IN EXIGENCY. Welcome to THE MUSICAL PATRIOT (In Exigency), a web log of information and inspiration. Also included are events of interest in my own life. Now in its nineteenth year. (Comments to any post may be made by clicking on the "COMMENTS" link. Commenting is moderated.) To get the most out of this blog, a free subscription is recommended; see "Subscribe To" in the column to the right.
Could rhetoric about a corrupt election set the stage for Republicans to challenge a November defeat? With enough confusion, the Presidential election could be thrown to a “contingent election” in the House of Representatives, where a state-by-state vote would favor Republicans.
However, this seems like an unlikely scenario. Indeed, this is an area where the much-maligned Electoral College helps, by acting like compartments on a ship: if one compartment is compromised, the others can still keep the whole thing afloat.
With the announcement by the Republican Party that it will forego the normal party platform, and instead provide Our Military Leader with unquestioning support, the party of Lincoln has become as good as the first cult to put forth any kind of serious candidate for the Presidency.
If you doubt this judgment, think back to the fall-in-line behavior of the Republicans in Congress during the Impeachment process; or most any other Congressional action -- with very few exceptions. Almost inevitably, Republicans have supported the President. There are some notable exceptions, the most famous being Senator Mitt Romney.
But for the most part we have a symphony of sycophants, singing the song of a solipsist.
This past week produced many headlines, what with the Democratic "virtual convention," and a high-profile indictment.
Joseph Biden delivered what was arguably his best speech ever as he accepted the Democratic nomination for President. This after the nomination of Sen. Kamala Harris as Vice-President.
And Steve Bannon, former White House aide, was indicted for allegedly skimming money off a Build-the Wall fund.
A coming major focus of this blog is planned to be the role of the media in getting us to where we are today. In a real sense, this focus will doubtless be on-going for years to come, as the story stretches back decades.
There is so much to say about all this. For now, we must keep the faith our founding fathers started this country with. The way will not be easy. Let us not shirk our responsibility to defend this near-sacred democracy.
...I would recommend that every subject be taught as history. In this way, children, even in the earliest grades, can begin to understand, as they now do not, that knowledge is not a fixed thing but a stage in human development, with a past and a future.
-- Neil Postman
This idea of Postman's is not exactly new, but he has expressed it in a new way, and a useful way, in his book Technopoly. Certainly, teaching every subject as history is not a complete method of teaching. That matter will await another time.
But Postman's thinking here is sound and needs to be taken up seriously. For it is clear that American education has failed us. Why else would we be caught in a situation in which what I call "a little bug" would stop our economy cold? From one point of view, it can be argued that had school students studied the history of viruses, we might very well not be where we are today.
True, this subject has not been entirely neglected. Students graduating from high school likely are aware of the unsanitary ways of the past -- doctors failing to wash their hands -- and such things.
Yet how did the fact that new viruses can and do appear from time to time -- ones which have no known cure -- bypass the consciousness of society? How did such a basic fact escape our government? Is it too far-fetched to opine that a business masters degree might leave out some important things such as biological issues which could effect everyone's business? This omission would have been especially prevalent in schools of, say, the fifties and sixties, when many of our current leaders got their degrees.
This matter of education is ever so crucial now. In other ways apart from this blog I have tried to stand up for education of the complete kind. There is more to this story than I have time and space to relate here.
But suffice it to say for now, that as educators scratch their heads trying to know how to teach safely during COVID, it is also vitally important to review what is to be taught, and how.
