We confess to a penchant to occasionally beginning our writings with specific reservations, indicating, in each instance, what the respective writing is “not” about. In keeping with our nuanced inclinations, we would state that this note is not again about, the disappointing level of citizen education and awareness (with reference to Thomas Jefferson), necessary for the success of a democracy (exhibit” A”, election of Trump), nor, once more, on the miscreant, carbon producing entrepreneurs who deny climate change, and esteem profiteering above considerations of the health of the p lanet and its resident human beings. Having thus, dutifully, expressed our denials, we are now free to plunge into the selected subject.
We would confidently declare, that a country’s population is its most precious national resource, more vital than the ready availability of water, oil and other fuels, forests, minerals, fertile soil, rainfall and other featured assets as may be pedagogically enumerated in any text on geography, or geopolitics.
We have selected the present subject because for too long, we have been hapless witnesses to a dishonest and incapable government, supported by many, less than knowledgeable, American citizens, [tactically manipulated, by a few very wealthy profiteers], with the consequence of a potentially weakened nation. This unacceptable situation, exacerbated by a current, popular disrespect for academia and education, greatly troubles us, as it surely does, other rational and informed Americans.
It is instructive {and frightening] to realize, that in the first third of the 20th Century, a relatively small size nation, Nazi Germany, came perilously close to conquering the entire world. Additionally illustrative is the fact that, in 1948, a relatively small and inadequately armed group of Holocaust survivors, miraculously defeated several invading Arab armies, inclusive of the Arab League [the latter, professionally trained and armed by Great Britain]. To our understanding, the explanation for such phenomena is to be found in the level of dedication and education of the respective populations, resulting in the vital capability, to be quickly and efficiently mobilized.
Our past writings have mourned the apparent descent of our educational and cultural priorities. Large numbers of Americans are literacy-challenged, as well as demonstrably ignorant as to matters beyond their personal life experience. The general decline in American culture, can readily be deduced from the general, widespread preference for cheap, ephemeral entertainment, rather than enduring and profoundly rewarding experiences, such as theater, art, literature and serious music. Such decline in motivation and interest in personal growth and enhancement, is necessarily limiting, stultifying and counterproductive as to the ability to use reason in the making of responsible judgments. Is there any wonder concerning the selection of the current President and the installation of his sycophantic cabinet?
Fundamentally needed repair and enhancement of the educational and cultural life of our nation are vitally indicated, generally, for the attainment of self- knowledge, fulfillment and respect for others, but no less importantly, for our cohesive safety and ready mobility, when and if needed.
It is shameful and veritably irrational, that our nation’s young people (our most valuable natural resource) are obliged to incur decades of personal debt to obtain a college education, that public educational media is obliged to frequently beg the population for support, that museums and so many public cultural attractions are monetarily prohibitive for the poor, and, significantly, that adequate health services are not readily available to all Americans. Necessary existential services and publicly accessed education are appropriately and ethically the proper responsibility of a moral and empathic system of compassionate capitalism; thereby keeping the republic wise and strong. Ignorant citizens who reflexively decry this outreach as (dreaded) “socialism”, need to astound their friends, by picking up a book, to discover the definition of that poorly chosen and reflexively asserted word as an “epithet’.
A successful and secure country is one that is one comprised of citizens who are independently valuable, literate and participatory in the affairs of their government in peacetime, and, as world history teaches, readily mobilizable in times of crises. There is no more valuable, useful and protective resource than people, whose proper care and nurturance are vitally essential to the quality of their lives, and, additionally, the secure existence of their nation.
-p.
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