More than two and one-quarter centuries ago, the Scottish poet, Robert Burns wrote: The best-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft aglay, oft go awry. And leave us naught but grief and pain.”
The idealistic Founders of the new Nation, to be later known as the United States of America (reverentially, “America”), embraced just such a “best-laid scheme,” eschewing the historically unjust and tyrannical history of Europe in their “radical” intention to create a Nation, “by and for, the People.” Their conception was to design a secular, free society with no privileged classes, despotic Monarch nor Established Church. They designed the architecture of an independent, tri-partite polity (Separation of Powers”), Executive, Legislative, (elected by the citizenry) and a Judicial Branch, to resolve the consequential legal issues of the day. Each of the branches was granted authority to curb any act of the other, deemed to exceed or diminish any of the mandates of the newly promulgated constitution. (“Checks and Balances”).
Notably, there were two declarations, amid the Founders’ expectations of success of the idealistically conceived polity. Asked, “What kind of Nation has been created? Benjamin Franklin’s famous reply was, “A Republic if you can keep it.” Reservations were similarly expressed by co-founder, Thomas Jefferson, who, presciently, declared that for a democracy to succeed, it must have an educated and informed public. Such remarks were in keeping with the dire observations of the poet, Robert Burns.
The American experiment, in its later employment of its dedicated population and ample resources, was victorious in its battles against the specter of totalitarian evil which reared its ugly head in the First and Second World Wars. It emerged as the World’s avatar and protector of democracy. The Nation, domestically was in the slow process of universal equality, albeit slowly. Since the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, our enterprising capitalistic society has reliably extended emphatic programs of assistance to the needy, promulgated regulations relevant to the quality of food, water, medicine, labor conditions and has implemented many needed policies of compassionate capitalism. The notable extent of significant political opposition was, in large part, essentially rooted in party affiliation; Democratic Party (labor-oriented, free trade, equitable tax system, subsidized housing, health insurance) and Republican (free trade, lower taxes, gun rights, deregulation of business and labor).
Until recent decades, the Nation had in the main, been compliant with its vaunted motto, “E Pluribus Unum,” evincing a mutually foundational love and pride of country, respect for the social compact and moral compass, a basic unified sense of joint and mutual National kinship, steadily progressing free and tolerant National atmosphere, and when warranted, express humanistic inclinations. The mainstream citizen felt proud and thankful of his good fortune to be a citizen of that admirable country.
We are unable to conceive of the specific moment when the overall positive atmosphere of the Nation mutated. We presume that the nefarious revelations about Nixon concerning that President’s criminal behavior, the passionately divisive Viet Nam War, and, as later the unprecedented and errant political morphing of the Supreme Court, first observable in the 2000 Bush v. Gore case, the subsequent revelations of corrupt and unprincipled catering to rich and powerful lobby groups, secular and religious, resulting in unwise decisions in the arenas of urgently needed gun control, in undemocratically removing limitations on political donations by self- interested corporation, bending to the religious lobby, as egregiously demonstrated by its unprecedented overturning of Roe v. Wade, failing to provide necessary protections for voting, and, shockingly, by its immoral and corrupt acceptance of gifts from wealthy donors, interested in the particular determination of cases.
In addition, the development of insular groups of like thinkers (“group think”) on major disputed issues and like groups of diverse view locked in an antagonistic cold war, the isolated and non-communicative impact on society of the universal use of mechanical “smartphones,” in lieu of humanistic, social interaction, resulting in consequential feelings of lonely existence, the societal decline in significance of the family, the populist preference for ephemeral diversion and corresponding decline in reading and elective personal interests, the latter, capable of personal development and mature perception. It would appear that there are many cogent empirical causes, aside from the most dreaded one, the innate nature of mankind, which last possibility we, would optimistically prefer to reject.
In our plethora of past writings, we have consistently attributed the problem to a general decline in the desire for personal improvement by means of engagement in personally beneficial pursuits such as reading good literature and involvement in the arts and sciences, and independent interests; the latter pursuits resulting in the development of a confident self-image, capable of enlightened contemplation of the affairs of life as they present themselves. The alternative lifestyle, engagement in ultimately unsatisfying and meaningless activities is the eventual route to lives of shallowness and discontent.
Unfortunately, there is an overabundance of American citizens who have, by their own choice, endured frustration and become disgruntled with their resultant, meaningless and pedestrian life. Many such hapless individuals tend to defensively project the cause for such unhappiness on others, viz., spouses, racial or ethnic minorities, or on “life” itself, as responsible for their feelings of discontent.
It would be simplistic and reductionist to attribute the sole blame for the negative transmogrification of our former inspirationally democratic Nation to its extant divisive and critically vulnerable state to the demagogic and perverse influence of Donald J. Trump. Yet, notably, the repulsive inclination of Trump to appear to “display his middle finger” to social convention and to neurotically eschew the societally approved moral compass, is attractive to the underbelly populist and may be perceived as supportive of their grievances and disappointed life. In our view, the existence of millions of poorly educated and uninformed Trump supporters is more hazardous to democracy than the Orange egomaniac, himself.
The vital “first aid” to be initially applied to our Republic’s bleeding injury is the casting of sufficient votes to defeat the populist-criminal-would-be dictator. When that existential threat to Republican Democracy is defeated, we can consider possible routes for beneficial advancement and fulfillment, where needed, of our citizenry. We would propose an effective, albeit, realistically, gradual cure.
We are reliably informed that, regarding the designation of our species, “Homo sapiens,” that “Homo,” is the Latin word for Mankind and that the term, “sapiens,” translates to “wise” or “knowledgeable.”
From the advent of this blogspace, it has been our overriding dedication to mature perspective and enlightened reason by the individual’s election to enhance Man’s short existence by the salubrious addition of an interest, unrelated to his employment, familial and pragmatic concerns. We have consistently maintained that the individual beneficially engage himself, as possible, in some elective interest, unrelated to his familial and employment obligations such as reading good literature or the private and enriching pursuit of an outside interest as the route to individual self-worth and valuable personal identity. Such private activities, encourage invaluable introspective and objective thought and constitute the primer for developing maturity of perception and, hopefully, acquired wisdom. A limited diet of work, family, and sleep, while salubriously necessary, can be productive of mundane satisfaction but not, necessarily, the beneficial route to ultimate personal self-fulfillment. Our society evinces, in too many individuals, a dearth of healthy self-image and esteem, A life without personally nuanced interests, begets shallowness and lack of mature and experienced perspective; whose predictive etiology is a life spent wearing horse blinders.
Consistent with our universal promotion of growth stimulating outside interests, we would entreat American higher institutions of learning to salubriously promote individual personal advancement, separate from, and additional to, the pragmatic goal of preparation for future professional careers. [N.B., See: # M.67, “THE OPENED WINDOW”].
-p.
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