(The Answer to Horse Dung Economics and the Salvation of Democracy)
We have sought to install democracy in America for close to 250 years. Yet, on January 6th 2021, a group devoted to Horse Dung Economics engaged insurrection in Washington D. C. and violently invaded the halls of congress. At the same time, a large group of Republican congress people from both houses gathered in the same halls and, devoted to the same Horse Dung philosophy, were seeking to overthrow the legitimate presidential election of 2020 through political chicanery.
How is it possible that:
- Close to 40% of the citizenry still support Donald Trump when he has proved, beyond doubt, that he is mentally ill, a champion of Horse Dung economics, a psychopathic liar, a devoted despot, and a vindictive personality that will seek to destroy all who oppose him? Astounding!
- The citizenry often elects a president of one party and sees this as a victory while voting in an opposing senate majority that will guarantee this president’s failure? Astounding?
- After almost 250 years of Horse Dung Economics chicanery and its obvious attempts to suppress the rights of children, women, blacks, and other minorities that the citizenry does not see through its oligarchical and degrading intentions? Astounding!
- The citizenry has yet to grasp the truth that democracy is about the common good of community rather than the personal freedom of individualism? Astounding!
- The citizenry has yet to comprehend that the success of democracy is about the well-being of the whole rather than the economic success of the part. Astounding!
- The citizenry falls for the most outlandish, absurd, and brutal conspiracy theories as reality. Astounding!
- The citizenry can be duped by political hypocrites over and over again without ever learning lessons from any of these dupings? Astounding!
The first answer to these questions is that the nation has never fully grasped the nature of democracy and what its real outcome would be when actually instituted. Instead, they have fallen for false notions about the glories of individualism and that the fulfillment of the American Dream is about economics rather than the reward of worth affirming relationships.
The second answer is that the nation has been subjected to the dark values of economic imperialism that oppose and mock democratic intent – the values of racism, sexism, classism, and nationalism, all for the sake of profit-making. The birth defect of America is economic imperialism which inserts into the nation’s drama that which is most ignoble of human possibility and that which is most supportive of demeaning and depressing despotic oligarchical rule.
The third answer is that the nation, despite the founding fathers emphasis on the necessity of citizenry education, has graphically failed in educating the public about the meaning and institutionalization of its governing destiny – democracy. It has permitted Economic Imperialists to usurp the role of education, distort its purpose into preparing for corporate vocations, and twist democracy’s meaning into achieving economic status. In addition, we have relied on individual states to determine what they will teach as democracy and how they will teach it. This usurping, distorting, twisting, relying inconsistency has been a recipe for democracy’s failure. It has perpetuated ignorance and conflict rather than enlightenment and harmony and opened the public to being seduced by lies and fantasy.
To overcome this failure the nation must do three things in concert:
- It must create a national committee of educators and historians who will determine and continuously update a democratic civics curriculum. This curriculum must be translated into age level learning and be required for every year of schooling from pre-school through graduate level – in every state. Until democratic understanding is second-nature to the citizenry it will remain open to being hijacked by economic imperialists, conspiracy theorists, and despots. Rather than a violation of state rights this is the first duty of a national government devoted to the enlightenment of democratic purpose.
- It must unite the states in a common democratic devotion. Until individual states commit to a democratic destiny above their own geographic interests, politics will remain the pawn of economic imperialists. Until America actually becomes the United States of America (USA) it will remain the Individual States of America (ISA) – despite the forced legal unity of the Civil War. We have only occasionally been united when our national existence has been externally threatened or internal folly or disaster has forced unified action. Only a commitment to a true democracy is capable of making this unity happen on a motivated and sustained basis.
- It must teach how to discern the nature of truth in the nation’s school curriculum at every age level. There has always been media purveying the liberal and conservative side of issues. What presently exists is a new phenomenon extolling fake news and conspiracy theories as alternative realities. Without a national agreed upon educational focus on this issue the country will become increasingly and bitterly divided due to the increased influence of false truth media. Teaching truth discernment is an imperative as critical as that of teaching the meaning of democracy.
A unified national education system with this three pronged focus is the primary necessity for the nation’s survival as a democracy. It is the only answer to the present heating up second Civil War. As Martin Luther King, Jr. so eloquently expressed:
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Conscientious stupidity is the child of sincere ignorance. Until sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity are dispelled through a national education system the country’s destiny remains imperiled.
Robert
Robert T. Latham
mythinglink.com
PS: It is a misconception that the conglomerate of Trump supporters is just a bunch of devoted Trump personality followers. They are followers of anyone who will empower their personal issues. Trump just happens to be a president who legitimized their concerns because he represents that despotism which reflects their devotions. He was elected because he recognized and cleverly mobilized this group’s disparate concerns into a unified front. He has now provided the model for unification.
Nor is the Republican Party just a follower of the Trump personality. He only represents, although in spades, that to which they had already sold their soul – the despotic values of economic imperialism (Horse Dung Economics with its dollar sign conscience). They will equally submit to any despot who will take up the reigns of this anti-democratic economically self-profiting leadership. They are followers of an ideology that is in opposition to democracy. They have openly declared sides. And they are already planning for the next election.
Well stated, Robert! …We must examine history to understand the deep sources of tyranny, and to consider the proper responses to it. Thank you for helping us to make bold connections between the past and the present, that democracy might have a vital future.