From Ignorance to Insanity

We are living in some of the most discouraging times in my lifetime, which has spanned some very bad periods; the Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Cuban/Russia nuclear threat, the Cold War, the assassinations of President Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King; Vietnam, Segregation and the associated racial tensions, 9/11/2001, and a number of serious economic downturns. There have been protests, anger, divisiveness but ultimately reason and justice seemed to have triumphed, though maybe not perfectly.

Today we face totally new challenges, especially the COVID-19 Pandemic that so devastated the world. Anger has turned to hatred and with hatred there is no chance for dialogue. Even where there is no hatred, good people, refuse to listen or discuss.

Liberty, Justice and Wisdom. They are portrayed on the cover of this book. These three are so essential to the way that we think and act and so necessary for us to live in peace and harmony with each other. Yet they exist in only small quantities, not just in the United States, but throughout the world. There is one further necessary ingredient and that is Humility. If we could come up with a potion to replace the hate and vindictiveness in the world, we would combine in a crucible the ingredients of liberty, justice and wisdom and also sprinkle in a large dose of humility. Hate would be gone; compromises would be forthcoming and we would have harmony among all people and the door to dialectics would be opened.

When we refuse to think for ourselves; when we listen and passively accept everything our educators, our government, our media, our entertainers tell us, when indoctrination takes precedence over education, we are doomed to exist in a continued state of fear, terror and violence. And that is what many of our leaders, educators, entertainers, and media personalities seem to want in their unending quest for power. We are expected to listen to them and accept what they say, without question. And the more we allow ourselves to be indoctrinated, the more excessive will become the indoctrination and the less important will become education. Eventually, liberty, justice, and wisdom disappear altogether and the World as depicted in Orwell's "1984" will become a reality. And make no mistake, this has actually happened for a brief time in the 1930's and 1940's when Hitler and his Third Reich imposed his will with its accompanying horrors on the people of Germany, most particularly the believers in Judaism.

The rise to power of Hitler and the attending Holocaust was a perfect case study of what happens when people do not think for themselves. When collectively we do not examine our beliefs, we are subject to being led into chaos, tyranny and a state of existence well described in George Orwell's "1984"

Socrates once said, "The unexamined life is not worth living".   I would rather say that the unexam...