How to be a human being

How to be a human being

Say you were a detached spirit floating through the universe in infinite time & space. Then one day you decide to become a human being. How would you do it? Here is a step by step process for any disconnected souls drifting through eternity.

1. Become conceived, get born, & develop physically & emotionally.
2. Find a way to survive. Get sustenance, sleep, & protection.
3. Reproduce, raise your offspring, then die.

That is pretty much it. You'll have to dodge abortion in modern western civilizations, & it would also be a good idea to avoid 3rd world birthing, as this makes development & survival more difficult. Also, if you can pick a nuclear family it helps in your development & maturing process. Avoid inner cities, anti social parents, & oppressive nationalities. Those things make it tougher to be a human being.. at least your life will likely be much shorter & harder in those situations.

If you make it past the birth step, congratulations! You have begun the process of becoming a human being. The survival part is tricky.. people have been struggling with that for millennia. There are 3 basic ways to survive as a human:

Produce, mooch, or loot.

You either work for your own survival needs, depend on someone else to provide them, or take them from someone else. Here is where life includes another factor: Social interaction. Most people are born & live among other people. When that happens, there is some kind of socializing that has to happen. You have to get along with other people, & deal with all of their foibles & problems. Over the centuries, we have formed societies & have evolved social standards of behavior, some of which are written & codified into civil law, & others are just manners or expected behavior patterns.

If you are a responsible producer, you will have a constant battle fending off moochers & looters. Hopefully, you will live in a time & place where you can protect yourself & your labors with sound collective agencies, provided for that purpose by all the producers.

But, if you are born into a time where mooching & looting is esteemed as a socially acceptable method of survival, you may have it easy for a while. Unfortunately, mooching & looting takes its toll on the producers, & they eventually rebel, kill the looters, & cut off the moochers. So taking charge of your own survival needs is a better, longer term strategy for survival, rather than relying on mooching or looting.

Part of the survival process is in preserving our resources, to defend them from looters. We have evolved systems of justice & national defense to accomplish this. These systems require us to support them, as the people involved do not produce anything necessary for their own sustenance. It is a fair trade, as they protect those working for food & other necessities, & enable prosperity in the culture. But if too many of these 'defenders' accrue, they become indistinguishable from the looters, as their demands begin to overwhelm the producers. So organizing an efficient, fair, & effective justice system is very important to a society of humans. We call this 'government'. This is a collective action to protect ourselves from looters who would take what we have worked for. Here is the ideal government:

1. Cost effective. Minimal demands are made upon the producers, so they can keep more of what they work for.
2. Just. Corruption & graft are minimal, so that govt doesn't become just another looter.
3. Non invasive. The more free people are, the happier & better adjusted they are. This seems to be a goal of humans.

The problem we have had over the millennia is in crafting such a system. Most of the time, scoundrels & power hungry exploiters are attracted to positions of power in govt. They become looters & moochers, & are not protectors of society's producers. Even in a system of self rule, where the people elect public servants to manage the justice system, they become drunk with power & act like elite lords, fleecing the producers.

But living in an ideal system of governance is not essential in being a human being. Most humans throughout history have not had that luxury. It is fairly normal for the exploiters & looters to lord it over the working producers.

Anyway, after you are born & develop into a mature adult, the only thing left is for you to reproduce & die. Those are also pretty easy things to do, & seem to come naturally. If we were smart, we'd want to prepare our offspring to live in & assemble a social system that meets the above criteria, & minimizes looting & mooching. Older people seem to be happier & live longer if they have hope for their progeny. Long life & happiness is not essential to being a successful human being, but it seems to be preferred.

There is another caveat for prospective humans. Many people believe that there are consequences for violating social standards. They believe that moochers & looters will suffer eternal torment for their anti social behavior. They will not be 'successful human beings', but are evil, anti human entities, destined for hell. They believe that only sincere, productive humans, who do not steal, lie, murder, or commit other anti social crimes are successful humans. This concept is beyond the scope of this article, but i include it as another ingredient in how to be a human being.

There is no free lunch

Another Mystery of the Universe: There is no free lunch

For some reason, the most obvious truths become obscured. What once was plain, common sense.. obvious to anyone with a brain, suddenly becomes lost in the noise & confusion of razzle dazzle. Education does not always impart wisdom & knowledge.. much of the time, it preaches deception & propaganda.

Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned. ~Mark Twain 
How can something so plainly obvious get lost in the confusion of modern education? Like this:

There is no free lunch.
Something for nothing scams are as old as humanity. Con men & scoundrels have pitched them for millennia. Perpetual motion machines, free food, free housing, free stuff... we are led by marketeers from one illusion of free stuff to another. Most people follow the 'buyer beware' principle. But somehow, when it comes to government, our skepticism ends, & we jump on the gravy train.. free stuff for everyone! Politicians promise it to get votes. Easily led, low information voters nod like bobbleheads & pull the lever, hoping to win the lottery on the promises from the hucksters.

If a used car salesman was promising something for nothing, most people would shrug it off as a sales tactic. Or, if a timeshare salesman or carnival huckster was pitching something too good to be true, most people would dismiss it as a con. So why do people suddenly become gullible when a politician with an agenda, obvious self interests, & at no cost to himself, begins to promise pots full of chicken, & acreage with mules? Can anyone explain to me how an intelligent, skeptical electorate suddenly become willing dupes to huckster promises?

Once again Bastiat shows up with timeless truths to explain our delusion:

"Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else." ~Frederic Bastiat

So when govt is involved, we somehow suspend our cynicism, & become marks for the con. I admit that they do present an attractive package. Opulence drips from them, & it seems like they can deliver on the promises. But all they can do is use the force of govt to TAKE from someone else, in order to give to another. They are not philanthropists, but thieves. They steal from the workers, & give to those who have not worked. They distort the purpose of law as a provider of justice, & twist it into an instrument of plunder. It is a scam.. a ponzi scheme, where the con men dribble some returns to keep the illusion alive, only to see it collapse later on, with many victims.

Something for nothing is a scam. There is no free lunch.
I offer these profound insights as 'Mysteries of the Universe', since they seem so deep & complex as timeless truths.

Men naturally rebel against the injustice of which they are victims. Thus, when plunder is organized by law for the profit of those who make the law, all the plundered classes try somehow to enter -- by peaceful or revolutionary means -- into the making of laws. According to their degree of enlightenment, these plundered classes may propose one of two entirely different purposes when they attempt to attain political power: Either they may wish to stop lawful plunder, or they may wish to share in it. ~Frederic Bastiat

Producers, Moochers, & Looters

Produce, mooch, or loot.

These are the basic ways humans survive. We either produce our own necessities of life, by working for them, or we leech off of someone else's labors, or we take them from others by force. When we are young, we are dependent on our parents to provide for us. We are moochers off of their labors. But they do this willingly, & usually make it clear we have some accountability to them.
'While you are living in my house, you will do as i say!'
This is a commonly heard sentiment in most family units. So while the progeny of humans are technically 'moochers', they tend to be a dependent of choice. You made the decision to reproduce & you take on the responsibility to raise the child.
But this is not about voluntary dependents. It is about society. A healthy society must have a large number of industrious, hard working producers to provide the network of necessities: sustenance & protection. When a society breaks down, & too many moochers or looters run rampant, the producers cannot work hard enough to provide for them, or they become tired of being exploited & rebel against the system (or lack thereof) that has arisen.

1. If you are a responsible producer, you will have a constant battle to fend off moochers & looters. Hopefully, you will live in a time & place where you can protect yourself & your labors with sound collective agencies, provided for that purpose by all the producers. But, if moochers & looters gain control of the protection agencies, they will use them against you, & you will be exploited until you & the other producers revolt & cast out the moochers & looters. This is a constant pattern throughout human history, & will no doubt continue in the future.
2. If you are a moocher, you run the risk of wearing out those you mooch from. It is not a dependable method of survival, as you rely on the generosity of the producers you mooch from, or the benevolence of the looters to share with you from their plunder.
3. If you are a looter, you rely on having superior power or deception to intimidate & fleece the working producers. But if they pool their resources & defeat you, you might be killed in the struggle. It is also an unreliable way to survive.

Producing, with the force of law to protect your labors, has traditionally been the best & most reliable method of human survival. When a culture has a strong base of producers, they tend to be stronger, wealthier, & better suited to survive. Moochers & looters tend to be short lived, as the working producers tire of the excess, useless baggage, & reorganize the system to better serve them.

The challenge is for the producers to craft a system of protection, but not let it be controlled by moochers & looters, as they will use the system to plunder the producers. Typically, the producers just stage a revolution from time to time, and the leaders of the revolutions promise to provide peace & justice for the working producers to live & raise their families.  They promise to make minimal demands on the property of the producers.  But they always degenerate back into a mooching, looting system where law becomes an instrument of plunder, not justice.

The only solution is for the producers to keep a tight rein on the system, provide checks & balances, & a rotating workforce of public servants, so none of them become entrenched & entitled in an elite power structure. This was the attempt of the american experiment, & it worked for a while, until those who became entrenched in power used said power to plunder the producers, as they have been doing increasingly for the last few decades.

So an ideal system for a productive, healthy society is this:
1. Minimal demands for an agency of justice.  Minimal taxes so the producers keep more of their labors.
2. Swift, efficient justice to deter looters, foreign or domestic.
3. Maximum freedom for the producers to enjoy the fruits of their labors, which provide the most opportunity, prosperity, & abundance for all.
4. Checks & balances in the justice system, so that moochers or looters do not gain control.
5. Rotating citizen representatives, managing the system so moochers or looters do not gain control.
6. Strict laws to punish corruption in the collective agencies.

These things will cost the producers the least, while maximizing what they have earned & worked for. This is a recipe for a healthy, prosperous culture. But whenever moochers & looters gain control of the collective institutions, they use govt power to plunder the producers, & build a system of dependency & injustice, until it collapses under its own corruption.

Mysteries of the Universe: Nobody owes you nothing

You were born. Maybe you're grown up, or at least on your way. Perhaps you're confused about why you are here, or what reason there is for your existence. Or maybe you think you know. Either way, here you are. By some accident of nature, the combination of dna, timing, & the twinkle in your parent's eyes, you were conceived, born, & are here for a brief time on earth. You didn't ask to be born, & no one told you what you are supposed to do with your life. You did not come with instructions, & there is no link to the manufacturer's website to reference a FAQ.

For most of your early life, your parents or some surrogate cared for you & saw to your growth, protection, & nurturing. But they are really no different than you. They also were born, grew up, & tried to figure out what to do with themselves. For most of the history of humanity, & for most humans that have ever lived, simple survival has occupied most of our waking time & effort. Our basic needs are few, but they demand our attention:

a. Sustenance. We need air, food, & water to live.
b. Protection. Some kind of covering for our personal bodies, a den or structure to live in, & a habitat to protect us from wild beasts, the elements, & other humans.
c. Sleep. One of the most important reasons for a home & a secure habitat is for a place to sleep safely.

That's it. That is all we NEED for survival. Now, there are other things that occupy much of our time & attention, but they are instinctual drives, & are not essential to our survival.
a. We also have a drive to reproduce, & to pair up with a mate to further our species.
b. We also have a need to play, or to busy ourselves with entertaining distractions. But neither of those are critical for survival.

Your parents took responsibility for your survival during your development years. They fed you, clothed you, housed you, & protected you from predators of all types. Perhaps they still help you with some of the basics, or continue to prepare you to live in this life, as their parents did before them. This has been the pattern for all of human history.

We are born wet, naked, and hungry. Then things get worse.

Survival isn't easy. Not only does it require a lot of our time & attention, there are also other elements working against us:
a. Mother nature. Weather, trees, rocks, rivers, & just about everything we see on earth can kill us. Storms bring lightning, floods, powerful winds, freezing cold, & other natural disasters that constantly threaten our lives. Sometimes things we eat or the water we drink is deadly.
b. Wild beasts. Not so much in our current culture, but we are still in danger from sharks, bears, big cats, wolves, & other animals who want to eat us. Not all of these dangers are big carnivores. We are constantly battling disease & bacteria simply to live.
c. Other humans. This has been the greatest danger that individual humans have faced. Other people wish to harm us, or take our sustenance or means of survival. Or, they may wish to enslave us to work for their personal survival.

So here we are, trying to simply live, & have to struggle against these other factors trying to kill or oppress us. Over the millennia, we have developed strategies to overcome these obstacles.
a. We build protective structures to house ourselves in. This gives us a secure place to find protection from weather, rain, snow, & attacks from wild beasts. We store our food & clothing, & provide comfortable, safe places to sleep.
b. We form collective agencies to protect us from aggressive humans. We pool our resources to provide a protective force to deter those who want to rob, enslave, or kill us. We call this 'government'.
c. We work & develop strategies to produce more & better food, protection, & methods of health care. We use the elements & natural laws to develop technology to aid us in our survival.

For thousands of years, we have adapted to our environment, & have used everything to aid us in our survival. None of these things were given to us at birth, but many of the strategies were handed down through the generations. By constantly learning & advancing in our knowledge base, we have come to this most advanced stage of human society. We are interdependent on each other, & have built upon the lessons of the past. We have concocted a complex system of exchange, by which we provide goods or services for a currency, & use that to buy our survival needs. This system has provided abundance & prosperity for a lot of people in this era. Many do not seem to struggle for the basics of survival, like humans did in past times. Food is varied, cheap, & abundant. Houses are plentiful & filed with amazing luxuries like central heat, piped water, & waste disposal. The ease by which the essentials of survival are provided make some people think it is a natural right. They think that the basics of survival.. food & protection.. are naturally provided at birth, & are owed to everyone, simply because they were born. They think they don't have to (or shouldn't have to) concern themselves with their personal survival needs. They think they should be able to give themselves to other instinctual drives, like reproduction & play. But this is an illusion. Our collective knowledge might provide the STRATEGIES for making survival easier, but they are not something given at birth. SOMEONE has to work to provide the basic needs.

The illusion of our current time (and of times past) is that GOVERNMENT can provide these things. Everybody else can work for our individual needs. And as long as there are enough industrious, hard working people who are driven to work, a few can ride along as moochers, dependent on the producing workers to provide their needs. But if & when the moochers outnumber the working producers, the system collapses, unable to sustain itself. This is the great fiction.. the great deception.. that somehow we can live off the labors of others. A healthy, prosperous society has in industrious, hard working citizenry, & extols the virtues of production. A corrupt society in decline tries to leech off of the producers.

"Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else." ~Frederic Bastiat

But the reality.. the immutable law of the universe.. is that 'nobody owes you nothing'. You & you alone are responsible for your own survival. You might link up with others, to better accomplish that goal, but it is still YOUR responsibility to survive.. no one else has that burden. Your parents might give you a start, but they cannot be burdened with caring for you for all your life. So during this short time on earth, you alone are responsible for your life, & those you take on as dependents. Others may help you, as we pool our resources & labors to improve life for everyone, but nobody owes you anything.

 I have called this simple truth a 'mystery of the universe', because it seems to be very profound & mysterious. In fact, a great many people seem to believe the exact opposite.. that their basic survival needs are owed to them. They think that their existence entitles them to full support, even going so far as to support any children they might have & their their old age. They even feel that their leisure time & entertainment should be provided & subsidized by the producing people around them.

It is pathetic enough that a few insane people live in this fantasy world, where they believe all their survival needs should be guaranteed to them for life, but there are allegedly intelligent social leaders who further this deception.. promising free food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, & even entertainment. In some convoluted reasoning, the labors & increases of others are looked at as some kind of collective ownership. They produce NOTHING themselves, yet they feel entitled to what someone else has worked for. Then these entitled thieves have the audacity to lecture us.. the actual producers of everything they consume.. that we owe them.. WE are responsible to not only tend to their basic needs, but we should set them on the lap of luxury, & pay them to deceive us.

This is the basic foundation of progressive thought. It is why that anything they come up with is flawed. The core premise of leftist, progressive ideals are corrupt, depending on theft & dependency to build a society on.

Intelligent people with basic common sense SHOULD be able to see the flaws, & realize that this central tenet of socialist ideology can only lead to collapse, as dependents outnumber the producers. But the appeal for easy living, free stuff, & a guarantee for living is very strong, & is at the root of all scams: Something for nothing. So they indoctrinate our youth, spoon feeding this madness into each generation, until the whole culture is steeped in delusion. They act as though govt has infinite warehouses full of food, houses, clothes, & healthcare, & all we need is the keys to open them up & hand them out. They do not realize that everything that a dependent consumes.. every bite, every drink of water, every item of clothing, the heat for the house, the waste disposal when they flush.. EVERYTHING they use for their own survival, including protection from thugs or invading hordes, is TAKEN from someone else.

The progressive leeches who preach this folly are EXACTLY the same as those they pretend to help. They produce nothing themselves, but only TAKE what others have worked for. And of course, they do not help society at all, but lead us down the road to destruction. No society can survive without industrious, productive citizens working to provide basic survival needs. No society can survive with madness & folly as their basic philosophical ideology. The universe is hard, & life is difficult. Ignoring reality for some illusive dream world helps no one.

Natural selection: Reducing variability, not increasing it

The primary condition for speciation is reproductive isolation. That is the main 'definition' of a species, that they do not reproduce with other different species. The horse has a genetic link to other horse descendants. These all indicate a narrowing of the genetic material.. a 'devolution' if you will. A donkey came from the same parent species as the horse & zebra, but they are not able to reproduce viable offspring.. they CAN reproduce, but the progeny is sterile.. like the mule. But instead of this indicating an EXPANSION of trait availability, the facts are the exact opposite. It was a narrowing of the gene pool that isolated the horse, donkey, & zebra. All of those animals descended from the same parent species.. we can trace that. But instead of opening up new traits of variability, they lost them. The zebra traits don't come up in donkeys anymore. And new 'species' are not being produced. What we see with the horse genetic line is a branching into a dead end. The variability is lost, as the progeny do not have the variety to pick from in their parent's dna.

You can explain the tree branches somewhat with evolution. But you still don't have the mechanism that enables the leaps between the family/genus/species. As science, the 'amoeba to man' theory is full of holes, yet it is taught as though it is proven fact. The observable, repeatable FACTS are that breeding & natural selection NARROW the genetic availability, until the species reaches equilibrium & loses variability. That is why a brown rabbit is seldom (never?) born in the snowshoe rabbit species anymore. It is why chihuahuas do not produce an occasional wolf. That variability is lost, & the breed is limited to the narrow band of variability. The very science of breeding is contrary to the premise of evolution: that new genetic material is constantly being produced & increasing the complexity & variability within a species. We observe the exact opposite. We repeat the exact opposite.

Even if some 'new' trait is discovered while breeding, now we know it was there.. hiding in the massive dna strands. It might take thousands or millions of generations for it to pop up, but when it does, this did not mean a new trait made itself, just that the hidden gene took a while to hit the jackpot. It is like pulling on a slot machine in vegas.. if you pull it enough times, eventually the sequence will come up that hits the combination you want. That is all breeding & natural selection is, except they get to narrow the variability & reduce the 'losing' combinations. Slot machines don't let you do that.

Why do species go extinct? Because they lose the variability needed to adapt to the changing environment. They don't create genes to survive if conditions change. If there is some variability already in them that increases their survival rate, then that trait will become more prominent. But if they don't have that trait, they die off. That is observable reality, not that species create new genetic information to adapt.

Modern genetics is one of the biggest enemies of the old 'theory' of evolution. Eventually, the facts will overwhelm the beliefs, & the scientific establishment will come up with a new pop theory of origins. But they still are working this one for now. It is everywhere.. tv, national parks, museums, schools.. anywhere science is mentioned, evolution is tacked on, to prop it up as a belief. But real science does not support the theory. All of reality screams, 'NO!'. But since when have humans cared about reality?   :)

Unalienable rights

The american founders ASSUMED the existence of a natural law.. They phrased it like this:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed
In just the previous paragraph, they made an appeal to 'the laws of nature & nature's god'.. There is a presumption of deity, but that is not central to the argument. Most writings in those days made frequent references to god. But let's break this statement down:

1. Self evident truths. These cannot be proven empirically, or observed or tested. They make the assumption, & the rest of the statements build upon it.
2. All men are equal. This was not the common view.. royalty & the ruling elite were considered divinely appointed, & were above the common man. But that had been steadily changing since the reformation, & even before in the magna carta. The quest for human freedom was in full swing. It hinges on the equality of man.
3. Every man has natural, unalienable rights. Life, liberty, & the freedom to pursue your own choices. This was not just for the ruling elite, or the chosen few in power, but for everyone.

These 3 central points provide the basis for the conclusion:

Government is instituted by society for their own benefit, protection, & to secure their natural rights.

IF you assume the earlier premises, the conclusion is logical. But if you deny the natural rights of man, the conclusions do not follow. IF there are no 'unalienable rights', then the world is open & undefined, & anyone can do as they have power & ability. Natural rights are not self enforcing.. like gravity. You can trample someone's rights & not be struck down by an immediate consequence. But if the collective society of man agree upon a canon of LAW, then they have a basis by which to live by. They have a higher LAW to appeal to, when their natural rights are being stepped on. 

The individual can make this appeal, but it requires the collective will & presumption of the existence of natural rights. You could stand up to king george & declare yourself a sovereign individual, but if he has the power to bind you & cast you into the dungeon, your appeals fall on deaf ears, & have no significance. But, if you & a few hundred thousand of your countrymen defy him & stand armed, declaring your sovereignty, your rights are secured.

Appeals have often been made to tyrants & oppressors throughout history, but only those with the power to deter the oppressors gain an audience. The magna carta was signed under duress by the king.. not cheerfully & willingly. American independence was gained by defiance & bloodshed, not by philosophical blathering. We preserve & protect our rights, not by appealing to some mystical force to secure them for us, but to OURSELVES as the architects & authors of self rule.

Natural law has no power in & of itself. It can only provide the philosophical basis for which we fight. Individually, we have little hope in restraining evil, or aggressors, or oppression from the rich & powerful. But collectively, we have the ability to deter by deadly force those who would enslave us. THAT is the american ideal. Together, we can be free, deter evildoers, provide justice, & secure our own basic rights to life & property. No entity will do that for us. No angels will come down from heaven to secure our freedoms. Govt certainly will not do this, as they are at enmity with human liberty. Only as we control them, by force, can govt be a useful tool for our common good. That is what america was built upon, & is the mission statement that drives the ideal. Citizen representatives, ruled by law, controlling & restraining the excesses of human aggression. They will not restrain themselves, & no one will come to restrain them for us. We the people must secure our own freedom, & restrain the growth & excesses of mans manipulations. We have the system in place, but it is eroding. A govt of, by, & for the people is slowly perishing from the earth. The extremes of statism & anarchy are touted as superior to the old fashioned values of self rule, but they deceive themselves. They only offer a return to bondage & oppression, & rule by tyrants.

Our solidarity is not from race, or creed, or religion, or ethnicity, or social status, or country of origin. It is the common longing for freedom.. the quest for human liberty that unites & drives us to fight for our collective liberty. Many people will not 'get' the ideal. They are self absorbed & short sighted, & assume that freedom is free & comes naturally, like the air we breathe. But it is a rare thing in the history of man, & WE, the caretakers of this precious liberty, should not take it lightly, or shirk our duty to preserve it for future generations. The choice is before us. Will we passively allow scoundrels & thieves to steal our liberty, our nation, & our heritage, or will we fight them to extend freedom for another generation?

The Rise of Anti-Science

Western culture has had a lot of ups & downs over the centuries, but one of the anchors for it was the concept of a world of order:
1. consistency in natural law
2. Use of the scientific method
3. the logical pursuit of truth
4. peer review, critical thinking, & skepticism were a balance to 'science by decree'.

These concepts reached their heyday in post ww2 america. Engineers & scientific researchers leapfrogged advancement after advancement dazzling everyone with their ability to harness natural law as a tool.

But to some, these things were not seen as a harnessing of laws of physics, but a creative & almost godlike power. A mystique built up around the fields of engineering & science, & it was a magnet to young people when they pursued a career. The fields of technology were major draws in the middle of the last century in america. Breakthroughs in medicine, manufacturing, computers, & just about every part of human life has been positively affected by these technological advances, & families encouraged their children to be part of that growth & advancement of humanity.

The technological advances brought unprecedented prosperity & luxurious conditions for even the poorest in the nation. And as often has happened throughout history, with prosperity comes complacency & growing lethargy. Hard work loses its appeal, & easy living seems to be an easier route. Why work hard if you don't have to?

But as the culture has declined, so has the magnet for technology. Fewer & fewer american youth desire a career in science or engineering. Non productive elements of society have taken center stage. Sports, entertainment, celebrity worship, money shuffling.. these things are valued & esteemed over the mundane & difficult scientific disciplines.

Now, we are in a time of anti science. Social issues & cultural manipulation is taking place, of course claiming truth or science as a basis. But instead of open scrutiny, mandates. Instead of the scientific method, decree. Instead of logic & critical thinking, truth is declared & propaganda has become the new goal. Truth becomes what the establishment says, rather than something based on reason or facts. Critical thinking is not encouraged, just memorized dogma. History is not taught as dispassionate facts, but to mold a belief. Conclusions are presupposed, & memorized, instead of arrived at by research & thinking. THIS is the greatest failure of american education, which once was a beacon of classic liberal thought.. Now, it is just another state propaganda tool.

As the adoration of elitism grew, so did education transform as a classic liberal tool of enlightenment to a propaganda tool of indoctrination. At one time, critical thinking was emphasized, & 'liberal' meant an expansive, enlightened, open minded view of things.. a broader view of the nuances in thought, ideology, & critical thinking processes. Now, it is an indoctrination.. dogma is pounded into young people, so they do NOT think or consider alternatives, but have everything neatly defined for them, complete with demonizing any alternate views.

The result has been LESS thought, more dogma, & a subservient electorate. The concept of human liberty is redefined, & revisionist history is shoved down people's throats. Open, scientific method enquiry is squashed, while memorizing indoctrination is employed. The results are clear: Less educated citizenry.. no sense of history or continuity. Dogmatic view of life & simplistic solutions. Bumper sticker slogans, rather than nuanced discussions of issues. Stupidity running rampant, & hysteria valued over reason.

And like in the dark ages, the powers that be try to mandate truth by decree, instead of arriving at it through the scientific method. As a culture, we are moving away from a scientific view of the world, & into a faith based reality. 'Really smart people' make decrees about 'truth', & we are told to believe it.. don't question the experts or their handlers. Critical issues for us are not open to critique or examination, but we are indoctrinated from birth into state centered ideology. It is a giant step backward for humanity, as we surrender our minds to the puppet masters.

Historically, truth eventually overcomes those who suppress it because it inconveniences their agenda. But man has not changed, & his basic tendencies to use power & decrees to control people are still there. There are always various flavors of superstition intermingling in a culture. If one gains prominence, it can dictate the rules & the facts. Reason is suppressed, critical thinking condemned, & questioning authority is punished.