Homepage of Ali A. Parsa, Ph. D.
?Enlighten people and the tyranny of body and mind
will disappear like evil spirit in the dawn of a day."
-Thomas Jefferson
During its short history, America has been the most fertile ground for conception and development of more ideas and inventions than any single nation on earth. However, what is often overlooked is that a major portion of America's elites have been non-Americans who, like their American counterparts succeeded becasue they were self or family motivated and public schools had little or nothing to do with their success. The bottom line is that Thomas Jefferson's dream of educating the public to be come more intelligent producers, consumers and engaged in participatory democracy is yet to be fulfilled. Unless this is done America will remain a sleeping giant, and in the meantime it may lose its status of "second-to-none" in the world to nations that are taking public education more seriously.
Much has already been written about the deficiency of math and science in American public school system. Those are not our only problems. Erosion of ethics is making every branch of knowledge to lose its meaning and purpose. Here are some disturbing facts, indicating the lack of emphasis on history, conducted by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni that appeared in October 2000 issue of the respected Readers Digest:
80% of graduates from 55 top American colleges flunked or nearly failed on history questions drawn from a basic high school curriculum. Less than 25% could identify James Madison as the Father of Constitution. About the same percentage did not know whose idea was the ?Government of the People by the People and for the People."
Students could graduate from the top colleges without taking a single course in American history. By contrast, 99% of the students surveyed knew the cartoon chracters Bevis and Butthead!
This is indeed sad. For more on similar statistics watch Jay Leno's Jaywalk!
It has been said that those who do not know what they have, they are bound to lose what they have.
As an educator I am quite concerned about this universal extent of ignorance. In one survey of my own, I was shocked to find out that out of about some 200 high school students only 3% knew why it is harmful for us to sleep in a room full of plants, with windows closed at night!
The great founders of America created a country that was a role model for the world in many respects. The condition for preservation of the ?Government of the People?, was informed, educated and ethical public. Good character and exemplary live were highly emphasized by the founders both in words and in deed. However, that solid foundation is being weakened in a way that could be called the undoing of the American Revolution with devastating adverse effects on America and the rest of the world that is so used to following America. These are:
Deterioration of public education and rise in public ignorance
Watered-down public education at an increasing cost
Tubular view of education-with view of a tree rather than the forest
Unprecedented economy of waste in spite of skyrocketing deficit
Alienation of individuals without megabucks from participatory democracy
Higher apathy and lower voter turnout than almost all other countries
Rise in crime the best solution for which has been more policing of America
Alarming rise in white-collar crime for which there is no statistics
Highest true unemployment-when corrections are made for throw-away economy
Disappearing sense of ethics and indifference to right and wrong
Lack of interest in talking about issues that affect America and the world
Alarming affliction of substance abuse in search of meaningful lives!
The highest affinity for spectator rather than participatory sports
America has the technology to effectively educate the world at the lowest cost but first it should start at home. The greatest obstacle for public education is run-away hypocrisy, that, as always thrives on ignorance. Historically, hypocrisy or tyranny in disguise has fooled the public in accepting true as false and false as true. Runaway hypocrisy is so rampant that even if it is reduced only one notch, neither the government nor the public would have to spend any more than it does now for a more effective public education.
This page is to demonstrate that unless ?We the People? recognize that there is a war to be fought to conquer ignorance we will be heading for an era of what I call neo-slavery, that, this time around will have no color and race boundary. An era in which people are made so ignorant that their control will justify dehumanizing measures such as more policing, cloning and creation of master and a slave classes through genetic engineering.. Unless ?We the People? are informed and empowered and are in charge of our own destinies, sooner or later the ?superior? race will! Now you know the reason why I have named this page wethepeople-not-thesheeple.org
I have proof that nothing short of declaring public education as national defense and appointing an Education Czar would overcome this problem. Time is running out for tackling this grave problem at normal pace. Although I have prvided links for rapid access to the topics, I strongly recommend that you scroll down and read the whole page. I appreciate your sharing your views with me.
<aliaparsa2001@yahoo.com>
AMERICA THAT WAS
My life-long conclusion from study of humanities and the history of civilizations is as follows: By the virtue of their higher intelligence, in the absence of education, ethics and example, which I call the Basic 3e?s, human beings can be more of a threat to themselves and to the world than the beasts can. Operating on instinct, beasts kill other animals or humans only for their fill; whereas uneducated and unethical humans have the potential of killing their own for fun and pleasure. In other words, we as humans are at the low end of moral order unless educated.
The American founders created an environment that stressed education, ethics and exemplary lives due to their first-hand experience with reunway hypocirsy and tyranny and a strong will to eradicate it. They accomplished this by first doing their homework. Their genius was in their painstaking review of world history, extracting the truth as it applied to human nature, and to a great extent, even predicting the future before writing the Constitution.
The first and foremost genius of America?s founders was their ability to devise a system of government with universal appeal to all peoples. American citizenship unlike that of the old world was not to be restriected to certain geographic and racial boundaries. This was described by Abraham Lincoln as ?An abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times.? This is the basis of the notion of strengh through diversity. America was the first large scale experiment for such an idea. Prior to that this was only abstract and philosophical thought.
The second genius of the Founders was to safeguard the American public from what they had just ran away-runaway hypocrisy and tyranny. To them the only antidote to hypocrisy, tyranny and exploitation was public education which was devised by no other person than the Father of Public Education, Thomas Jefferson to whom we owe so much to enlighten not only America but the whole world. I suspect that this great man must have known that hypocrisy is the silent killer of democracy. Indeed, with the exception of natural calamities, runaway hypocrisy has derailed many powerful empires from the roller coaster of history regardless of their material wealth. Hypocrisy or dictatorship in disguise has always favored uneducated, unprincipled and mediocre for its own sustenance.
AMERICA THAT IS
Various forces have worked counter to the perpetuity of the American Revolution and have given rise to the situation described in the beginning of this website. This situation popularly is referred to as ?dumbing down of America? Neither a loyal American citizen nor a true freind of America should ignore the grave problem America is facing in the area of public education the culprits for which are:
Increasing intrusion of hypocrisy in public education that has led to its deterioration
Abuse of wealth so that it has worked against motivation to learn by the public.
Decreasing parental involvement in education of their children
The influence of ultra liberal hypocrites in declaring homework as ?child labor?
Emphasis by schools on beefing up the administration rather than education
Downplaying the importance of ethics and example in education
Emphasis on school buildings and professional sports rather than classrooms and teaching and fitness
Appropriation of more money for public schools, but spending it in the name of rather than for education
Removing the incentive to teach by treating good and bad teachers alike
Removing the incentive to learn by emphasizing self-esteem rather than no pain, no gain principle.
The socio-economic consequences of watered down education devoid of ethics:
More vulnerability of youth to fall prey to various cults for exploitation
A consumer society that is more confused about simple things such as what to eat and how much than almost anywhere else in the world.
A sedentary society that spends billions of dollars on weight reduction in vain
An apathetic society that spends a disproportionate amount of their time and resources on shallow entertainment, sedentary lifestyle rather than participatory body and mind activities.
esorting to bullets rather than debates and discussion to settle dispute
Unwillingness to live on less and complaining about the export of jobs to countries whose people actually live better on less resources.
Inability to distinguish their wants from their needs in order to save resources
Erecting more new prisons than new schools
Only 7% of world population but consuming about 50% of illegal drug
Indifference to the portrayal of national debt as surplus and spending beyond their means
Inability to have a voice in their government to influence its internal and external conduct.
indifference to the violation of rule of law and ethics in the highest office.
Unprecedented invasion of body, mind and pocketbook of unenlightened and innocent public is rapidly rising even during our Information Age-information devoid of ethics. For example, a well-informed public would not buy food and drink excessivley loaded with surgar, caffein, cocaine, fat and harmful chemicals. They would not allow their bodies to become dumping grounds for overdosed medications and unnecessary surgeries. Such indiscretions have led to obesity, hyperactivitiy and countless side-effects that even need more mediations to overcome. Most frightening is the recent appearance of super organisms as a result of indisriminate use of antibiotics.
AMERICA THAT IS YET TO BE
An inspiring idiom I have learned in America goes ?if it is to be, it is up to me!?
The good news is that There are still a small percentage of Americans who adhere to this principle and have, by faith, family influence or personal conviction, chosen not to sever their umbilical cords from the principles upon which America was founded. I have, and will always admire these people. They have become my role models and I admit that without their influence and encouragements I would not be where I am.
This is what every loyal American citizen should say. However, public schools have failed to produce enough individuals to effect the change that America needs at this time. It takes parent, school, government and the media educate a child and, not only publishing a book called "It Takes a Villlage." It takes some extraordinary effort to undo the harm that has been done to the public education system. No one should expect this problem to be solved overnight because it has taken place over several decades during which all players in education system have gone awry.
I learned this the hard way by working in the government and schools and I gained first-hand experience with run-away hypocrisy. Perhaps I learned the greatest part of my lesson by working for an agency of our federal government for twelve years where I could not believe what was going on to prevent me, yes, your read it right, preventing me from performing my duties of educating. I voted for Clinton-Gore twice and wrote them ten letters including two to the author of "It Takes a Village", all in vain. I only asked that they examine my documents and tell me what happened to their claim of ?reinventing the government.? I finally had to take voluntary retirement and give up because my conscience would not allow me to do what amounted to burning the taxpayer?s money or forcing me to burglarize the citizens of this country in broad daylight when I was supposed to work for the people. I did this even though I needed the income badly!
As for parents, how can anyone instill in parents the responsibility that is needed to take an active role in the education of their children if these parents themselves are the products of faulty educational system in the past?
Speaking of the public school factor, there is such a huge bureaucracy in place that cannot be dismantled easily. Although relatively better schools do exist, most of them suffer from mismanagement either by hypocrites who favor public ignorance or by some who are products of diploma mills who have little or no knowledge and wisdom to execute their responsibility.
Those who look to private, charter, and other schooling for better educating their children should recognize that these are only panacea and not a cure-all or a substitute for parental responsibility. And, once parents are informed and involved the kind of school becomes practically immaterial.
As for media, they do a marvelous job of entertaining the public but not of effectively educating and informing them. The public by virtue of its nature tends toward sex, violence, fun and game. The media know this and do their best to provide them with those. It is human nature to choose these paths of least resistance than the painful path of learning. A lack of Basics-3e?s makes the kids especially vulnerable to a variety of exploitations.
To me, the mainstream media with its educational programs back to back with what I call corrupting and diseducating ones, is as effective at instilling effective education, as a schoolteacher who is involved in all kinds of wrong doings and, in the meantime teaches in schools! It is like saying "do as I say, not as I do" that misguides the youth rather than enlightening them. Unfortunately the media emphasizes sensationalism and pre-occupys the people with non-issues with no enlightening values and thus its net effect is not educating the public. I have pinpointed some who were not receptive to my ideas when I approached them. The ony people the mainstream media serves is the small segment of the public that already has learned to separate the wheat from the chaff-so to speak, and have strong will not to succcomb to the media's corrupting programs. There are a very few media celebrities who do their best to promote decency and enlightenn the public, but they are far from counteracting the net negative effects of the media as a whole. My hope mainly lies in the Internet and radio talk shows that are opening new vistas for "We the People."
HOW TO GET THERE
The biggest obstacles are runaway hypocrisy and skyrocketting cost of education. In fact, the cost of education by the institutions with virtual classroom is actually higher than conventional ones. We the People have yet to claim the dividends of technology that was promised to us long time ago-to educate more at lower cost. We constantly educate less at higher cost. A wise consumer will ask such questions as: why is it that while the cost of high tech gadgets constantly go down and their quality goes up, the cost of education is always going up? Why don?t we use the power of marvelous technology to at least make the very basic effective education affordable to all?
I am by no means a luddite but I do use technology with discretion. I do believe however, that the net effect of technology has reached the point of diminishing return because of lack of ethics and discretion. As an example, just think of devising missiles followed by antimissile and anti antimissile; or, myriads of computer software and other inventions that are obsolete almost as soon as they are made. Think of consumer's waste of time and money who buy these only to find out that what they just purchased is outdated. We could not keep up with such ?progress? even if we had nine lives! A wise consumer should have the power to convey a message to the greedy manufacturers to have mercy and upgrade these at intervals of say, 5 years so that the consumer has time to digest and enjoy them for a while instead of constantly attending classes to learn yet a new version that is put out in such haste that is often no better than the last version and saves no time at all. To me, the net effect of these ?time saving? gadgets is truly a waste of time and unethical and sheer exploitation that actually deprives us of the blessings of Information Age.
I often wonder whether we are not self-destructing by inflicting such wounds upon ourselves. If this is not sel-destruction then what is it? While wondering, I sometimes have a tendency to agree with those who claim that the end is near, or else why would "civilized" human beings should do this. I sometimes sedate myself with the words of yet another America genius I admire, Ralph Waldo Emerson who said:
?The end of human race is that it will die of civilization.?
Indeed the history of the world is full of individuals and empires who became the victims of their own indiscretions and excesses in the pursuit of money . It is high time that we heed such warning signs from the world as well as true American leaders if we are to avoid a total annihilation. One such true leader at the turn of the twentieth century was Theodore Roosevelt who said:
?To educate a man in mind and not moral is to educate
a menace to our society.?
A great man like Albert Einstein who equated religion with ethics and said:
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind?
We could also be inspired by Mahatma Gandhi who said:
?The world has enough resources for everyone?s need
but not for their greed.?
If we value freedom we should consider ignorance as our number one enemy and fight it accordingly. We must rediscover Thomas Jefferson?s message who said:
?Those who expect to be ignorant and free, expect what
there never was and never will be.?
Or the inspiring words of J.P. Curran who in 1790 in condemning apathy who said:
?The condition upon which God has given us liberty is eternal vigilance.?
History has listed the Middle East, where I come from as the cradle of civilization and it is my personal conviction that America was the cradle of modern democracy. History tells me that if America does not win the war with ignorance, it could have the same fate as the Middle East.
Public education and media have instilled a short-term memory span in the people who despise any engagement in presentations longer that 30 seconds and consider it waste of time to discuss and debate issues at the expense of disproportiantate time they need for sex, violence and sensationalism.
One example of this was the recent close presidential election that made most people weary whereas I and a minority of Americans welcomed it and used it as an insight into the antiquated election system that is unbecoming of the most technological country in the world. The irony is that we did not even know the government had neglected this but now we can demand its long overdue repair.
We must contemplate on the fact that preservation of America, if it is to maintain its claim to fame- Government of the People, depends on enlightenment, independence and integrity of every citizen. We should encourage an enterpreneurial system for small business as opposed to never-ending mergers at the cost of higher unemployment which takes the incentive away from individuals as a result of being a small screw in some large machine rather than an independent and productive entity. The mergers may sound economical and on the surface reduce the cost to consumers but such savings, in reality and in the long run lead to more unemployment with all its social, economical and psychological adverse effects.
As an example, disappearance of family farms in favor of megafarms and factory farms has resulted in idleness of countless farmers who were among the most honest, independent and most productive citizens in America. It is true that America produces the cheapest food in the world, but an informed citizen would ask, at what cost? And, why couldn?t people pay a little higher price for food which would be a pittance as compared to what they pay for weight control and diet foods to trim themselves the major culprit for which is availability and low price foods. Moreover, which would be a safer and more secure food supply in case of calamities, plant diseases or enemy attack on the food source, a hand ful of megafarms in selected areas or more numerous farms in scattered places? Which system would produce more variety of food? This is just one example of our indiscriminate rush to adopt technology without application of wisdom. The mergers have forced the progenies of erstwhile productive farmers into sedentary and vulnerable jobs such as dotcoms and other ephemeral and non-productive or far less productive jobs. The incidence of mad cow disease, foot and mouth disease and more of such calamities in coming are only the beginning of our choice of shooting ourselves in the foot.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
As the leader of the Free World, America can ill afford to allow ignorance to flourish at home and abroad. An enlightened and ethical world, in the long run, is far more conducive to a lasting world peace, prosperity, growth of free enterprise and legitimate wealth than a world that is ill educated, ill fed and ill clothed.
The overhaul of public education system has been overdue for such a long time that it should not be expected to be solved soon enough by the public with a net effect in favor of the system as a whole. I know that most Americans are opposed to governmental intervention in solving any problem and I could not agree with them more. However there are emergency and exceptional situations that government action is justified. Among those is fighting a war with an enemy and the enemy number one is ignorance that, like termite is destroying the very foundation of this nation. Moreover, if the we have a Drug Czar why can't we have an Education czar? There seems to be much hypocriy at work that does not favor a solution to either problem.
ThereforeAmerica is badly in need of an Education czar rather than drug czar. When the public ignorance is replaced with public education we will not have major substance abuse or any other abuses for that matter.
Also, this action is so crucial and is so late that nothing short of declaring education as national defense will save America. While we spend billions of dollars in defending the country against imaginary foreign enemies, let us not forget that first we have to conquer our number one enemy-public ignorance.
Thomas Jefferson said an empire collapses more from within than from without.
Let each of us do our share to unlock the power of the yet sleeping giant-America by enlightening ?We the People? before hypocrisy demoralizes the public further with more lethal doses of apathy and cynicism. Let us remind those who have chosen to be indifferent and insensitive to what ails America and the world with the usual alibi that an individual can no longer effect a change the words of Margaret Mead who said:
?Never doubt that a group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.?
We can only do this if we have a decisive leader who has a relatively stronger sense of ethics and sense of right and wrong than a mere politician who, when asked what is the difference between right and wrong, answers:
?It all depends on what the definition of is, is!!?
I close first, with this poem from Langston Hughes:
Let America be America again,
The land that never has been yet and must be,
The land where every man is free.
And one of my own :
Educated, you perceive what you see,
So you never go on a binge or spree.
You are slave if not enlightened,
Even if you were born in the Land of the Free.?