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History and Evolution:
By William E. Steinman:
Part 1, Intent:
March 24, 2003:
This begins a new series of essays on History and Evolution. Today
I want to explain why I think it is necessary. History has not
always fascinated me. In fact, I was nearly forty years old before
my interest in history came to life. I came upon it through a
back door. I was in an engineering curriculum at a local college
trying to satisfy a term paper requirement for an English class.
To limit my research requirements, I decided to trace the recent
evolution of democracy. I called the paper, "From Hobbes
to Jefferson." As you might guess, it turned out to be a
short study of philosophy.
I never did graduate, but I did keep that paper. It earned me one of my few 4.0 grades. I have since rewritten it as a series of essays. You can find them in our archives under, "The Evolution of Democracy." As I said, this writing adventure did spark my interest in History. I began to comprehend how fascinating the human adventure has been.
It makes me somewhat angry to realize that I and many other youngsters were turned away from this study of history by the teachers who presented it. When I was forced to study American history, for example, it was much more important to the teachers that I knew the exact dates of the first constitutional convention than to know what happened there. It was more important to know where the Declaration of Independence was signed than to know what it said.
The study of history should be seen as a very exciting adventure story. That's what history really is. It puts the sophomoric James Bond twaddle to shame. Unfortunately, most of those who teach it to children do not see it that way. They see it and they teach it as a memory course. Memorize the key events and their dates so you can recite them like a parrot. These teachers are bored, boring drones. So, most kids end up hating the study of history. That is just one of the tragedies of our current educational system.
Regardless of that, I found this study of philosophy fascinating. My interest was definitely piqued and has continued to grow. I want to understand not just philosophy, but history. More important, I wanted to learn how things came about. I am particularly interested in how mankind came to be. After thinking about it, I realized I am really talking about evolution. I want to know whence we came and where we are going. My underlying plan is to write a series of studies about evolution. It will be based in fact to the best of my ability, and it will eventually become my theory of evolution.
Currently, I am thinking of this as my life work. At 72, you may think I have waited a bit long to figure out what I ought to be doing. I can't argue that. I can only say, at least I have figured it out. That is something very few people I know have done. Most people I know ended up drifting through life with no definite goals at all. I did that for many years. I simply followed the path that appeared before me and dealt with whatever came along. I believe there is a reason for that which has to do with education. More specifically, it has to do with how we were educated.
Instead of something that was done for us, education became something that was done to us. Instead of being encouraged to satisfy our natural curiosity, we were beat down with the hammer of rote. As I indicated, I believe modern education to be one of the true tragedies of our time. I personally consider it to be the most important problem we are facing. Unless we turn that around, nothing else we do will be meaningful. I am currently addressing some of these issues in my Gaffer's Philosophy series. Those will eventually become part of this work. I am, above all else, an advocate for children.
That will eventually come out in this work, but right now I want to outline what I have in mind. As I said, I see this as my own theory of evolution. I will produce as much of it as I can in the time I have left. For sure, I got a late start, Just the same, no one else can determine my schedule. I cannot rush for anyone. I will do things in the order they come. I will take whatever time it takes to do them right. If I finish fine. If not, so be it. In addition, as I develop this theme, I may have to revisit some things to make adjustments. Admitting and correcting miscues is de rigueur for anyone who wants to be taken seriously.
My current plan seems to indicate four parts or books to this series. I do not have a definite title for the series, although "A time for Change" comes to mind. That, or "Requisite for Change." Those ideas capture the essence of what this is about. I am convinced that America and probably our entire Western Civilization is on the brink of final dissolution. Unless we change our behavior, we will go the way of the Roman Empire. The evidence is all around us for those who want to face it. However, if we do manage to change, I see no limit to our potential for evolution.
In this first part, I want to deal with where we came from. I want to look at our evolution from the Big Bang through mankind's first awareness up to the early years of the United States of America. I will view this progression as "The Evolution of Democracy." I expect to treat very lightly with the beginnings where much of what we know is nothing more than speculation dressed up as theory.
Even much of what we call history seems to be a great deal of speculation based on nothing more that ancient bits of clay and metal. As we get closer to our present time, I can go into more detail. The idea is to outline, to the extent possible, how our representative democracy came to be.
The second part of the series will deal with the time span from our founders until the present. I hope to show where we went astray and detail the extent of our degeneration. Only by facing the reality can we hope to change it. A large part of our crisis can be understood as a degeneration of our respect for the rule of law. In that, our government has lead the way in disregarding our constitution for reasons of expediency. But disregard for law is common throughout our culture.
Another large part of our crises results from the common disregard for the simple concepts of human decency. We no longer respect our neighbors or our community. We expect and demand rights, but we waive our responsibility to our neighbors and the community that ensures those rights. Most of us don't even bother to vote.
Knowing what is wrong is prerequisite to fixing it, be it a malfunctioning auto or a dysfunctional culture. So fixing it will be the subject of the third part of this series. What can we do about this? Call it Rx for Recovery. I expect to outline the essential changes necessary for restoring our cultural health. I have said, the solution to a problem is inherent in a clear statement of the problem. So, the quality of my suggested solution will depend on how well I have defined the problems in the second part.
Finally, I will want to get to the methods necessary for recovery. We not only need to know what is required, but how the solutions can be implemented. I believe the how is about politics. In a representative democracy, that is the only approach we have. I will, of course, eschew violent solutions out of hand. Violence is for savages, not for people in a civilized society. It may be that revolution is a viable solution under conditions of extreme oppression, but not here, not now. The solutions of Marx, Stalin, Guevara, and their kind are not acceptable in a democracy, not even a dysfunctional democracy.
Instead, I will be calling on a certain class of people to step up. Everyone is not equal. That is nonsense. Any idea of how the future of mankind will evolve, must not ignore that fact. It must account for and enlist the superior people. These superior dominants will always play a key part in whatever future mankind has. These people have many labels. They are called self actualized, unitary, and God Aware by various writers. For now, I choose to call them the community of superior people. These are the people who have developed their own potential to a very high degree, but generally do not participate in politics directly. Sure, they vote, but they avoid wallowing in the filth of direct political involvement. That must change.
If we are to recover, these are the people who must lead the way. Politics must be approached in a very scientific way by this community of superior people. This means using all of the techniques, methods, and tools offered to us by the behavioral scientists. We must use them in a superior way, such that we present our goals and ideals in a way that will make the rabble want to follow our lead. We count on our intellect and our superior being to carry the day so the world will be properly administered to favor man's ongoing evolution. Representative democracy is a vehicle whereby superior people may come to power without violence.
This I believe is the only way to long term cultural stability. The emperors, pharaohs, aristocrats, and divine right kings have had their day. The communists have failed. The dictators have failed as they must. The shamans and other insane religious fools have failed. Pure democracy fails because it becomes unwieldy when faced with large numbers of participants.
What remains is representative democracy. It's strength and it's fatal flaw is that it is representative. Its' strength is that the people choose their government and are thus inclined to participate and support it. Its fatal flaw is the people are easily conned and will often choose poorly. They will always choose the short term advantage over long term stability. It is up to the few to circumvent that flaw. The demagogues have had their day with democracy. The buffoons took over and have run their course while running us into the ground.
Now it is time for the community of superior people to step
up. We must find a way to make representative democracy work.
We must find a way to offer the rabble good choices in a manner
they will understand. This is the only way to ensure continuity
of leadership and goals. This is the only way to ensure our continued
evolution. Who knows where that will lead. At this time we are
nothing more than infants on our path to becoming fully human.
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