Wthout Reason

There is little thought and even less reasoning these days. Without thought, hatred goes to a new level and brings with it an inability to listen to the “other”,  making it impossible to talk,  to come to a compromise or even a starting point. There is no compromise these days – at least from the right wing of the so-called Republican Party. There is no concern for “others”. It is the end of coming to middle ground when there are disagreements about the social contract Americans agree to live by.  And without respect for others, the belief in equality goes out the window and it is the end of democracy. For in a democracy each person is as important as the next and must be educated in order to use the power of the vote in an informed way. Thus public education was born.

Propaganda and greed, the desire to accumulate more no matter how much you already have, has made too many people want to spend their lives reaching for the brass ring,  just in case. Rather than receiving knowledge and watching worlds open up,  they seem to only want the skills they need to get a high paying job while seeing no reason to evaluate the people paying them.

Hand in hand with the worship of money goes the desire for power. Money and power. So, without reason or truth there is less awareness of things as they are, not a glimmer of what kind of twisted reality comes from  buying into conspiracy theories or buying into manipulations that have no relation to truth on this planet. There is no background, no historical frame upon which to evaluate contradicting words and ideas. Debate has become a game of tearing down the other person rather than making the case for your own ideas.

Face it – there is no such thing as an alternative fact. An alternative fact is an opinion. Knowledge comes from learning and finding the truth through the process of evaluation and elimination. Public schools are meant to be places that inspire a thirst for knowledge, teach the skills needed to evaluate a situation in order to find the truth. When there is no knowledge brought to issues democracy cannot survive. How can it survive when so many people believe in the “alternative facts” drilled into them as truth by people with their own agendas, who want to remake this country in their own grandiose image;  a dictatorship with a strong, fearless autocrat at the helm. Decisions based on stirred up emotions carry with them a fog of make-believe and work only for those who truly worship the propaganda delivery person.

Everything is based on stirred up emotions these days. The government is supposed to do what it can to make people’s lives better. Those who work in government and those who are elected, need to tell the truth, have a plan, and take charge of solving the problems at hand. This cannot happen without a clear picture showing the solutions that will work for the most people. The problem is that when people’s  beliefs are in their hearts it is almost impossible to change their minds, even when presented with the truth. Their beliefs are emotional, in their hearts alone. Even if they do realize the truth, rather than change what they believe, their hearts will out. There will be no conversation that leads to compromise until people’s hearts are stirred by the promise of this country again.