Fear, Loathing, and Education

“Any meaningful democracy requires a well-educated, well-informed, and engaged society.”

Before the Declaration of Independence and the formation of the United States, the concept of public school was launched in the 17th Century in Boston. Granted it was a “white boys only” institution. Don’t worry -that was “quickly” rectified in our “post-race” society in the blink of an eye … 320 years later in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. (https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/first-public-school-america/)

“A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps, both.” -James Madison

Farce, Tragedy, and MAGA

A public education system is a pillar for any free society aspiring toward democracy. James Madison knew this. In today’s competitive, complex, and dangerous world, rife with challenges for current and future generations, prioritized societal investment in education is demanded from the perspective of the individual as well as society itself. Focused upon outcomes, the result of a world-class education system is individuals who can lead independent, adaptive, productive, and fulfilling lives while contributing back to society (or minimally, not being a burden upon society).

An approximate education timeline:

Pre-K
(From the center of the universe to a cog in the wheel).

In infancy we, generally speaking, are the centers of our universe. We cry and get held. We cry and get our diaper changed. We cry and we get fed. (In some cases, this is not a phase in human development -it lasts a lifetime. I write about it here in an earlier article, Fear, Loathing, and Outrage. If we are lucky enough (and the great organization https://momsrising.org is successful at the Federal policy level) we will be thrust into Pre-K. Suddenly we are no longer at the center of the universe. We have to socialize. We have to communicate. We have to share (clearly a socialist plot). We have to respect the teachers, authority figures, and other former centers of the universe. If the teachers are good and committed to childhood development and education they are nurturing curiosity and inspiring the beginnings of a lifetime quest for knowledge.

Primary/Elementary school (K-6)

After having one’s perspective of parents, planets, and society orbiting around each of us shattered, the conveyor dumps us into elementary school. Here we spend seven years (or historically, generally between ten and twelve years if you are a rabid member of the MAGA cult). Here the objectives are to provide the fundamental tools you will need in terms of mathematics, literacy, and of course the progressively vital -writing in cursive. As the volume of students increases with each step along the academic assembly line, and starting at the lowest rung of the ladder, you’ll hopefully learn important life skills like how to outrun a bully, how to hide from bullies, and a multitude of excuses as to why your homework assignment has not been turned in. You may also excel at kickball, and, while impressing your peers with your athletic ability, a skill completely worthless after sixth grade.

Junior High School (7-9)

Between K-6 and High School is Junior High. This is not to be confused with a Junior who is (allegedly) high.

Junior High School is an important academic and social buffer between pouring the foundation of tools in elementary school, and applying them, beginning to survey varied academic and trade subjects, working more independently, and discovering an array of new emotions.

High School (10-12)

The theoretical objective of high school, covering grades 10-12, is to prepare students for success in post-secondary education, the workforce, and adult life. High school aims to provide students with a comprehensive education that includes academic knowledge, practical skills, personal growth, and social responsibility. And if you are like me, you will gain a love of reading everything that has not been assigned in class, and also learn that Anthropology, as your first class at 8am is no picnic.

In every case, the public education system must be unfettered by concepts embodied in political and religious extremism. Any individual who is graduating from the K-12 system and preparing to decide upon going into the workforce, military service, or continuing their academic career via a trade school, college, or university should have a foundation of essential academic and life knowledge (mathematics, science, language, philosophy, and humanities), be capable of critical thinking, be able to understand the importance of peer-reviewed science, climate change, and consumerism, have working knowledge of personal budgeting and financial management (including credit, credit cards, debt, and interest payments), basic information about contracts (like a rental agreement, or a purchase agreement), why Labor Unions are vital in addressing wealth and income inequality, race and gender studies, taxes, and an understanding of political systems, economic systems (for when an idiot candidate or so-called “news” reporters uses communism, fascism, and socialism interchangeably, knowing their viewers or cultists won’t know the difference), and how to be and remain engaged in voting and civics.

Civics and civic engagement, as well as other important subject matter, have eroded from the education system. By light or non-existent curriculum coverage of civics, debt management, banking (such as opening a checking and savings account) it is a clear signal that the system is largely designed to produce obedient hyper-consumers instead of knowledgeable and engaged citizens, particularly in red states. By politicizing accepted peer-reviewed science such as evolution and climate change, politicizing actual history -and seeking to replace it with a whitewashed “patriotic” indoctrination is not only deplorable, it is an indirect attack on this and future generations precluding meaningful work toward a “more perfect Union”.

The Heritage Foundation/Trump/MAGA/GOP assault on democracy called

“Project 2025: Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise” expresses the GOP’s intent to eliminate the Department of Education. This is clear evidence that they also know the pillars of a free and democratic society are education, information, and engagement. Such a society is much harder to control and is more likely to understand that concepts such as “trickle-down” and “free-market” are not real economic concepts, they are mass fraud geared toward accelerating the concentration of wealth to the privileged few. Their vision is an indoctrination into a system where people blindly accept what they are told by Fox “News” and elected “leadership” like Trump, Vance, Marjorie Taylor Greene, James Comer, Matt Gaetz, and Greg Abbott.

They simply nod and accept judicial decisions from biased, incompetent, and corrupt judges and justices.

They are told climate change is a liberal hoax. They are told slavery was just a job apprenticeship program. The Civil War was not to free slaves and attempt to end a horrific part of U.S. History, but over States’ rights versus Federal overreach.

They will accept that there’s no remedy for guns and assault rifles -that bulletproof backpacks are not an outrage but a “free-market” consumer opportunity for a parent to show they care about their child or children (and apparently, no one else’s).

They are taught that Columbus “discovered” America (although by the same logic I “discovered” Spain when I visited Barcelona in 2023 -of course I didn’t plant a flag of the United States and then slaughter all of the Spanish in so doing). On one hand, these extremists talk about liberty and freedom -however, they seek to imprison the minds of their rabid followers.

The reality is that a well-educated society will not blindly and obediently follow liars, incompetents, and/or criminals. They will not elevate people who should be entertaining all of us as part of a sociopathic circus, or a program called “The Prison Apprentice” (or “Orange is the new Orange, should Netflix earn the rights).

A well-educated society is capable of critical thinking, can discern propaganda from fact, respects and values diversity, and embraces justice, equality, and democracy. It understands that an extreme concentration of wealth (and economic policies that support and accelerate such a concentration) is an economic attack upon democracy. They understand that an expensive healthcare system, leaving many people either uncovered, drowning in medical debt, or bankrupt while yielding, at best, mediocre results must be redesigned with a public option. They understand the difference between poverty wages, minimum wages, and living wages. They will question why the normal retirement age for Social Security is raised instead of lifting the cap on income over $168,600 per year (in 2024).

A well-educated society knows what peer-reviewed science is and the rigor involved in reaching a consensus agreement. During a deadly and highly contagious pandemic and told that, when properly worn, a mask can mitigate some of the spread, they will wear masks instead of complaining about “body autonomy” -a group of protesters largely absent from the evisceration of women’s reproductive rights.

Furthermore, as a better educated and informed society, they are far less likely to vote for someone who tells them the cure is to drink bleach and shove a UV light up their, well, you know.

A well-educated society recognizes its intellectual heroes, values diversity, equality, justice, and democracy, and aspires toward a more perfect Union.

The reality is a well-educated, informed, and engaged society is everything that is despised by right-wing extremists -who would rather provide you with a private school “voucher” as they seek to erode, weaken, and eventually destroy the public system and the Department of Education.

• (https://www.propublica.org/article/arizona-school-vouchers-budget-meltdown)
• https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2024/07/03/the-right-wing-network-manufacturing-the-war-against-higher-education/

Q: You know what won’t make our nation stronger and more globally competitive?
A: Idiots suggesting book bans and promoting bulletproof backpacks and active shooter drills.

As a society, we must consider new ways to streamline and prioritize our public education infrastructure. We must prepare future generations for the unprecedented challenges we are already facing concerning climate, propaganda, poverty and wealth inequality, political and judicial corruption, the rise of right-wing populist thugs like Putin, Orban, Bolsonaro, and others, racism, misogyny, and global conflict. Expanding K-12, hiring more teachers, and paying our public school teachers commensurate with their critical value to democracy, justice, economic opportunity, and a better future for our children, grandchildren, and generations yet to come. We can readily afford to shift a slice of our societal spending from the $842 billion of military and defense in 2024 alone to public education. Doing so will strengthen our nation, improve our research capability, and our ability to compete in a dynamic, complex, and changing world.

And, as further and final proof, a quote from the Dread Pirate Robert: “Once word leaks out that a pirate has gone soft, people begin to disobey you, and then it's nothing but work, work, work all the time."