Mike Sauers

We live in precarious times. The onslaught of information, accurate or not, is daunting. Information/news/opinion sources have exploded in a variety of formats. Data, facts and fractured information comes at us twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and every week of the year. There is no break. Technology is upon us and accelerating at a dizzying pace. What is the truth? What is science? This is a challenge unlike any the human race has ever faced. One has to be alert and diligent to be a discerning and knowledgeable critical thinker.

I support quality public education from pre-school to two years of community college. This demands creating opportunities that nurture our children’s potentials. This necessitates a robust, liberal arts education that empowers and encourages students to be full participants in civil society as well as government and business. This requires that all students be exposed to a broad array of theoretical and factual discourse. In an age and developmentally appropriate sequence, students should be presented with accepted understandings in all fields as well as with differing perspectives, theories and understandings that challenge the accepted. The goals must be to seek truth not hide from it, seek justice not avoid it and wage peace not war.

At the present time, approximately thirty-five percent of the United States adult population has earned a four year bachelor’s degree. This is simply not good enough and it leaves us vulnerable. While there is no guarantee that a four year degree translates into a critical thinking individual, it does increase the chances of that result. We are vulnerable to technocrats, bureaucrats, politicians, religions, philosophies, government, marketing and general corruption. The aforementioned are part of daily life and they often offer up very narrow and manipulative versions of the truth.

Unfortunately, far too many citizens rely on very limited sources of information. They migrate to the ones that reinforce their already accepted beliefs. This happens left, right and center. This is what they have been taught to do. This is dumbing us down and needs to be changed. Adults, students and citizens of all ages need to be taught how to seek diverse knowledge/opinion and encouraged to immerse themselves in the study, discussion, debate and consensus building regarding issues of law, government, business, environment, medicine, education, etc. Inspired educators are more than ready to create curricula that encompass the above. Class size needs to be reduced to a maximum of fifteen students at the pre school to sixth grade level. From there on a slight increase can be attempted but never at the expense of quality. Educator training programs will need upgrading as well as educator pay scales. Mentoring, coaching and quality in-service programs will be a necessity.

Wow! That is a tall order. It will be a substantial commitment from civil society. Obviously, it can be done but it will require reprioritizing education and providing substantial financial resources. Reprioritizing education will be a bumpy but doable undertaking. However, when the benefits of a critical thinking civil society are laid out in terms of economic development, community development, environmental restoration, quality of life and world peace there will be consensus. The vast majority of people want truth, justice and peace in reference to the above endeavors. The financing will be much more problematic.

Seldom do entities with power/money relinquish their advantage voluntarily. Often a persuasive critical mass does the job. For the purpose of this post I’m going to concentrate on the federal government. That is where the financial resources reside. The largest part of discretionary spending in the federal budget is defense. There is no surprise there. President Eisenhower’s warning about the growing and dangerous military/industrial/congressional complex has been fully realized. That ugly monster is eating us alive. Our elected representatives, with a few shinning exceptions, yammer on and on about deficit spending and the national debt except when it comes to defense. On defense they become deaf and dumb. In the next few weeks, Congress, Democrats and Republicans, will pass a 778 billion dollar defense bill. There will be very little debate. The Pentagon, according to many observers/sources has been plagued with massive waste, fraud and financial mismanagement for DECADES. They have not been able to pass a “clean” audit as required by law. They are at the beck and call and are part of the world’s largest producers of weapons of mass destruction. That’s us. The United States of America, by far, is the largest producer of weapons of mass destruction. We sell weapons of mass destruction directly and indirectly all over the planet. It is big business. Some elected representatives see it as a jobs program. The Intelligence Community/Pentagon/Think Tanks have misled us into many foreign conflicts/regime changing quagmires that have cost us trillions in treasure and blood. I could go on. There is more. Research it.

However, I think I have made my point. You should be PISSED OFF. The warmongers have diverted trillions of dollars to war and away from infrastructure, health care, elder care, child care, transportation, EDUCATION, clean water/air, etc. We can and must rectify this. We, our children, their children and beyond deserve better. As always, we must change our priorities. Research this. Make it an issue.

I recommend reading, The United States of War by David Vine. Also, JFK and the Unspeakable by James Douglass. Please check out Senator Bernie Sanders recent Senate speech on this subject.