As technological and engineering feats amaze us, are we squandering our inheritance like spoiled, wealthy children?
Here I sit at my kitchen table watching on satellite TV a live commercial space flight that took four passengers—including Captain Kirk of “Star Trek” fame—65 miles above the surface of the Earth, right to the edge of space. It was an amazing accomplishment of private enterprise and quite a feat of engineering. Watching the reusable booster rocket come down and basically land itself is awe inspiring.
While I watch I’m working on my laptop computer with my smartphone lying nearby. Both have more processing power than a supercomputer from a few decades ago—a super computer which required a tremendous amount of temperature-controlled warehouse space. Now I can hold that power in my hand.
Although ubiquitous now, even the satellite TV is built on what was “gee-whiz” technology not that long ago.
With the Internet I have the knowledge of the world at my fingertips and can communicate in real-time with almost anyone on the planet.
We are unlocking the most fundamental aspects of matter, space, and life and are perhaps on the verge of transforming life on the planet.
We live in the freest, wealthiest, most diverse and tolerant society the world has ever known. Poor people in this country live better than kings and queens did only a hundred years ago.
Yet, at the same time, many people seem to have lost the ability to tell a male from a female. It has become “normal” for young children to determine for themselves whether they are a boy or girl and to be fed untested hormones and drugs which will forever alter their physical being.
Many “leaders” champion political ideas which have never worked in all of history—bringing only poverty, despair, and violence to all who have walked that path.
Our public education system seems to have lost track of why it even exists. After 12 years of “education” a frightening number of students are not even proficient in any subject. Eighty-one percent are not proficient in geography. Seventy-six percent are not proficient in mathematics. Sixty-four percent are not proficient in reading. Seventy-eight percent are not proficient in science. Eighty-nine percent are not proficient in U.S. history. Seventy-five percent are not proficient in writing.
And these results are on tests that many decry as having been dumbed down over the years. In response many school districts simply don’t test, so there will be no poor results to lament.
These are the fruits of a national public education system failure, not any single employee’s incompetence or union idiocy. And to add insult to injury, the poorer the child, the more he is being damaged by this life-destroying horror.
Due to this educational apocalypse, social mobility has ground to a halt—in all likelihood Americans born today will remain at the same level into which they were born.
Widespread, disgusting racist thoughts, marketed as critical race theory and “antiracist,” are becoming more and more the norm. At their core, many of these are based on a repulsive—and hidden—belief in black inferiority.
The ghosts of tribalism raise their destructive heads again as the repugnant belief of “it’s in the blood” finds new traction. Far too many truly believe one is responsible for the past actions of people long dead—depending on one’s skin color of course. This vile thinking holds that one’s status as victim or oppressor is stamped in the soul—and there is ultimately little to nothing one can do about it.
There is more than a malaise in the country. There is palpable fear that this glorious society is unravelling before our very eyes. There is very real fear that the amazing technical and engineering feats mentioned above are but a sign of our fading glory.
Are we as a society like the spoiled children of wealthy parents? Children who believe the wealth and privilege they enjoy simply are—and will always be? Children who have no true idea where the wealth comes from or how it is created and thus are very poor stewards of this wealth once it is placed in their hands?
It was a glorious space flight—let us take actions today to ensure it is not simply one of the last hurrahs of a failing, intellectually bankrupt society.