ordained groups for “socialization”, “training”, “education”, “preparation”, or indoctrination.
I have been over-zealous in this if the response is any indication. Therefore, I will take time to give some essential background. The truth is that this is all very personal for me for a variety of reasons. The most significant reason is outlined in my chapter on school phobia in the second book, and in the dedication of both of my books. (The following is an excerpt from page 97).
There is a hint of cruelty in the rush to push children who are clearly not emotionally prepared for immersion into this foreign environment. It is only because of attendance law that parents are forced to ignore or minimize the anxiety and dread these children face. The same dynamic is operating with students who have found the courage to go to school but who also have the bravery to signal that they want no part of the place.
For this author, this is a personal issue. I am ashamed to admit that I physically carried my son to the car in his underwear and drove him to the school parking lot where I made him get dressed and took him into the school. I was a single parent with a full-time job and classes and felt that I had no better choice. He had not been diagnosed as phobic, but after losing his mother at age four, he avoided school anytime he could and had refused to go or had skipped. Bradley was about nine at the time. I cannot apologize to him now. He died in a tragic accident on September 23, 1981, at the age of 13 after skipping school that day (exactly forty years ago tomorrow). This book is dedicated to his memory. (End of excerpt).
Fifty years ago, everyone told us, “Be positive. Don’t discourage the people working for change.” They said, “Forget about changing the laws and work within the system”. They warned, “Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater”.
Yet the “system” is not in the least systematic and never has been. It is at best controlled chaos. Change did not come unless it was for the worse. The baby, referring to compulsory attendance laws, was stillborn. It was never a viable entity. And, not to be vulgar, but that was not bathwater.
Now. optimists in the field of “education”, otherwise known as Polly Annas, have adapted Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” theory to their domain. It is tempting to apply it in politics, as well.
I confess that, while I have seen Gladwell speak many times and greatly admire him, and while I do not doubt that his theory has a high degree of relevance in various technological, economic, or even social realms, it definitely does not apply in education, and probably does not apply to politics, either. Critical mass cannot be reached when fully half of the citizenry still labors under the illusion that “original sin” or some variation on that cynical theme is somehow valid and that schoolwork is just bad tasting medicine that will effect a cure (of what? Native intelligence?).
Some of the most prominent critics of schooling and alternative education/school boosters have for a very long time blithely assumed that progressive and liberal ideas for school reform will become irresistible in their success and appeal because they are superior in every imaginable way. Great ideas and successful experimental programs inevitably inspire and are bound to spread like wildfire, ostensibly. Their “movement” has grown in certain places, and they have exciting networks, TED Talks, conferences, homeschooling, Unschooling, and De-schooling groups in the US and around the globe. Yet, the mirage is not turning into the oasis that they have so enthusiastically awaited. The clock ticks. Children sit in the same desks, languishing by the millions.
One will have to read my books to learn why the ground has not shifted, the waters have not parted, and the miracles are on hold for another century. The cliff notes version is, as I have so often stated, that attendance laws are an impermeable barrier to change. Deeply held beliefs and conceptions, much more unconscious than conscious are not amenable to change via word of mouth and popular opinion metrics. (The following items are also excerpted from my book).
Banality IS the Evil (Chapter heading)
The essence of totalitarian government, and perhaps the nature of every bureaucracy, is to make functionaries and mere cogs in the administrative machinery out of men, and thus to dehumanize them.
Hannah Arendt
…But the Prussian military style academies for children from the earlier German history are famous for their egregious abuses and an iron fist in disciplining and programming students from a very tender age.
Education is good, by definition, but it is ineffable. It is antithetical to force and duress. School has the potential to be a good as well, but it automatically devolves into banality and mediocrity when forced upon unwilling or unenthusiastic participants. (End of excerpts).
This is a hard pill to swallow for people who have believed so fervently in education. What must be understood, and soon, is that school not only is NOT education; it is often anti-intellectual and the exact opposite of education. The consequence is 70 million people following a fascist, authoritarian demagogue wherever he leads and believing they are doing god’s work.
We watch as Thom has shared these examples of tipping points to a neofascist state, and they share much in common with crossing the most devastating tipping points, the ones that are leading to a 6th Mass Extinction. The so-obvious-that-no-one-thinks-about-it answer is that we need a critical mass of citizens who have learned to be good at learning and have a passion for it. Therefore, as Robert B. Elliott (as well as Robert Golden) discussed, i suggest that the solution is an education system that teaches folks to nurture their ability and passion for learning throughout their lives, and use what we’ve learned to help others learn to be good learners. Being good at learning and liking it are essential characteristics of people who choose critical thinking in their decision-making, at the very least it makes them less likely to do and say stupid things. Being able to lead the education processes of learning and teaching requires the most important and rare (and therefore valuable) skillset of any vocation. Having effective educators who can guide folks to become good at learning, and building a role model education system will only be doable when the psychopaths of corporate personhood lose their ability to wield that power, because citizens who have learned the be good at learning are exactly what an oligarch does not want. Oligarchs love the folks who learned to be bad at learning and need their tribe/cult, thus making them easy marks for the hypocrites of hate who offer the best ever propaganda.
So here is my simple solution to stop just watching and end the tipping points:
First, end corporate personhood.
Second, reconstitute our citizens’ rights and freedoms.
Third, collaborate with our government’s decision-makers so they can finally satisfy their purpose. And the most important thing our government can do with its citizens is to design, build and maintain a role model education system available to everyone. Education is to democracy what location is to real estate, and right now American education is living downwind of too many negative externalities.
Your objectives are admirable, and your analysis of our current dilemma appears to be accurate. You articulate your ideas as a well-rounded and well-educated person. Unfortunately, I believe that you are recommending the re-invention of the educational wheel, without a practical way of implementing your goals. I don’t mean to be critical or argumentative, and I am not “old” (I am only 80) but the ideas and philosophy for teaching “critical thinking skills” are legion and legendary, and our success rate is dismal, to say the least.
If I’m reading you correctly, what you would hope to have is the “rare” top tier people as “effective educators” in teaching and a “role model education system” designed and built by citizens in collaboration with government to teach children “how to learn” and love learning and have a passion for learning.
There are several problems with this. First is that critical thinking skills are not taught. Secondly, children are designed to learn and have a love of learning and a passion for learning until our manipulation, interference, and neurotic controlling habits beat it out of them (metaphorically speaking, except for some brutes and sadists who actually utilize corporal punishment). Third, an “education system” “…available to everyone” is a Utopian fantasy that has never existed and never will exist.
Your prescriptions involving ending corporate personhood, reconstituting rights and freedoms, and collaborating with decision-makers so they can accomplish their purposes are splendid, albeit a bit idealistic at this stage. However, getting us to that point will take more than a superfragilistic expiladocious educational apparatus controlled by the state and gifted to students whether they want it or not.
Schools can serve some extremely valuable services and there are instances where learning occurs, critical thinking skills are modeled, developed, or encouraged, and extraordinary educators convey their knowledge in a way that contributes to education. You appear to be someone who got something from the experience, although I would credit a few teachers, your family, and yourself more, while giving the schools none of the credit. The best teachers are forced to circumvent the rules.
But children MUST be respected as creators of knowledge and as capable, intelligent, intuitive, perceptive, and motivated learners. The idea is to facilitate when possible and to get the hell out of their way the rest of the time.
There are innumerable concepts and strategies for good schools and good learning opportunities. Those ALL absolutely require autonomy for teachers as well as for students. Free schools and other alternative format have existed for generations. But there are no right formulae for all to emulate and apply. Some children will reject academics altogether, at least during childhood. It is foolhardy to force anything on them and then try to test and evaluate and sort and rate on ludicrous scales.
Before we do anything else, we MUST end the failed experiment and stop the destruction of spirit and intellectual curiosity and creativity. Compulsory attendance has zero redeeming features and no reasonable logic to support it. Until we get that into our collective brains/minds and consciousness, we will continue to have things such as corporate personhood, gridlock in government, rampant xenophobia, fear mongering, and increasing ignorance.
At the risk of oversimplifying your positions and arguments, I believe they fall into two categories, either “it’s just not how we do things” or “it’s too hard to make the changes that we need.” I could not agree more that our government does not do things the way that it should, and that it would be hard to transition to a role model democracy. I also believe that our government should meet its purpose of promoting our general welfare using best practice-based solutions, and doing less than our best is insane. I think that your knowledge and observations on education provide important input to the discussion, and any suggestions that you might have to make our government meet its purpose would be appreciated. There are no good reasons for why we cannot build and sustain a role model democracy with a role model education system. However, there are plenty of bad reasons.
We may be too far apart in our perspectives to be of help to each other. I am not good with jargon and am not clear on what you are saying. I believe you are challenging my assertions that mass education is not a possibility and that no adequate system, public or private, can be created to deliver education on a platter to our youthful citizens to prepare them for adulthood, citizenship, and all that those things entail.
I regret that my earlier posts were on the audio side and that folks responding here to the print version probably have not seen them. I was unfamiliar with how things were set up, but I did pontificate at great length on several occasions with clarifying (ostensibly) commentary.
I have not ever said that education is not attainable or that we cannot assure plenty of opportunity. My position is that 1.) schools were never meant to provide education; 2.) groups do not learn or become educated; 3.) the separation of school and state is no less crucial than the separation of church and state; 4.) there are ample models, alternatives, approaches, and theories of pedagogy already available which cannot be made compatible with the authoritarian bureaucracy necessitated by attendance law, and I repeat again, 5.) coercion and education are antithetical.
Government has an extremely important role in providing support to both schools, which cannot operate with education as their primary function, and to individual education, which is a private, personal, and often ‘subversive’ activity. The federal government should provide oversight to guard against discrimination, abuse, exploitation, or fraud. However, government has no business requiring schooling or education, and it certainly has no damn business in designing curriculum or administering behavioral expectations and standards.
There is a reason I claim to be an educational heretic. If you have not by now decided that I am a lunatic from the fringe or some edge of left field, I have two manuscripts that I will send to anyone who requests them. I have yet to find a publisher, and it is looking as if they will be published posthumously, if ever. Indeed, I received another rejection in my mailbox just now after I received your message.
I don't have your extensive knowledge of education so knowing the best ways to actually foster learning and critical thinking skills for our citizens, and whatever else is important, is something I would go to you to describe, as in, what is the purpose of education? I only wanted to note that if our government was to meet its purpose, we need to have the educational solutions that are a role model for other countries. How to do it is another subject I would defer to you to define, and if you could explain it to a 5th Grader, then you might have something.
Rather than me explaining my thinking to a fifth grader, a better way to approach this might be to ask a fifth grader for her thoughts or his perceptions. I am not being facetious, and I am not someone who overly romanticizes childhood. But it seems a bit absurd to imagine that adults can design, organize, and impose an educational regime without an intimate knowledge of and awareness about the feelings and opinions of the students. You know, democracy and all that.
Once again, there is no shortage of amazing ideas, methods, and scientifically valid approaches. The sad truth is that the best laid plans of mice and men are blocked. Researchers and theorists make their recommendations; grand experiments or models are launched with great fanfare and excitement; the studies are carried out and documented and everyone agrees that the ideas should be applied elsewhere, and that success has been achieved, and then everything sort of fades from view while more study and more funding is called for. The Black Hole has swallowed another fabulous program.
This happens ad infinitum because there is a demand for more specific data points and irrefutable evidence of the benefits (which take time and are too subjective to be measured) and the programs always involve exceptions to the regimentation, rigidity, authoritarian control over individuals, and less of the wasteful nonsensical evaluation and testing. Meaningful innovation and amelioration demand that power be relinquished and control be given up to allow a greater degree of liberty and independence, which simply cannot happen within the strictures of compulsory attendance law. The brick wall does not give. Change is put off for another time and place.
If one could ask a fifth grader who has not been too thoroughly indoctrinated and who is made comfortable with honest opinions and feelings about school, one might get an earful. I would venture to say that most would not have difficulty understanding that children who are forced to participate are likely to resist or rebel. I suspect that one might hear about arbitrariness, boredom, frustration, hypocrisy, massive amounts of time wasted, drudgery and unstimulating assignments, excessive work in and out of school, and endless testing.
Education has been totally conflated with school, which is a huge problem. People who know nothing about education are defining what education is for others and setting up parameters. If education is the good that we value and if we recognize that education is essential for democracy, then we must finally realize that laws and government are too clumsy and demanding to be the means by which we get to where we want to go. If coercion is any part of the process and if formulae are being followed by the providers, we will always find ourselves with more indoctrination and less education.
I agree with your underscoring the importance of "trickle-up authoritarianism" in paving the way for evil. We had experienced, thoughtful, courageous, and experienced human beings leading us from WWII until Reagan. With FDR, we became a country that recognized and addressed many of our problems, of which the accomplishments still improve our daily lives and our democracy. Truman understood the importance of rebuilding Europe and developing alliances for self-protection, mutual benefit & containment of undemocratic adversaries. At the end of his term, Eisenhower expressed his concern with the MIC and the societal costs of war. He connected the country with an Intercontinental Highway System, which had lasting positive effects on our economy and lives. JFK inspired the Nation's better angels and addressed school segregation and a better economy, and Johnson addressed racism, voting rights, and poverty with significant legislation that enriched our democracy.
Reagan established a different tone and set of priorities while using very divisive strategies. Building upon existing schisms that had long simmered, Reagan claimed the Federal government prevented America from achieving its potential. On behalf of the wealthiest Americans and their concentrated ownership of America's corporate wealth, Reagan claimed we would all be better off with lower taxes, zero countervailing political power, and less regulation. That government shouldn't be concerned with "welfare queens," "takers," or unions but with the "makers" of society. One can quickly determine without Reagan, there would have never been the "trickle-up authoritarianism" that paved the way for a Bush or a Trump.
Mr. Golden, You have an amazing grasp of the history which covers most of my life. I envy those like you and Thom who can cite facts and names with such details about positions and policies.
You probably haven’t seen any of my previous posts from the last month or so. Most were over on the audio recorded side. Had you read those posts, you would have known that in referring to trickle-up authoritarianism, I was specifically talking about the insidious authoritarian influence in schools. I am one of about four people in the US who passionately believes that authority in schools is misplaced, illegitimate, and incredibly dangerous.
I cannot spell out again here the whole case. Should you take issue with that position or wish to know more, I will do my best to fill you in at a later date. In a nutshell, compulsory attendance laws necessitate an authoritarian bureaucracy which is inimical to education and to students. Education and coercion are antithetical. You have spoken about all of our leaders for the better part of a century, none of whom had strong authoritarian tendencies until Trump. That is still the trickle-down aspect, I believe.
You are right about Reagan paving the way for major problems and the rise of the right wing, although I think he and the Bushes were more about opportunism and oligarchy than authoritarianism. I am suggesting that a Trump is only possible if there are enough people who are miseducated and conditioned and behavior-modified to have a need for an authoritarian in power for power’s sake. School authorities should have knowledge and empathy, not power, and students should have autonomy, agency, and the ability to take the initiative, or to walk away from a school that doesn’t meet their needs.
Hi Robert, I haven't read your previous posts on education and may have been responding more to what you referenced and included in your recent post:
"Hannah Arendt wrote the book entitled "The Banality of Evil," She describes the creeping and hidden nature of inchoate, innocent appearing, and incubating evil."
I understood Arendt saying that authoritarianism required a cumulative foundation and referred to Reagan as laying new cement on top of existing material to make it easier for G.W Bush and Trump to further the stringent process.
There is a concept in the Social Sciences and Philosophy referred to as Distributive Justice. When people believe they are getting the benefits they deserve, things run smoothly. However, when they think otherwise, tensions arise. Dictators arise when exploiting these tensions and imbalances becomes easy, pitting and blaming one group against another. Once they are in power, they consolidate their power through similar processes.
I agree, in part, with your assessment of our educational system. However, I don't see it as the primary determinant of authoritarianism. The reason is that the same educational system can spawn critical thinking and democratic, open-society types and blind followers. All elements of culture, including nationalism, religion, history, identity, family, economy, educational system & access, expectations, affect political predispositions.
I think the most problematic issues of our educational system have to do with teaching to the test and the job rather than to the person, and their role in society, critical thinking, and the value & responsibility of life-long learning & self-education. These problematic issues, if unaddressed, can facilitate authoritarian rule and make it more likely. It's a complex subject, and I appreciate your input and insights and reading my scribblings. By the way, my name is Robert too:)
Great name! I have actually always been known to family and friends by my middle name, Barry. However, in signing up in this kind of format, a formal first name is typically expected.
I think that you have interpreted what Arendt quite accurately with regard to how someone such as Reagan modifies or layers over ideas and conceptualizations from the past and thus paves the way from others who are more stringent, extreme, undemocratic, or lacking in compassion or conscience. That is a political analysis or perspective and bears close scrutiny, for certain.
You have described the process whereby people become disillusioned and bitter, and authoritarians exploit their disaffection and alienation very well also. Trump was ready to move in and sell his snake oil when the time was right or ripe. Distributive justice is no doubt at play here, I agree. As to whether “our educational system is the primary determinant of authoritarianism”, we will need about 45 hours of nuanced debate to resolve that question.
As I have stated somewhere recently, we do not have an “educational system”. Education does not occur within or as a product of a system. We have controlled chaos and we have a lot of schooling which is inimical to the educational process for a majority of children. I hate to be the skunk at the party, but I am committed to telling it like it is.
I see the issue of giving “educators” a pass and minimizing their failures as highlighting the precise dynamic that is central to our political debacle. Authority is an indispensable feature of a hierarchical “system” created and maintained to fulfill the requirements of attendance law. Authoritarianism springs forth from that institutionalization because it is part and parcel of the architecture.
Explicit, as well as implicit with all codified laws are the threats of enforcement and the intimidation that accompanies the possibility (or high probability) of negative consequences. More importantly, the idea of legitimacy is inherent in the existence of the law. The authority of school officials, administrators, teachers, and others is contrived and manufactured and assigned with little or no identifiable or verifiable legitimacy. In many instances, it is premised on little more than the raw power, size, and designated authority given to adults based solely on their adult status.
The unintentional, and very often the intentional perspective on authority in the school is that it is benevolent and deserved. Whether a teacher seizes upon it to rule and dominate, or whether she or he is measured, tolerant, and egalitarian, everyone is well aware that authority is not far below the surface and that teachers will face consequences if it is not asserted adequately. This is how the “I alone can fix it” mentality of Trump became the firm conviction of millions. This is just one of the ways authoritarianism, as an essential good, steals into the worldview of so many impressionable young people.
Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic will spare no one the unpleasant reality that the ship is going down because we have hit the iceberg full steam ahead. Methodology is just another word for nothing left to lose. We will either come to the realization that bad laws yield miseducation and banality or we will all see our beloved democracy go the way of the horse and buggy.
I sort of assumed that Thom knew that. I guess I assumed too much.
Trump, as the POTUS", and with AirForceOne as his backdrop, worked for four years cultivating the lies: Climate Change is a "hoax"; the Pandemic is a "hoax"; Look at the stock market as if it were the economy; It's going to be a "middle-Class" tax cut that won't help rich; You don't have a country if you don't have a southern border wall (voiced to a Nation that had been an Empire since the end of WWII); Other forces are taking your jobs and keeping you down; the world explained in terms of scapegoats.
Besides the consolidated, corporate-owned MSM, and global corporations who benefitted from the unsustainable & irresponsible, R tax cuts that promised to 1) Only benefit the "Middle-Class"(Americans who did everything right, saved their money, and expected to live off the interest of their savings until Obama ordered low-interest rates and extinguished their hopes and dreams), 2) Produce 6% annual growth, and 3) Eliminate the "worrisome" Fed Debt and Deficits in 8 years. As the economy slowed before the Pandemic in 2019, Trump saw his lies crumble and re-election less assured. From further violating the Constitution to starting a war with Iran, Trump looked at all his options until contesting the election and being an integral part of the planning, organizing, and inciting an Insurrection were all that remained from holding on to his authoritarian power. He also played an indispensable role in his attempted coup by allowing the Insurrection to continue for hours after the death, injuries, and property damage.
Now the same relatively few billionaires who helped to put Trump in office want to continue to build upon the authoritarian foundation of their dreams: A government only responsive to them:
Of note, none of these sponsors have ever expressed an interest in improving or securing America's most popular policies, benefitting "blue-collar" workers, or strengthening our democratic institutions. Their Republican Party is also steadfastly against raising the Fed minimum wage.
In the past, Nazi comparisons infuriated me, and I thought it disrespectful. My policy was, if you are going to talk Holocaust, talk about the real deal. Thom just did. Today's circumstances track as a kind of genocide: people dead due to prejudice, gun violence, and now covid. The numbers just keep growing.
I was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany in the mid-eighties, before the wall came down and the Cold War was in full swing. A bit of hot war too with terrorism and bombings. A fellow MP went to Dachau, and later she went on and on about how she "felt the presence" of the victims. I traveled there; that wasn't my experience. What hit me full in the face was how close the concentration camp was to Munich---18 miles (currently). That's exactly like the full awareness we have today.
Absolutely hold the perpetrators accountable. The world tried them then, and created the ICJ in The Hague because it never stops.
If you do not have time to read the book Thom mentioned, there is an excellent documentary called "FINAL ACCOUNT"; it's interviews with aged Germans. They fully explain how they were "groomed" by Hitler. I hope someone from the Hartmann Report watches it and posts it. You can get it on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
So much is labored in pursuit of our Potemkin villages. Maintaining vacant "forms" is paramount in lulling a society desperate for familiarity into identifying with something as solid as smoke.
It only takes a slight shift in the wind to clear the air and reveal an absence of actual conviction. And in this absence there emerge the prevalence of something far more substantial in its unforgiving consequence - truth.
They are willing to risk the lives of unvaccinated children in my County by fighting a Mask Mandate (for children) by the health Department. We are sliding back into mask mandates for all in Colorado as 2 counties recently re-mandated masks in all indoor locations.
The Covid facts that are not mentioned enough is Trumps scuttling all the labs and agencies here and overseas that Obama, and even Bush, set up to detect possible pandemic signs and act to prevent the next one. My brother, who was building schools, hospitals, health clinics, water systems, etc. in Vietnam, had a friend who was doing the actual building of many of these research/lookout installations in south east Asia. They were not a fantasy whose importance is now being ignored along with the Trump abolished white house pandemic prevention office. This alone should earn Trump a lifetime in Siberia breaking rock......
I am going to begin this comment by saying something that will sound like it is about myself, but in truth is about my relationship with the world and with people. At the age of 22, I was a naïve young man from Nebraska who was very confused about God and religion. I had never tried pot, let alone psychedelics, and had only heard the word Zen once. I had no idea what it was. Then after a long walk in the John Muir Redwood National Monument, I had hiked into the surrounding hills with my wife. Suddenly, an overwhelming need arose: If there is a God, I need to know. Without warning, everything disappeared from around me, and I was in an abyss that was everything and nothing at the same time. I knew it was what we came from and that to which we return. All else about the experience was beyond mind or language, and so completely unrelatable to others. As I came back, which was slow but brought with it a sense of time, I discovered I was on the ground, laughing as tears spouted from my eyes. I was never the same.
I am now, and have been for some time, a spiritual counselor with healing abilities. I do not advertise, but accept those who find me, and I accept them without prejudice, which means I have a number of Republican clients. Inevitably, they will try to convert me, or make fun of my naturally liberal inclination. I always reply with the truth - I cannot do otherwise. It disturbs all of them. Some retaliate with rage, and I hold up my hand to say stop and warn them that it's best not continue or it will hurt even more. Amazingly, these people eventually look to me as their teacher, at least spiritually, and yet persist in their Republican conditioning. And yet, I consider that they not only tolerate me, but actively seek regular sessions and are upset if I fall ill or go on vacation, so I do feel that something is taking place in them that is good. Others become frightened because of the damage to their belief system and I do not pursue, yet they too continue to solicit my company with friendly offerings and little mention of their beliefs. So here, too, it seems that something is going on inside that may yet take root and grow.
In short, I find that the best thing I can do to turn aside the threat that lies before us is to simply be myself and teach by example, and to do it not by reaching out, but working only with those who brush up against me.
I hope everyone can forgive me for repeating myself in this comment. I was trying to set the stage by relating an event in my life when I had written that event, one I hardly ever mention normally, less than a month ago. Chalk it up to a senior moment. Upon reflecting on the comment itself, I realized I could have simply started with the second paragraph. Duh.
The "they" whom we should hold most accountable, at this moment of greatest "Peril" (another Bob Woodward must-read), comes down, really, to just one little man: DONALD JOHN TRUMP. He is certainly not the only despicable bastard -- God, there are so many! -- who deserves the modern-day equivalent of the medieval pillory and public-square-humiliation "remedy" (within the law), but he is certainly the de facto figurehead and primary inspiration for the true enemies of America -- fanatical domestic fascists -- and it would be a significant and necessary blow not only to their perverse personal psychology but also to their perverse political ideology to hold him personally accountable.
The "moral arc of the universe bends toward justice" ...mostly by giving it a mighty shove now and then. Taking down the whitest and most sacred symbol of authoritarianism -- the man himself -- will go a long way in educating future generations of small-d democrats on the correct response to an insurrection. Think of the iconic Nazi emblem blown to pieces on the roof of the Reichstag. Don't worry about the usual refrain about making Trump, the sad-mad-crazy clown that he is, a martyr for their "lost cause" and the champion of their pathetic resistance; let them wallow in their defeat.
Our laws absolutely MUST spell out a bright red line that cannot EVER be crossed no matter the circumstance or perpetrator! Let democracy's detractors fume and spit all they want; let them show their true colors for all to witness. The ugly truth of the Republican Party must be fully recognized and confronted head-on -- no more wishful thinking and happy talk about some bygone world of bipartisanship that no longer exists.
We're in the middle of a new civil war started by one-party, evangelical, white-nationalist, REPUBLICAN insurgents -- i.e., "the base" (al-Qaeda in Arabic). It is way past the time for every single citizen in this dying democracy who cares about their children to wake up, face the truth, and act responsibly.
And it is also way past the time for our justice system to step up to the plate and act responsibly -- NOW! -- before the timing of the next election season once again makes going after a front-runner legally and politically unviable. Rinse-and-repeat, kicking-the-can never solves a damn thing. How many times must DC politicos prove that axiom to the American people, Charlie Brown?
The phenomenon described so well in this piece is what has become known as “The banality of Evil”, which most of the readers and viewers here will recognize as the book by Hanna Arendt who also examined how the German people were lulled, lured, and progressively guided into accepting the unacceptable.
In a spectacular speech on “Our Greatest Antidote to Evil” Joseph Brodsky said in 1987,
“What we regard as Evil is capable of a fairly ubiquitous presence if only because it tends to appear in the guise of good.”
That quote, along with a lengthy discussion are included in my book. I will copy a short section here:
Hannah Arendt wrote the book entitled, “The Banality of Evil” in which she describes the creeping and unobtrusive nature of inchoate, innocent appearing, and incubating evil. This was brought home by Dr. Edna Friedberg, a speaker on a recent C-SPAN panel on combatting the increasing rate of hate crimes in the US. (Edna S. Friedberg is a historian at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. I failed to record the date of the C-SPAN panel).
Dr. Friedberg stated that studies of the Germany prior to the Holocaust reveal that racial hatred was NOT the most prominent reason for the conditions which ultimately allowed the Nazi party to undermine social values and norms and to virtually obliterate all conscience and tolerance for cultural differences. Long before there were crimes against the people who were considered the out group, there were more subtle ‘crimes against nature’ within the social order. There was an unmistakable erosion of spirit and of connections to others in the larger group, for example, which inexorably weakened the moral fiber of the populace. Obsequiousness and blind obedience had been drilled into the students, workers, and military personnel for decades prior to the ultimate rise of fascism. (End of excerpt).
While I am not one to quibble over semantics and do not disagree with the premise of this rant, I would highly recommend, as I have previously, that ‘trickle-up authoritarianism’ is no less a part of this equation than trickle-down authoritarianism. The most efficient and effective way to predispose and precondition a society and a nation for either good or evil is to assemble youth into scheduled, organized, and ordained groups for “socialization”, “training”, “education”, “preparation”, or indoctrination.
I have been over-zealous in this if the response is any indication. Therefore, I will take time to give some essential background. The truth is that this is all very personal for me for a variety of reasons. The most significant reason is outlined in my chapter on school phobia in the second book, and in the dedication of both of my books. (The following is an excerpt from page 97).
There is a hint of cruelty in the rush to push children who are clearly not emotionally prepared for immersion into this foreign environment. It is only because of attendance law that parents are forced to ignore or minimize the anxiety and dread these children face. The same dynamic is operating with students who have found the courage to go to school but who also have the bravery to signal that they want no part of the place.
For this author, this is a personal issue. I am ashamed to admit that I physically carried my son to the car in his underwear and drove him to the school parking lot where I made him get dressed and took him into the school. I was a single parent with a full-time job and classes and felt that I had no better choice. He had not been diagnosed as phobic, but after losing his mother at age four, he avoided school anytime he could and had refused to go or had skipped. Bradley was about nine at the time. I cannot apologize to him now. He died in a tragic accident on September 23, 1981, at the age of 13 after skipping school that day (exactly forty years ago tomorrow). This book is dedicated to his memory. (End of excerpt).
Fifty years ago, everyone told us, “Be positive. Don’t discourage the people working for change.” They said, “Forget about changing the laws and work within the system”. They warned, “Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater”.
Yet the “system” is not in the least systematic and never has been. It is at best controlled chaos. Change did not come unless it was for the worse. The baby, referring to compulsory attendance laws, was stillborn. It was never a viable entity. And, not to be vulgar, but that was not bathwater.
Now. optimists in the field of “education”, otherwise known as Polly Annas, have adapted Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” theory to their domain. It is tempting to apply it in politics, as well.
I confess that, while I have seen Gladwell speak many times and greatly admire him, and while I do not doubt that his theory has a high degree of relevance in various technological, economic, or even social realms, it definitely does not apply in education, and probably does not apply to politics, either. Critical mass cannot be reached when fully half of the citizenry still labors under the illusion that “original sin” or some variation on that cynical theme is somehow valid and that schoolwork is just bad tasting medicine that will effect a cure (of what? Native intelligence?).
Some of the most prominent critics of schooling and alternative education/school boosters have for a very long time blithely assumed that progressive and liberal ideas for school reform will become irresistible in their success and appeal because they are superior in every imaginable way. Great ideas and successful experimental programs inevitably inspire and are bound to spread like wildfire, ostensibly. Their “movement” has grown in certain places, and they have exciting networks, TED Talks, conferences, homeschooling, Unschooling, and De-schooling groups in the US and around the globe. Yet, the mirage is not turning into the oasis that they have so enthusiastically awaited. The clock ticks. Children sit in the same desks, languishing by the millions.
One will have to read my books to learn why the ground has not shifted, the waters have not parted, and the miracles are on hold for another century. The cliff notes version is, as I have so often stated, that attendance laws are an impermeable barrier to change. Deeply held beliefs and conceptions, much more unconscious than conscious are not amenable to change via word of mouth and popular opinion metrics. (The following items are also excerpted from my book).
Banality IS the Evil (Chapter heading)
The essence of totalitarian government, and perhaps the nature of every bureaucracy, is to make functionaries and mere cogs in the administrative machinery out of men, and thus to dehumanize them.
Hannah Arendt
…But the Prussian military style academies for children from the earlier German history are famous for their egregious abuses and an iron fist in disciplining and programming students from a very tender age.
Education is good, by definition, but it is ineffable. It is antithetical to force and duress. School has the potential to be a good as well, but it automatically devolves into banality and mediocrity when forced upon unwilling or unenthusiastic participants. (End of excerpts).
This is a hard pill to swallow for people who have believed so fervently in education. What must be understood, and soon, is that school not only is NOT education; it is often anti-intellectual and the exact opposite of education. The consequence is 70 million people following a fascist, authoritarian demagogue wherever he leads and believing they are doing god’s work.
We watch as Thom has shared these examples of tipping points to a neofascist state, and they share much in common with crossing the most devastating tipping points, the ones that are leading to a 6th Mass Extinction. The so-obvious-that-no-one-thinks-about-it answer is that we need a critical mass of citizens who have learned to be good at learning and have a passion for it. Therefore, as Robert B. Elliott (as well as Robert Golden) discussed, i suggest that the solution is an education system that teaches folks to nurture their ability and passion for learning throughout their lives, and use what we’ve learned to help others learn to be good learners. Being good at learning and liking it are essential characteristics of people who choose critical thinking in their decision-making, at the very least it makes them less likely to do and say stupid things. Being able to lead the education processes of learning and teaching requires the most important and rare (and therefore valuable) skillset of any vocation. Having effective educators who can guide folks to become good at learning, and building a role model education system will only be doable when the psychopaths of corporate personhood lose their ability to wield that power, because citizens who have learned the be good at learning are exactly what an oligarch does not want. Oligarchs love the folks who learned to be bad at learning and need their tribe/cult, thus making them easy marks for the hypocrites of hate who offer the best ever propaganda.
So here is my simple solution to stop just watching and end the tipping points:
First, end corporate personhood.
Second, reconstitute our citizens’ rights and freedoms.
Third, collaborate with our government’s decision-makers so they can finally satisfy their purpose. And the most important thing our government can do with its citizens is to design, build and maintain a role model education system available to everyone. Education is to democracy what location is to real estate, and right now American education is living downwind of too many negative externalities.
Old Dave,
Your objectives are admirable, and your analysis of our current dilemma appears to be accurate. You articulate your ideas as a well-rounded and well-educated person. Unfortunately, I believe that you are recommending the re-invention of the educational wheel, without a practical way of implementing your goals. I don’t mean to be critical or argumentative, and I am not “old” (I am only 80) but the ideas and philosophy for teaching “critical thinking skills” are legion and legendary, and our success rate is dismal, to say the least.
If I’m reading you correctly, what you would hope to have is the “rare” top tier people as “effective educators” in teaching and a “role model education system” designed and built by citizens in collaboration with government to teach children “how to learn” and love learning and have a passion for learning.
There are several problems with this. First is that critical thinking skills are not taught. Secondly, children are designed to learn and have a love of learning and a passion for learning until our manipulation, interference, and neurotic controlling habits beat it out of them (metaphorically speaking, except for some brutes and sadists who actually utilize corporal punishment). Third, an “education system” “…available to everyone” is a Utopian fantasy that has never existed and never will exist.
Your prescriptions involving ending corporate personhood, reconstituting rights and freedoms, and collaborating with decision-makers so they can accomplish their purposes are splendid, albeit a bit idealistic at this stage. However, getting us to that point will take more than a superfragilistic expiladocious educational apparatus controlled by the state and gifted to students whether they want it or not.
Schools can serve some extremely valuable services and there are instances where learning occurs, critical thinking skills are modeled, developed, or encouraged, and extraordinary educators convey their knowledge in a way that contributes to education. You appear to be someone who got something from the experience, although I would credit a few teachers, your family, and yourself more, while giving the schools none of the credit. The best teachers are forced to circumvent the rules.
But children MUST be respected as creators of knowledge and as capable, intelligent, intuitive, perceptive, and motivated learners. The idea is to facilitate when possible and to get the hell out of their way the rest of the time.
There are innumerable concepts and strategies for good schools and good learning opportunities. Those ALL absolutely require autonomy for teachers as well as for students. Free schools and other alternative format have existed for generations. But there are no right formulae for all to emulate and apply. Some children will reject academics altogether, at least during childhood. It is foolhardy to force anything on them and then try to test and evaluate and sort and rate on ludicrous scales.
Before we do anything else, we MUST end the failed experiment and stop the destruction of spirit and intellectual curiosity and creativity. Compulsory attendance has zero redeeming features and no reasonable logic to support it. Until we get that into our collective brains/minds and consciousness, we will continue to have things such as corporate personhood, gridlock in government, rampant xenophobia, fear mongering, and increasing ignorance.
At the risk of oversimplifying your positions and arguments, I believe they fall into two categories, either “it’s just not how we do things” or “it’s too hard to make the changes that we need.” I could not agree more that our government does not do things the way that it should, and that it would be hard to transition to a role model democracy. I also believe that our government should meet its purpose of promoting our general welfare using best practice-based solutions, and doing less than our best is insane. I think that your knowledge and observations on education provide important input to the discussion, and any suggestions that you might have to make our government meet its purpose would be appreciated. There are no good reasons for why we cannot build and sustain a role model democracy with a role model education system. However, there are plenty of bad reasons.
Old Dave,
We may be too far apart in our perspectives to be of help to each other. I am not good with jargon and am not clear on what you are saying. I believe you are challenging my assertions that mass education is not a possibility and that no adequate system, public or private, can be created to deliver education on a platter to our youthful citizens to prepare them for adulthood, citizenship, and all that those things entail.
I regret that my earlier posts were on the audio side and that folks responding here to the print version probably have not seen them. I was unfamiliar with how things were set up, but I did pontificate at great length on several occasions with clarifying (ostensibly) commentary.
I have not ever said that education is not attainable or that we cannot assure plenty of opportunity. My position is that 1.) schools were never meant to provide education; 2.) groups do not learn or become educated; 3.) the separation of school and state is no less crucial than the separation of church and state; 4.) there are ample models, alternatives, approaches, and theories of pedagogy already available which cannot be made compatible with the authoritarian bureaucracy necessitated by attendance law, and I repeat again, 5.) coercion and education are antithetical.
Government has an extremely important role in providing support to both schools, which cannot operate with education as their primary function, and to individual education, which is a private, personal, and often ‘subversive’ activity. The federal government should provide oversight to guard against discrimination, abuse, exploitation, or fraud. However, government has no business requiring schooling or education, and it certainly has no damn business in designing curriculum or administering behavioral expectations and standards.
There is a reason I claim to be an educational heretic. If you have not by now decided that I am a lunatic from the fringe or some edge of left field, I have two manuscripts that I will send to anyone who requests them. I have yet to find a publisher, and it is looking as if they will be published posthumously, if ever. Indeed, I received another rejection in my mailbox just now after I received your message.
I don't have your extensive knowledge of education so knowing the best ways to actually foster learning and critical thinking skills for our citizens, and whatever else is important, is something I would go to you to describe, as in, what is the purpose of education? I only wanted to note that if our government was to meet its purpose, we need to have the educational solutions that are a role model for other countries. How to do it is another subject I would defer to you to define, and if you could explain it to a 5th Grader, then you might have something.
Dave,
Rather than me explaining my thinking to a fifth grader, a better way to approach this might be to ask a fifth grader for her thoughts or his perceptions. I am not being facetious, and I am not someone who overly romanticizes childhood. But it seems a bit absurd to imagine that adults can design, organize, and impose an educational regime without an intimate knowledge of and awareness about the feelings and opinions of the students. You know, democracy and all that.
Once again, there is no shortage of amazing ideas, methods, and scientifically valid approaches. The sad truth is that the best laid plans of mice and men are blocked. Researchers and theorists make their recommendations; grand experiments or models are launched with great fanfare and excitement; the studies are carried out and documented and everyone agrees that the ideas should be applied elsewhere, and that success has been achieved, and then everything sort of fades from view while more study and more funding is called for. The Black Hole has swallowed another fabulous program.
This happens ad infinitum because there is a demand for more specific data points and irrefutable evidence of the benefits (which take time and are too subjective to be measured) and the programs always involve exceptions to the regimentation, rigidity, authoritarian control over individuals, and less of the wasteful nonsensical evaluation and testing. Meaningful innovation and amelioration demand that power be relinquished and control be given up to allow a greater degree of liberty and independence, which simply cannot happen within the strictures of compulsory attendance law. The brick wall does not give. Change is put off for another time and place.
If one could ask a fifth grader who has not been too thoroughly indoctrinated and who is made comfortable with honest opinions and feelings about school, one might get an earful. I would venture to say that most would not have difficulty understanding that children who are forced to participate are likely to resist or rebel. I suspect that one might hear about arbitrariness, boredom, frustration, hypocrisy, massive amounts of time wasted, drudgery and unstimulating assignments, excessive work in and out of school, and endless testing.
Education has been totally conflated with school, which is a huge problem. People who know nothing about education are defining what education is for others and setting up parameters. If education is the good that we value and if we recognize that education is essential for democracy, then we must finally realize that laws and government are too clumsy and demanding to be the means by which we get to where we want to go. If coercion is any part of the process and if formulae are being followed by the providers, we will always find ourselves with more indoctrination and less education.
I agree with your underscoring the importance of "trickle-up authoritarianism" in paving the way for evil. We had experienced, thoughtful, courageous, and experienced human beings leading us from WWII until Reagan. With FDR, we became a country that recognized and addressed many of our problems, of which the accomplishments still improve our daily lives and our democracy. Truman understood the importance of rebuilding Europe and developing alliances for self-protection, mutual benefit & containment of undemocratic adversaries. At the end of his term, Eisenhower expressed his concern with the MIC and the societal costs of war. He connected the country with an Intercontinental Highway System, which had lasting positive effects on our economy and lives. JFK inspired the Nation's better angels and addressed school segregation and a better economy, and Johnson addressed racism, voting rights, and poverty with significant legislation that enriched our democracy.
Reagan established a different tone and set of priorities while using very divisive strategies. Building upon existing schisms that had long simmered, Reagan claimed the Federal government prevented America from achieving its potential. On behalf of the wealthiest Americans and their concentrated ownership of America's corporate wealth, Reagan claimed we would all be better off with lower taxes, zero countervailing political power, and less regulation. That government shouldn't be concerned with "welfare queens," "takers," or unions but with the "makers" of society. One can quickly determine without Reagan, there would have never been the "trickle-up authoritarianism" that paved the way for a Bush or a Trump.
Mr. Golden, You have an amazing grasp of the history which covers most of my life. I envy those like you and Thom who can cite facts and names with such details about positions and policies.
You probably haven’t seen any of my previous posts from the last month or so. Most were over on the audio recorded side. Had you read those posts, you would have known that in referring to trickle-up authoritarianism, I was specifically talking about the insidious authoritarian influence in schools. I am one of about four people in the US who passionately believes that authority in schools is misplaced, illegitimate, and incredibly dangerous.
I cannot spell out again here the whole case. Should you take issue with that position or wish to know more, I will do my best to fill you in at a later date. In a nutshell, compulsory attendance laws necessitate an authoritarian bureaucracy which is inimical to education and to students. Education and coercion are antithetical. You have spoken about all of our leaders for the better part of a century, none of whom had strong authoritarian tendencies until Trump. That is still the trickle-down aspect, I believe.
You are right about Reagan paving the way for major problems and the rise of the right wing, although I think he and the Bushes were more about opportunism and oligarchy than authoritarianism. I am suggesting that a Trump is only possible if there are enough people who are miseducated and conditioned and behavior-modified to have a need for an authoritarian in power for power’s sake. School authorities should have knowledge and empathy, not power, and students should have autonomy, agency, and the ability to take the initiative, or to walk away from a school that doesn’t meet their needs.
Hi Robert, I haven't read your previous posts on education and may have been responding more to what you referenced and included in your recent post:
"Hannah Arendt wrote the book entitled "The Banality of Evil," She describes the creeping and hidden nature of inchoate, innocent appearing, and incubating evil."
I understood Arendt saying that authoritarianism required a cumulative foundation and referred to Reagan as laying new cement on top of existing material to make it easier for G.W Bush and Trump to further the stringent process.
There is a concept in the Social Sciences and Philosophy referred to as Distributive Justice. When people believe they are getting the benefits they deserve, things run smoothly. However, when they think otherwise, tensions arise. Dictators arise when exploiting these tensions and imbalances becomes easy, pitting and blaming one group against another. Once they are in power, they consolidate their power through similar processes.
I agree, in part, with your assessment of our educational system. However, I don't see it as the primary determinant of authoritarianism. The reason is that the same educational system can spawn critical thinking and democratic, open-society types and blind followers. All elements of culture, including nationalism, religion, history, identity, family, economy, educational system & access, expectations, affect political predispositions.
I think the most problematic issues of our educational system have to do with teaching to the test and the job rather than to the person, and their role in society, critical thinking, and the value & responsibility of life-long learning & self-education. These problematic issues, if unaddressed, can facilitate authoritarian rule and make it more likely. It's a complex subject, and I appreciate your input and insights and reading my scribblings. By the way, my name is Robert too:)
Robert,
Great name! I have actually always been known to family and friends by my middle name, Barry. However, in signing up in this kind of format, a formal first name is typically expected.
I think that you have interpreted what Arendt quite accurately with regard to how someone such as Reagan modifies or layers over ideas and conceptualizations from the past and thus paves the way from others who are more stringent, extreme, undemocratic, or lacking in compassion or conscience. That is a political analysis or perspective and bears close scrutiny, for certain.
You have described the process whereby people become disillusioned and bitter, and authoritarians exploit their disaffection and alienation very well also. Trump was ready to move in and sell his snake oil when the time was right or ripe. Distributive justice is no doubt at play here, I agree. As to whether “our educational system is the primary determinant of authoritarianism”, we will need about 45 hours of nuanced debate to resolve that question.
As I have stated somewhere recently, we do not have an “educational system”. Education does not occur within or as a product of a system. We have controlled chaos and we have a lot of schooling which is inimical to the educational process for a majority of children. I hate to be the skunk at the party, but I am committed to telling it like it is.
I see the issue of giving “educators” a pass and minimizing their failures as highlighting the precise dynamic that is central to our political debacle. Authority is an indispensable feature of a hierarchical “system” created and maintained to fulfill the requirements of attendance law. Authoritarianism springs forth from that institutionalization because it is part and parcel of the architecture.
Explicit, as well as implicit with all codified laws are the threats of enforcement and the intimidation that accompanies the possibility (or high probability) of negative consequences. More importantly, the idea of legitimacy is inherent in the existence of the law. The authority of school officials, administrators, teachers, and others is contrived and manufactured and assigned with little or no identifiable or verifiable legitimacy. In many instances, it is premised on little more than the raw power, size, and designated authority given to adults based solely on their adult status.
The unintentional, and very often the intentional perspective on authority in the school is that it is benevolent and deserved. Whether a teacher seizes upon it to rule and dominate, or whether she or he is measured, tolerant, and egalitarian, everyone is well aware that authority is not far below the surface and that teachers will face consequences if it is not asserted adequately. This is how the “I alone can fix it” mentality of Trump became the firm conviction of millions. This is just one of the ways authoritarianism, as an essential good, steals into the worldview of so many impressionable young people.
Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic will spare no one the unpleasant reality that the ship is going down because we have hit the iceberg full steam ahead. Methodology is just another word for nothing left to lose. We will either come to the realization that bad laws yield miseducation and banality or we will all see our beloved democracy go the way of the horse and buggy.
I sort of assumed that Thom knew that. I guess I assumed too much.
Trump, as the POTUS", and with AirForceOne as his backdrop, worked for four years cultivating the lies: Climate Change is a "hoax"; the Pandemic is a "hoax"; Look at the stock market as if it were the economy; It's going to be a "middle-Class" tax cut that won't help rich; You don't have a country if you don't have a southern border wall (voiced to a Nation that had been an Empire since the end of WWII); Other forces are taking your jobs and keeping you down; the world explained in terms of scapegoats.
Besides the consolidated, corporate-owned MSM, and global corporations who benefitted from the unsustainable & irresponsible, R tax cuts that promised to 1) Only benefit the "Middle-Class"(Americans who did everything right, saved their money, and expected to live off the interest of their savings until Obama ordered low-interest rates and extinguished their hopes and dreams), 2) Produce 6% annual growth, and 3) Eliminate the "worrisome" Fed Debt and Deficits in 8 years. As the economy slowed before the Pandemic in 2019, Trump saw his lies crumble and re-election less assured. From further violating the Constitution to starting a war with Iran, Trump looked at all his options until contesting the election and being an integral part of the planning, organizing, and inciting an Insurrection were all that remained from holding on to his authoritarian power. He also played an indispensable role in his attempted coup by allowing the Insurrection to continue for hours after the death, injuries, and property damage.
Now the same relatively few billionaires who helped to put Trump in office want to continue to build upon the authoritarian foundation of their dreams: A government only responsive to them:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/09/the-big-money-behind-the-big-lie
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/inside-the-koch-backed-effort-to-block-the-largest-election-reform-bill-in-half-a-century
https://www.salon.com/2021/02/04/how-one-billionaire-family-bankrolled-election-lies-white-nationalism--and-the-capitol-riot/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelatindera/2020/10/16/at-least-23-billionaires-made-six-figure-donations-to-committees-supporting-donald-trump-since-july/?sh=aaa4e6fbbdd9
https://theintercept.com/2021/01/27/rebekah-mercer-book-capitol-riot/
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/11/capitol-hill-riot-pac-once-funded-by-trump-ally-mercer-promoted-rally-march.html
Of note, none of these sponsors have ever expressed an interest in improving or securing America's most popular policies, benefitting "blue-collar" workers, or strengthening our democratic institutions. Their Republican Party is also steadfastly against raising the Fed minimum wage.
In the past, Nazi comparisons infuriated me, and I thought it disrespectful. My policy was, if you are going to talk Holocaust, talk about the real deal. Thom just did. Today's circumstances track as a kind of genocide: people dead due to prejudice, gun violence, and now covid. The numbers just keep growing.
I was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany in the mid-eighties, before the wall came down and the Cold War was in full swing. A bit of hot war too with terrorism and bombings. A fellow MP went to Dachau, and later she went on and on about how she "felt the presence" of the victims. I traveled there; that wasn't my experience. What hit me full in the face was how close the concentration camp was to Munich---18 miles (currently). That's exactly like the full awareness we have today.
Absolutely hold the perpetrators accountable. The world tried them then, and created the ICJ in The Hague because it never stops.
If you do not have time to read the book Thom mentioned, there is an excellent documentary called "FINAL ACCOUNT"; it's interviews with aged Germans. They fully explain how they were "groomed" by Hitler. I hope someone from the Hartmann Report watches it and posts it. You can get it on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
So much is labored in pursuit of our Potemkin villages. Maintaining vacant "forms" is paramount in lulling a society desperate for familiarity into identifying with something as solid as smoke.
It only takes a slight shift in the wind to clear the air and reveal an absence of actual conviction. And in this absence there emerge the prevalence of something far more substantial in its unforgiving consequence - truth.
They are willing to risk the lives of unvaccinated children in my County by fighting a Mask Mandate (for children) by the health Department. We are sliding back into mask mandates for all in Colorado as 2 counties recently re-mandated masks in all indoor locations.
The Covid facts that are not mentioned enough is Trumps scuttling all the labs and agencies here and overseas that Obama, and even Bush, set up to detect possible pandemic signs and act to prevent the next one. My brother, who was building schools, hospitals, health clinics, water systems, etc. in Vietnam, had a friend who was doing the actual building of many of these research/lookout installations in south east Asia. They were not a fantasy whose importance is now being ignored along with the Trump abolished white house pandemic prevention office. This alone should earn Trump a lifetime in Siberia breaking rock......
Trump not only ignored Pandemic Preparedness, he also worsened it:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/03/pandemic-coronavirus-united-states-trump-cdc/608215/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-cdc-exclusiv/exclusive-u-s-axed-cdc-expert-job-in-china-months-before-virus-outbreak-idUSKBN21910S
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/us/politics/navarro-warning-trump-coronavirus.html
I am going to begin this comment by saying something that will sound like it is about myself, but in truth is about my relationship with the world and with people. At the age of 22, I was a naïve young man from Nebraska who was very confused about God and religion. I had never tried pot, let alone psychedelics, and had only heard the word Zen once. I had no idea what it was. Then after a long walk in the John Muir Redwood National Monument, I had hiked into the surrounding hills with my wife. Suddenly, an overwhelming need arose: If there is a God, I need to know. Without warning, everything disappeared from around me, and I was in an abyss that was everything and nothing at the same time. I knew it was what we came from and that to which we return. All else about the experience was beyond mind or language, and so completely unrelatable to others. As I came back, which was slow but brought with it a sense of time, I discovered I was on the ground, laughing as tears spouted from my eyes. I was never the same.
I am now, and have been for some time, a spiritual counselor with healing abilities. I do not advertise, but accept those who find me, and I accept them without prejudice, which means I have a number of Republican clients. Inevitably, they will try to convert me, or make fun of my naturally liberal inclination. I always reply with the truth - I cannot do otherwise. It disturbs all of them. Some retaliate with rage, and I hold up my hand to say stop and warn them that it's best not continue or it will hurt even more. Amazingly, these people eventually look to me as their teacher, at least spiritually, and yet persist in their Republican conditioning. And yet, I consider that they not only tolerate me, but actively seek regular sessions and are upset if I fall ill or go on vacation, so I do feel that something is taking place in them that is good. Others become frightened because of the damage to their belief system and I do not pursue, yet they too continue to solicit my company with friendly offerings and little mention of their beliefs. So here, too, it seems that something is going on inside that may yet take root and grow.
In short, I find that the best thing I can do to turn aside the threat that lies before us is to simply be myself and teach by example, and to do it not by reaching out, but working only with those who brush up against me.
I hope everyone can forgive me for repeating myself in this comment. I was trying to set the stage by relating an event in my life when I had written that event, one I hardly ever mention normally, less than a month ago. Chalk it up to a senior moment. Upon reflecting on the comment itself, I realized I could have simply started with the second paragraph. Duh.
Is that Obama in the picture?