The History of the Decline and Fall of the American Hegemony—Chapter 4 Excerpt—Education
Gregg Zegarelli Esq.
Managing Shareholder at Technology & Entrepreneurial Ventures Law Group, PC
Following is a Chapter 4 excerpt from the Complete Article, as the Complete Article is cited as a 40+ minute read. This excerpt is edited, updated, and has differences from the chapter as first published. This excerpt contemplates reference to the Complete Article to be understood as presented.
4. Failure of Education.
The education system is failing and it's not smart enough to know why.
Before anyone can develop a systemic educational system, such as any strategy, a determination must be made as to what is trying systemically to be achieved, which is exactly this: a virtuous human being, balanced in practicality and philosophy, a "Philosophical Fighter Pilot" said Vice Admiral Stockdale. [34]
Now, of course, a perfect virtuous human being is not obtainable, but it has been said, "We do not need to touch the star to be guided by it." [35]
We know the educational system is working if it produces intellectually astute, curious, socially aware, mentally tough, disciplined, physically healthy, secure, spiritually reflective, empathetic, human beings. [36]
Not vices converted into virtues by some ironic theory of coddled goodness, where excellence has no measure. No one is perfect, but that is not the point. The human manifestations of gluttony, avarice, despair, wrath, sloth, vanity and hubris are not beautiful as such, and none of those Seven Deadly Vices implicates someone who is LGBT++. [37, 38]
The weaker a society gets, the more it will condemn the standard of excellence that it would otherwise fail to satisfy.
A mother's coddling love may embrace the weak, until the mother teaches to be weak. Embracing the weak is a service, teaching to be weak is a disservice. Fortitude is virtue, not weakness.
Indeed, it's a horrible thing to do vice, but it's a catastrophe to teach it, as "it would be better?for him to have a great?millstone hung?around?his neck?and to be drowned?in the depths?of the sea." [*24.2, 24.4]
Traditionally, life required a certain wisdom to survive. No one cared to listen to whining [41], because everyone else was trying elementally to survive; to wit:
There was no Facebook and Twitter in the Age of Enlightenment. Indeed, in those days, the time spent with book learning was based upon the liberal arts classics of history, science, philosophy and literature, including, of course, the most widely read book of all time, The King James Bible.
A man in those days tended to be combination of philosopher, business owner, farmer and soldier, by life necessity. In result, men of sufficient means tended to be balanced human beings, and, from this broad foundation of learning and experience, sprang a font of wisdom.
When complaints are stated about the idiocy of society, we must acknowledge our own complicity and failure in training the same people being condemned. [42]
A free democratic country cannot long endure without virtue in the People. [43]
If we look at the current tendency of higher education, it is more-and-more isolating and vacuuming disciplines of knowledge into vertical silos of training; that is, "School of....[this or that]" But core life-knowledge is horizontal, not vertical.
Life does not exist in silos. Such as real world life, the general rule of education is horizontal knowledge, only the exceptive specialty is vertical. [44]
What was formerly the realm of graduate school has now descended and pervaded into the undergraduate education. That is, vertical industry-specific isolated skills were generally formerly only after the holistic undergraduate "college" education, but now undergraduate college education has forsaken the holistic education for the necessary exigencies of the knee-jerk market money rate of return that "strain out the gnat and swallow the camel." [24.13]
The tendency to pigeon-hole education is because higher education is now so expensive (college presidents becoming incredibly wealthy) that the demand is not to virtue, as such, but to immediate job placement, which then drives a short-term money-driven education without necessary holistic rounding. The seed of knowledge must now germinate immediately into money, which tends to adduce task-doing wonks "who see but do not perceive." [24.5] Virtue must be the guiding star.
Excellence will adduce leadership, leadership does not adduce excellence.
To produce a college graduated educated student who has neither studied The Republic of Plato—a timeless masterwork of philosophy, human virtue and social duty—nor Accounting 101 (basic bookkeeping) is a tragedy of "education." The balance of abstract critical thinking and applied practicality. For those who can perceive it, we reap what we sow. Indeed, there is no reason to wonder why there is a general failure of social responsibility and financial responsibility. The fault is not in the student, but in each our own teacher's guiding responsibility.
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Moreover, myopic tendencies produce the divisive one-issue voter who cannot see beyond the nose of self-centered and selfish interest, not being trained in the virtuous selfless discipline of duty. Indeed, bad economies require short-term money that thereby tends to a wonkish silo of education that thereby tends to elect foolish politicians who listen to foolish financiers, who thereby make the economies worse, over time.
Rome did not fall in a day. Time exposed the weakness. "So sorry," said the Brass Pot, but it was too late. [45]
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[20] https://www.zippia.com/advice/working-age-population; https://usafacts.org/articles/what-is-the-us-national-debt-and-how-has-it-grown-over-time/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ND-ElectionsGov&msclkid=902217b370f613d502bb7273af761b54 [$36,000,000,000,000, divided by 207,406,609 working age is $173,572 or at two third middle and upper class feeding the system debt of 136,888,362 $262,988]
[24] ONE?: The LinkedIn Reference Set [#GRZ_183] 24.1 ONE: 1022 [T11:19] ("Wisdom Vindicated By Works"); 24.2 ONE: 1325 [T15:14] ("Blind Lead Blind-Ditch"); 24.3 ONE: 296 [L4:23] ("Physician Heal Thyself"); 24.4 ONE: 1661 [T18:6, R9:42, L17:2] ("Millstone); 24.5 ONE: 1143 [T13:13, R4:12] ("Perceive"); 24.6 ONE: 1040: [L10:27] ("Love Neighbor As Self"); 24.7 ONE: 582 [T6:24] ("Serve Two Masters"); 24.8 ONE: 635 [T7:20, L6:44] ("Tree By Its Fruit"); 24.9 ONE: 921 [T10:10] ("Workman Worthy Meat"); 24.10 ONE: 2632 [T26:50, L22:48] ("Betray With A Kiss"); 24.11 ONE: 514 [T5:30, R9:43] ("Right Hand Cause to Sin"); 24.12 ONE: 577 [T6:21] ("Heart Treasure"); 24.13 ONE: 1661 [L10:33] ("You Are Gods"); 24.14 ONE 1747 [L17:20] ("Kingdom Within"); 24.15 ONE: 799 [T9:17, R2:22, L5:37] ("New Wineskins"); 24.16 ONE: 2121 [T22:20, R12:16, L20:24] ("Caesar Coin Tax"); 24.17 ONE: 373 [J2:25] ("Human Nature"); 24.18 ONE 2211 [T23:25, L11:39] ("Inside-Out Hypocrisy")
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A Farmer had a Goose that began to lay golden eggs.
Each day one new golden egg would be laid by the Goose, and the Farmer grew very rich.?However, the Farmer was impatient and tried to get the Goose to lay more than one golden egg each day.
In desperation for even more golden eggs, the Farmer cut the Goose open to get all of eggs at once!?And, when he cut the Goose open, he got only the death of his Goose, and no more golden eggs.
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The statements or opinions made in this article are solely the author's own and not representative of any institution regarding which the author is affiliated.
* Gregg Zegarelli, Esq., earned both his Bachelor of Arts Degree and his Juris Doctorate from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His dual major areas of study were History from the College of Liberal Arts and Accounting from the Business School (qualified to sit for the CPA examination), with dual minors in Philosophy and Political Science. He has enjoyed Adjunct Professorships in the Duquesne University Graduate Leadership Master Degree Program (The Leader as Entrepreneur; Developing Leadership Character Through Adversity) and the University of Pittsburgh Law School (The Anatomy of a Deal). He is admitted to various courts throughout the United States of America.
Gregg Zegarelli, Esq.,?is Managing Shareholder of Technology & Entrepreneurial Ventures Law Group, PC.?Gregg is nationally rated as "superb" and has more than 35 years of experience working with entrepreneurs and companies of all sizes, including startups,?INC. 500, and publicly traded companies.?He is author of One: The Unified Gospel of Jesus, and The Business of Aesop? article series, and co-author with his father, Arnold Zegarelli, of The Essential Aesop: For Business, Managers, Writers and Professional Speakers. Gregg is a frequent lecturer, speaker and faculty for a variety of educational and other institutions.
? 2024 Gregg Zegarelli, Esq. Gregg can be contacted through LinkedIn.? 2024 Gregg Zegarelli, Esq. Gregg can be contacted through LinkedIn.
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