The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
Jim Sinex
As our government dismantles our schools, libraries and museums, we are losing our long-term memory. There has been a strong cultural realignment away from critical thinking toward the superficial in our nation. In 1980, we began to return to an educational format that existed before our fear of Sputnik in 1957. Education became more liberal or freethinking then, because the Russians found orbit.
Our democracy exists in a conflict between the conservative arguing for a status quo and the liberal arguing for progress. Life exists within a set of constraints, and with such a conflict, it is amazing that anything gets done. There lies the mythical draw of the strong man with authority. Our revolution sought to separate us from such an authority that lived in England under the term monarchy. We chose, though not all of us, to govern ourselves by electing representatives to decide for a term. If we believe that we are better than our representatives, we should look to our selection process.
In 1959, Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev held a public set of casual “kitchen” debates in Moscow. The debates were recorded and broadcast in both countries. Generally, the subject was about basic “American” and “Russian” ways of life. Well, we haven’t made that mistake again. The debate showed that very intelligent people can have very different opinions. That’s so “Last Century.”
I submit, for your approval, a silver bullet to slay the werewolf of our political discourse. We need to promote two pieces of our English language that are in disuse. The first is the question mark. We need to ask more questions of ourselves and each other and keep doing so. Add active listening. The second is the word “why” which often comes with that question mark and reveals reasoning or critical thinking. Why probes wisdom. If we look to our troubles, which we are hastily trying to export, they are based upon wisdom and how to thread the needle of our real conflict over status.
As in our revolution, we have Loyalists arguing for the status quo of minority rule based upon authority. We also have those in opposition who argue for the ideals set forth in terms like, “We the People”, “All men are created equal” and “E pluribus unum”. No democracy has lasted with as much diversity of thought in the history of mankind. Until we said we could in 1776. We haven’t fully lived up to our ideals, and a series of why questions might reveal the liberal forethought that proved impractical at the time when we consider whole populations. A democracy cannot be a theocracy as well, and we got that right. Democracy can’t allow the genocide of a people either. Our history of western expansion, chattel slavery and the subjugation of women contradicts us. America embodies a struggle. American history is a deeply complex subject, but if we take the time, we can seek to gain some understanding. The ideal of “America” is more a verb than a noun. A work in progress.
We should always question ourselves. If we do not, we risk the yoke of the powerful. In statistical terms, our open elections smooth the data of our progress toward freedom, which is about movement, and liberty, which is about conduct. There must be constraints upon both, but the line should be as loose as possible.
We live within a national status where federal officers are killing us in the streets. They are removing us from our homes without an independent warrant. Our federal administration is making up stories to fool us about a fictional just intent.
We seek Greenland, which has an aboriginal population, for its resources. Sound familiar?
If we look at how we entertain or the look at the conduct from our leaders when they kill, we are not as peaceful a people as we’d like to think. The worth of our founding, though, can be seen in our ability to change our narrative. If we are to be blessed peacemakers, we start by asking more often, of ourselves and our nation, why.
Answers, by definition, are revealing.
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