PreElection General Musings

MY FATHER, THE LIBERAL?

It's funny but I don't usually think of myself as a liberal. I used to be pretty leftist, but that was until I owned a house and stocks. (little joke there) I'm not hiring Pinkertons to knock the Red's heads in yet but I'm pretty conservative about some things. I wonder how if will look in my daughter's eyes, born in the fear stricken, angry America as opposed to the America of hopes and dreams that I grew up in. (the current stupidity makes Reagan's America look like the Paris Commune)

But then again, on somethings, I'm not conservative at all. I wonder if someday liberals will be almost extinct, I mean there will be some wacky Cambridge types protecting geese and stuff but not necessary liberal families that pass down their values to their children. Some day will my daughter just look at me like I'm crazy and wonder what the hell is going through my head as I talk about things like civil liberties and civil rights and progressive taxation and crazy things like that. It will be a nation that is conquered by the fearmongers and the selfish and self absorbed.

I'm a strong believer in civil liberties, all of them not just the second amendment and those portions of the first amendment that are convenient at the time. I may disagree with people, but generally the basic building principle of this country is free speech and free press. Which makes me wonder about what happened in St. Paul with journalists being arrested while covering demonstrations (sometimes violent stupid demonstrations).

I'm a strong believer in support of other people, a concept that while a ownership society is nice in theory and hard work and innovation should be rewarded but at the same time there are many that do not have the opportunities that others do, and as the richest country in the world, we should be able to provide some modicum of health care, a decent education and access to housing. I guess my concept is that their should be some floor in life, but no ceiling.

I wonder if in my daughter's world, there will be any concept of this. There is currently an income tax repeal in the Commonwealth, brought by small government Ayn Rand type idealists, but likely to be voted on by good meaning people, people fed up by the corruption of government, both real and perceived. Government does a terrible job of "selling" what they do, and certainly there is waste, corruption and laziness, probably like any business. As a government employee it disgusts me more than any one, but there are many, many people who have chosen a life a public service, true believers, who believe in the power of government to positively transform the country.

So I guess this makes me a liberal, a capitalist one who watches his stock holdings pretty closely, is anti-abortion, fiscally conservative, even pretty conservative on security issues, but there are things that government can do (collectively) that individuals cannot. I believe that governments are responsible for the infrastructure that can make all of it's citizens successful, certainly the physical infrastructure, roads and bridges, but also the other things that make this country tick, health care, education, public safety and perhaps equally as important the regulations and rules to keep both corporations and individuals alike and protect the long term interests of the nation from the short term greed and avarice.

So, I guess I'm a liberal. Being American should be expensive. All blessings are expensive.

A NEW AMERICA
I choose not to write about education, because it is my field and it's the only way I could possibly get in trouble blogging about. But this is more about the idea of education as infrastructure. Which is one of my things. My access to public education gave me great things, social mobility among its greatest gifts but also curiosity. Things I will always appreciate. Access to a good education regardless of background whether it be of genetic or situational continues to be a major civil rights issue, and I think regardless of political background you would find agreement on this. Education is the silver bullet. But I digress, the point is not education as a civil rights issue in this section, but instead economic and workforce development.

America is in a weird place in its economic development. The old cradle to grave manufacturing jobs are gone for the most part and we are all puzzled about what the great next thing is. One thing we have figured out from the credit crisis is that we aren't going to all get rich by ripping each other off or just waiting for house prices to keep going up, up, up. An integral part of this is certainly going to be education and workforce development. Not the current structure of education that is preparing us for the industrial and agricultural jobs of the 19th century, but a system that allows us to innovate.

One might say that the greatest economic growth in the history of this country if not the world came after World War II. One argument may be it was the almost confiscatory nature of taxation during WWII and the ensuing Cold War that drove this development. Advocates for education will argue (and it may be hard to disagree) that such efforts such as the response to Sputnik and the National Defense Education Act, or even NASA efforts.

But, I really think the biggest effect was the people themselves. I have a theory on the post war effect of military service on economic growth, not only discipline through service and understanding a common goal but how military service even for enlisted men and NCO's provided them to ironically be independent thinkers, willing and able to take leadership roles within complex systems and an ability to lead when left or given the opportunity. These are some of the integral qualities of the so-called Greatest Generation, and in fact these qualities also were in the women who didn't serve in uniform, who had to work in defense plants etc, in non-traditional roles. Also you had "older youth/young men" who were able to access education on the GI bill, likely a much more serious student than the 18-19 year olds of today. A student who had served on foreign battlefields or even in rear echelon situations with a common cause has a great advantage over a student whose greatest challenge maybe finding a fake ID or not getting the dorm room they want.

So barring the challenges of another Great Depression or a third World War, how can the education system help to replicate the innovation in industry of the WWII and postwar economic boom (particularly the executive functions of innovative leaders) while utilizing the technological advances of the early 21st century? Here is the essential question for me. The vaunted 21st century skills to many appear to be access to technology, mostly because those are skills that 20th century folks are migrating too and having difficulty to understand, not completely wrong of course, but a great deal can be learned by having a common cause and understanding the interdependence of humanity that comes from striving towards this common cause.

So Thomas Friedman in his new book would argue (and I would tend to agree with him) that the greatest challenge of this generation is energy. It is not the Nazis marching on Natick or the Japanese attacking Pittsfield but it is an issue that can and will effect the American way of life in the next century. And not only the American way of life, but improvement of life across the earth as the struggle for energy continues while the rest of the world tries to move up to an American style of middle class with its requisite energy usage.

So the challenge is set. Can the education establishment step up and take to this challenge? Or will it become a self serving institution, much more concerned about the adults involved than the young people or the future of the nation. No, I can't compare this to the freedom of all peoples, there will be no liberation of evil but an evolutionary change in how we do business. Much of this challenge is on the students as well, can we engage them to see themselves as agents of change? With education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics being their weapons against certain environmental degradation and almost as certain warfare over dwindling fossil fuels? The die is cast. Drill, baby, drill may be a stupid if short lived concept, that may bring some short term relief to the adoring fossil fuel sycophants but it is a Pyrrhic victory.