"Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty." ~ Plato
I started to write an essay about how Americans' lack of intellectual curiosity and objective reasoning capability has contributed, in large measure, to the decline of our society since the end of World War II. There is substantial evidence to support this.
This being a presidential election year, many pundits are declaring this--as they often do--"the most important election of our (insert your timeframe here)".
When I was a graduate student back in the mid-2000s, I took a statistics course and did some extra credit. I needed it to keep my average up and stay at the top of my class, math not being my strong suit. The extra credit involved research in a field called "content analysis".
So, what does this have to do with the price of rice, right?, you might be asking. I'll tell you.
The proper definition is "a research method used to identify patterns in recorded communication." That's the short answer to a much more complex and detailed way of communicating something to people in a certain way to get your chosen points across.
It is so important that advertisers, governments, lobbyists, politicians, professions of every kind have specialists in the mastery of this subject so they can manipulate messages--and you--in ways you never dreamed of. Updates in technology have a lot to do with this.
A college professor, and economist that I follow is a guy named Peter St. Onge, PhD. He's great! He has a lot to say about America, and how far we have fallen due to government mismanagement of just about everything, many of these things since the turn of the 20th century, especially with the founding of the Federal Reserve in 1913.
He did something related to content analysis called "text analysis". Using all of the Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents from George Washington to the present, St. Onge broke the language levels all down by grade level, word for word.
The results will knock you back in your Gaming Recliner. Remember what we had been told for generations that in order to get ahead in American society one needs a college degree of some kind, or even higher, a professional degree. Here is what Professor St. Onge found. If you believe what the rhetoric says about college, we in America have serious deficits:
- 1789 (Washington) 25th to 26th Grade--equivalent of 2+ PhDs
- 1828 (Jackson) 22nd Grade--approximately 2 PhDs
- 1901 (McKinley) 13-14th Grade--Some college
- 2009 (Obama) to 2017 (Trump) to 2021 (Biden)--8th Grade, 9th Grade, and 7th Grade, respectively.
St. Onge correctly asks, with so many more people now getting college degrees, when the founding required no one to even go to school at all, "how did we get so dumb?" There can only be one answer:
Mandatory public schooling of a massive number of children over generations.
From 1960 to the present America graduated 40% to over 91% of its young people from public schools, kindergarten through 12th Grade. During the same time, college graduation rates went from 7.7% to just under 36%.
So what has happened? Have we, in fact, become a stupid society? Have we lost the capacity for reasoned dialog, debate, and critical thinking? Abraham Lincoln had no formal schooling at all, but managed to teach himself English, History, Oratory (Speech), Theology, and Law enough to get hired as a legal apprentice and start his own successful law practice in the 1830s. I think he was, by far, America's best, most brilliant, President. In 2022, protesters tried to tear down his statue over "colonial violence". I will bet that no one in grade schools almost anywhere in America could tell you the significance of the Gettysburg Address from 1863.
Look at our institutions of government: Mainly, they have been reduced to sound bytes and bullet points. TV interviews quickly devolve into one person interrupting the other and no one getting any real information or issue resolution that results in a problem being solved. The internet, and social media has made this far worse, with the negative results achieved in seconds, not days or months. Lives can be ruined in the space of time of a social media post, a tweet, or any other electronic means available.
In my own experience in public education, I recognize now that this started when I was in 1st grade. My Dad, a brilliantly skilled aerospace and electrical engineer during the heyday of America's space program, taught me to do basic math, and I was capable. That is until the public schools in Florida got hold of me. That was 1964. About that time something called the "New Math" took hold--thankfully not in the Space Program--as a result of an act of Congress in 1958.
My Dad the rocket engineer knew the highest math there was, and I'll guarantee better than any Congressman. When my six year old self could get the right answers the way he taught me, and I became confused by the New Math, a parent/teacher conference ensued. Congress and school district won out over rocket science math by fiat. But it was too late. They had gotten into my head that I had to learn things their way--even the teachers didn't know, and were barely trained!
Is it any wonder, using this as just one example, why we have lost our way. With government making good-intentioned, if ill-informed, decisions like this on the people's behalf why education, freedom, and our republic are now at risk.
Here's an irony for you: The New Math as policy was abandoned in the mid-1970s. I actually learned college algebra from an alcoholic guy as a college sophomore. He made us memorize formulas using drunken ditties. This was the very thing the New Math sought to eliminate (not the ditties, but the memorization of formulas).
Schools in most places have also devolved apace with society. School systems all over the country now have to take back control of classrooms from a generation of students, teachers, and parents who live moment by moment on social media, many of whom are addicted to it. A human has little chance against this addiction, and laws can't contain it, try as they may. Indoctrination will come for young minds some way, whether it is via schooling, parenting, or the internet. The war is on for whom or what will have the greatest impact.
The speed with which technology now advances is so fast that hardly anyone can keep up with it. I have a hard time myself. Fortunately, my wife, who is quite tech savvy, can help with things as I need them but like many younger people, this comes as a mixed blessing, if one uses her giftings a little too often (just kidding, Sweetheart!).
In 2010, historians Will and Ariel Durant completed a collection of essays entitled The Lessons of History, which won a Pulitzer Prize. In reviewing over 5,000 years of history they came to the conclusion that societies die for four reasons, which I agree with, and which we can see happening now all over the world, but particularly in freedom-loving America:
- The failure of leadership to respond to challenges
- The growth of inequality
- The loss of religion
- The loss of morality
This time the pundits that comment about the election might be right. This may be the most consequential election yet, for any number of reasons. If you are like me, you probably believe that our federal government lies, spins, or propagandizes everything and thinks we're stupid enough to believe all of it. Partisan politics make no difference in this arena, as the behaviors are predictable.
Keeping in mind the four items above that lead to the fall of societies, what can be done? Clearly the elected officials in place now have little to do with any solutions. In fact they, in large measure have contributed to America's problems for generations, which began with the "alphabet-soup" bureaucracies of the New Deal in the 1930s. Look it up kids, if you don't know where the "Deep State" began.
Some of you may have heard of Saul Alinsky, a writer and socialist philosopher whose teachings gained a foothold in America as I was growing up, and only gained strength with time. In many ways, this list of things he says will lead to a toppled United States are already deeply imbedded in our society, never to be reversed and he has been dead since 1972. Acolytes of his include many of our most recent Democrat presidents, and presidential candidates. You may recognize his Rules for Radicals (1971).
Alinsky believed these eight steps would topple the country, and that is why you see them so often practiced today, albeit distanced from his name, which is immediately recognizable because of his book. See how many you recognize the eight points below. He called them "fronts in a war":
1) Healthcare — Control healthcare and you control the people
2) Poverty — Increase the Poverty level as high as possible, poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.
3) Debt — Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.
4) Gun Control — Remove the ability to defend themselves from the Government. That way you are able to create a police state.
5) Welfare — Take control of every aspect of their lives (Food, Housing, and Income).
6) Education — Take control of what people read and listen to — take control of what children learn in school.
7) Religion — Remove the belief in the God from the Government and schools.
8) Class Warfare — Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to take (Tax) the wealthy with the support of the poor.
My personal opinion, as if it mattered, is that Republicans and Democrats make no difference after election day. They have been coopted by the billionaire oligarchs that have financed their way. They answer their calls immediately, as their emails, and texts. Their gated communities are immune from the violence and street level conditions that most of us have to put up with. Thus the apt title "Uniparty".
So think about this as we approach the most important Election Day since the Founding, and ask yourself where you personally want to be four years from now. And leave me out of it. Thanks.
