Atop the Stoa this day, I ponder all sorts of things related to civilization and society. The old saying, adapted for the title of this entry is technically wrong, since fish rot from the guts first, but I liked it as a useful metaphor. Let me begin for the class today.
Professionals: I read the other day that the number of medical research studies, many performed by physicians and research scientists, have been retracted from their professional journals. Journals such as Lancet, an ancient publication going back over 170 years. In the decades prior to the 1990's, perhaps a handful of articles around the world would be retracted. This year alone, by July, more than 200 had been pulled. 200 research studies discredited in seven months. How many years of work went into just a single study? How much money went into producing that study?
75% of the retracted studies were pulled due to sloppy research and lazy science. 25% were due to suspected fraud. Either way, those numbers are huge considering the history of pulled studies in the past. I know, I know, with computers it is easier to catch fraud and slop. On the flip side, computers should make it far easier to put together a quality study in the first place, so I ain't buyin' it. Lazy. Incompetent. Unqualified.
Government: Up until FDR, we were on a metals based currency, just as the Founders intended. After the depression and WWII, we abandoned it, completely in 1971. Since then, we have slowly inflated our monetary supply while depressing the value of our money. Intentionally, I submit. Why? To get what we want. To buy the things we wanted as a nation and to create the programs we wanted as a nation. Irresponsible, yes. Failing monetary systems world-wide!
Education: In the 1970's, the liberals really began to tear apart our standards of education, turning our schools first into experimental labs in brain washing, and today into full indoctrination camps. Jimmy Carter nationalized the schools on Union recommendations. Collectivist? Yes. A well intentioned improvement for our children? No. In the 1980's, universities had to spend a year re-teaching students the basics before they could get to their core studies. By the 1990's, the average time to graduate was 5 years, if at all. Education became big business with government subsidies and favorable laws. What is a Bachelor's degree worth today? Well, it is worth a 1959 High School Diploma is what it is worth. What is an MBA worth today? Well, I'd have to say it is worth a Junior College degree from 1964. Our children were dumbed down and rather than prod our children to do better, we lowered the standards, and the quality, of the advanced degrees.
Cultural Ethics: Criminals get their own movie rights, book deals, and in Eliot Spitzer's case, a TV show. Hollywood stars are taken as experts, even though the only thing they are expert in is portraying the thoughts and words of other people. In the 1930's, we created financial laws to prevent or reduce the likelihood of another Great Depression and then Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton disable the safety features because they got in the way of their economic plans. The rating agencies are there to neutrally examine financial vehicles and entities with regard to their business health, not politics, yet Obama calls for their dismantlement. So, he essentially blames the agencies for not calling the debt equity swaps as dangerous, yet he is trying to shut them up for calling out the dangers of unsustainable debt. Talking about taking a sledgehammer to the fire alarm simply because it is too loud. Ignore the fire at your own risk, Obama.
What is all this about? We are rotting. We are rotting from the head. Our doctors don't seem to be as good as they once were. Our engineers don't seem capable of building or planning things like they used to, despite all this technology available to make it easier. We can not build Space Shuttles any longer. Heck, we almost were not able to build the next generation of Nuclear Warheads because the scientists had ALMOST forgot how to build the triggering mechanisms. OOOOPPPPPSSSSS!
In the old days we elected a Washington, a Jackson, and a Lincoln. Today we elect a Carter, a Clinton, and an Obama. Can you imagine Jimmy Carter on the back of a horse, elderly and ill, riding out to Pennsylvania at the head of an army to put down a rebellion on taxing whiskey? No. Can you imagine Clinton taking a bullet, and keeping it lodged in your chest for the rest of his life due to a duel of honor? Hell NO! The duel would likely have been about him groping or raping someone's wife or girlfriend. Does Obama match up to a Lincoln? Hardly. Lincoln freed millions, while Obama enslaves millions (tax slaves). Lincoln restored the Republic and held it together through a civil war. Obama may be the cause of dissolution and civil war.
The quality of our leaders is lacking. The quality of our Graduates is lacking. The quality of our Presidents is lacking. The quality of our people is lacking. Religion is a swear word and hard workers are called "over achievers". You might as well call them academic "uncle Toms". Success is punished and sloth is rewarded.
How can Obama still call us a AAA+ country when we should have lost that status back in the 1970's? Just because we are the United States of America does not mean the the laws of economics are somehow different for us.
Pride goweth before a fall. We have been falling for a long time now and when we land on our faces it is going to hurt.
We are still well placed to be a superpower for the next century, easily, if we just get our financial and cultural house in order. Look at London, Paris, Athens. Those cities are well ahead of us in the debt and decay game. Why would we want to move in that direction ourselves. Veer off.
Start demanding higher standards from our educational staff, not disabling testing requirements. Make THEM accountable to the children, under their tutelage, that can not read. Parents are just as responsible by looking to the schools to be daycare centers. Then again, if the family was not required to work two jobs to put food on the table, then this issue may not be an issue. Put religion back into the schools. We are a Christian nation. I'm Catholic, but I still feel that any bible is better than no bible. No discrimination, belief in something is better than belief in nothing.
Ponder this, my students, and ask yourself: did you earn that "A"? Did you really understand that math problem? Did you really read "Moby Dick" or did you just cheat and watch the movie? Do the hard things. Put away the calculator, do it long hand from time to time. Remember the fundamentals and they will never steer you wrong.
Live well.
--Zavost
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