Careful the things you say.
Children will listen.

~Stephen Sondheim/Into the Woods

Too bad the same warning does not apply to adults.  For example, did purveyors of the “big lie” think their constant exhortations to “stop the steal” would not incite an insurrection?  But what I find more disconcerting is adults often do not listen to themselves.

Yesterday, I ran across a prime example in our local newspaper.  Rick Keffer, a prominent businessman and philanthropist in our community, writes a periodic column in which he shares facts and data on a broad range of topics.  For example, having owned the local Chrysler/Jeep dealership before retiring, he would share trade association numbers about automobile production and sales.   I got to know Rick, having served with him on scholarship selection committees and other community efforts.  Every community needs more Rick Keffers.

I forgot to mention Rick is a Republican.  Though we have never had private conversations about politics, I am pretty sure he approves of small government, the last three Supreme Court appointments and the 2017 tax cuts.  His January 8, 2021 column, in anticipation of Joe Biden’s inauguration, was titled, “A Conservative’s Wish List.”   The column was also evidence Rick passed my litmus test, accepting Biden’s win in the 2020 election although he was concerned the 45th president’s agenda was too far to the left for his tastes.

Which brings me to the reason for today’s post.  Keffer’s most recent column is titled, “Happiness and Population.”  He shares his fascination “with the Scandinavian countries and have visited a few briefly.”  He then draws on the March issue of Forbes which included an article, “The 20 Happiest Countries in the World in 2021,” based on the latest “World Happiness Report.”  Among the top ten are Finland (#1), Denmark (#2), Norway (#5), the Netherlands (#6) and Sweden (#7).  For the record, the United States comes in at #18.

He first notes these countries’ populations range from 10.1 million citizens (Sweden) to 5.4 million (Norway).  One would think a life-long member of the GOP would take this opportunity to make the case this proves that “big is bad,” especially big government, although I suspect he valued his association with the Big Three automakers and his stock portfolio includes investment in mega banks, oil companies and tech companies.  But he does not, and that is why I regularly read his column.  Rather than rely on a statistical correlation, he asks the obvious question, “Why are these people so darned happy?”

From what he learned during his travels he suggests the following keys to the quality of life enjoyed by Scandinavian residents.

1. Nature belongs to everyone.  Everyone is allowed to “roam freely in all natural areas, even private property.”
2. They are minimalist and recycle as much as they can.  Not waste, but used items.  Rick points to the Finns who hold a “Cleaning Day,” best described as a national yard sale.
3. A philosophy based on the principle it is never too early to start working on happiness.  This includes community baskets of clothing and other items for every newborn, affordable day care and tax-funded education through university level.
4. Public revenue is 20 percent of personal income.  The United States is currently at 14 percent.  Rick states the same 20 percent standard “would have balanced the 2019 budget.”
5. They are humble, “reluctant to put a polished view of their life on social media or brag about success and wealth.”

Rick concludes, “I have no plans to leave my home on Amelia Island for Scandinavia or anywhere else, but it is interesting to see what makes people tick.”

My question to Rick, “Then why on earth would you not want Americans to be just as happy?”  As sportscaster Warner Wolf would say, “Let’s go to the video tape.”

1. Access to nature is good, but you supported an administration which reduced the amount of public lands, leased public lands to private companies and eased environmental protections which decreased the habitability of natural assets.
2. Changing attitudes and behavior related to material assets would be both difficult and even devastating for an economy driven by consumption of goods.  But the increase in savings rate in the U.S. during the pandemic suggests  many of us can survive without things we might want but do not necessarily need.  Maybe it is time to pass a few of those along to those who could use them.
3. Affordable child care and education funding through university level contribute to happiness?  Thank you Rick for making one of the best arguments yet in support of the Biden human infrastructure program.  Will you now urge our two senators and Congressman Rutherford to support a negotiated version of the plan instead of “just saying no?”
4. Since you suggest Americans are under taxed, are you ready to support repeal of the 2017 tax cuts, especially in light of the 130 countries that have agreed to a minimum global tax which counters the original “my tax rate is lower than your tax rate” justification for the corporate tax cuts.
5. And you were okay with the least humble individual in America for four years. If “it ain’t bragging if it’s true,” what do you call it when such bluster is not bona fide?

Bottom line, an increasing number of the GOP leadership and right-wing media call the very things you describe as contributing to happiness to be radical, socialism and even communism.   They claim such government interference will destroy America.  You cannot have it both ways, which is why well-intentioned individuals like Rick Keffer remind me of another Sondheim musical Company.  And in particular, the song, “You Could Drive a Person Crazy.”

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

Juneteenth commemorates the day abolition made it to Texas.  Slaves had officially been freed three years earlier.  But word had not gotten to Texas because they only had Fox News.

~Comedian Costaki Economopoulos

While I felt the first observance of June 19th as an official national holiday was a good time to explore the current debate over “critical race theory (CRT),” a local columnist Steve Nicklas chose otherwise.  His column is called, “Steve’s Market Place,” though the only thing he seems to be selling is systemic ignorance.  Praising Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for banning discussion of critical race theory in public schools, Nicklas explains:

(Children) should not learn controversial policies like critical race theory, racism, discrimination, etc.  They especially should not learn about it in taxpayer funded public schools.

He goes on to quote DeSantis, who claims CRT teaches “kids to hate their country, and to hate each other.”

Ironically, these frequent opponents of “cancel culture” are the leading proponents of banning debate whether legal and institutional barriers to African-American participation in society has a lasting de facto impact long after their de jure prohibition.  Yet, that is not their most egregious violation of the learning process.  The operative word in CRT is neither “critical” or “race.”  It is the term “theory,” which is at the very heart of scholarship.  It is the middle waystation along a learning process which begins with a hypothesis and ends with empirical evidence which either confirms or debunks the theory.

Nor are most theories written in stone.  At one time, scientist assumed atoms were the smallest particle of matter.  However, with more sophisticated tools of observation, such as electron microscopes, theories about the composition of matter have been updated multiple times (from atoms to quarks to preons).

Theories have a second role in the scientific exploration of the universe.  They force us to ask the next question.  I recently listened to Neil deGrasse Tyson explain the empirical evidence he believes proves the big bang theory.  The interviewer then asked, “Was there anything before the big bang?”  To which, Tyson replied, “That’s a great question, and someday I hope to have the answer.”  Tyson further admitted the evidence only explains “what happened,” not “why it happened.” This is how we learn and civilization advances.

Of course, folks like Nicklas and DeSantis will be the first to accuse people like me of making this about race.  But take the word “race” out of the equation.  Has either Nicklas or DeSantis attached the same stigma to the “critical theory” whether the 2020 election was stolen or January 6th was not an insurrection?  Didn’t the governor just mandate a moment of silence at the beginning of each school day under the theory reflection will make a difference in the quality of a child’s education?  When the only time a politician or pundit rails against debating a theory is when it is associated with race, it is difficult to believe race is not the defining factor.

However, the more dangerous precedent is suppressing Socratic debate, which facilitates dialogue among individuals with differing opinions, information and experience as a means of challenging the status quo and stimulating critical thinking. Just imagine if academia over the past 2,500 years was governed by the Nicklas and DeSantis principle of avoiding “controversial” ideas.  Would we still believe the sun revolves around the earth or that leeches are the preferred treatment of most diseases?

Of course, the ultimate irony is DeSantis’ positing his own theory–teaching racial history in public schools leads to young people hating America and fomenting interracial enmity.  Wouldn’t it be nice to know if he is right?  Too bad he has not reached out to someone like the late sociologist James Coleman, who produced the evidence racially separate equation was anything but equal, to test his theory.  I wonder why.  I have my own theory.  Maybe he already knows the answer.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

Seeking to dilute images of its racist past, officials in Montgomery, Ala., voted Tuesday to add the motto “Birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement” to the city seal.

Los Angeles Times/July 3, 2002

If you want to understand the spin machine that colors our understanding of the American experience, spend a couple of days in Montgomery, Alabama, as I just did.  The most direct route from our home in Northeast Florida is navigated along “The Jefferson Davis Highway.”  The historic marker on the property now occupied by the DoubleTree Hotel where I stayed commemorates the shooting of an innocent black man by city police.  The state capitol dome is surrounded by eight murals which highlight events ranging from the original founding of the region as a “white settlement” by the French to the post-Civil War era depicted by black laborers constructing modern day buildings which, of course, they were then prohibited from entering.

Almost everything in the capitol building is a shrine to the confederacy and segregation.  The old state court chamber is identified as the place when Jefferson Davis lay in state.  And the only statue in the building is of Lurleen Wallace, the 46th governor and first woman to hold that office, although her 1966 campaign was as surrogate for out-going governor and husband segregationist-supreme George who was term limited.  What was known only to her doctor and George Wallace (even she was not told), Lurleen Wallace had been diagnosed with colon cancer.  Despite her condition, she continued to campaign and was elected to the state’s highest office but served only 14 months before succumbing to the disease on May 7, 1968.

So let’s give credit where credit is due.  Montgomery, Alabama was “the cradle of the confederacy,” having served as the first capital of the secessionist alliance.  But what about the added phrase, “Birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement.”  It is not like a group of white men and women suddenly had a moment of moral consciousness.   Or that George Wallace, upon the death of his beloved Lurleen, gave a speech as he left the capitol claiming, “The time has come to atone for the way we have viewed and treated the black citizens of our state.”

Let’s be honest, Montgomery became the locus of the civil rights movement because it was the perfect venue for leaders of the movement to demonstrate both the de jure and de facto legal, social and economic injustice which were ingrained in the state’s history, laws and culture.  A more appropriate moniker would be to call Montgomery the epicenter of America’s acknowledgement the aspirational goal of “all men (and women) created equal” was, as Shakespeare wrote, often “more honored in the breach than the observance.”

I found my journey to Montgomery more meaningful in the shadow of the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, an event that was not merely spun, but buried with the victims.  Which brings me the ultimate purpose of this post, to try and decipher the debate over the “1619 Project,” an on-going examination, according to the New York Times which published the original series, “that aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the United States narrative.”

As with any historical narrative, the principal author Nikole Hannah-Jones brought her own perspective and life experiences to the work, in some cases overstating the relationship of certain facts to her thesis.  To her credit, when legitimate critiques were made, she revised the text in subsequent versions.  The best example is her adding the word “some” to her contention colonists fought the Revolutionary War to preserve slavery which was increasingly being questioned by colonial governors appointed by King George III.

The debate has now shifted to the use of Hannah-Jones’ essays as teaching materials in public schools.  As reported by Education Week, three state legislatures –Arkansas, Iowa and Mississippi–have introduced bills to ban its use.  And U.S. senator Tom Cotton (Insurrectionist-Arkansas) has called for a national prohibition.  The Mississippi bill calls the 1619 Project “a racially divisive and revisionist account,” while the Iowa bill claims it “attempts to deny or obfuscate the fundamental principles upon which the United States was founded.”  My question, “Exactly which fundamentals are they referring to?”  Let me guess.

• Puritans came to America to promote religious freedom?  According to the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), “While Puritans sought refuge from the Church of England’s oppression, they in turn oppressed all non-Protestants in the New World, including Puritans advocating separation of church and state, such as Rhode Island founder Roger Willams.”  So much for religious freedom.
• America has always been “exceptional?”  Again, according to ACTA, “Ironically, the term was coined by Joseph Stalin in reference to America’s proletariat being largely unwilling to join the communist movement sweeping Europe at the time.” Sometimes, exceptionalism is a term on which we can all agree, when applied to the United States.
• Paul Revere was responsible for alerting colonists to the arrival of British troops in Boston harbor?  In fact there were five riders that night.  And the longest ride, twice the distance of Revere’s, was completed by one Israel Bissell. One might argue Revere’s fame is due to the fact poet William Wadsworth Longfellow found more words that rhyme with Revere than with Bissell.
• And of course the Euro-centric whopper, Columbus discovered America?  Despite the fact Norse explorer Leif Erikson outpaced Columbus for this honor by more than 500 years. (Maybe the MAGA shaman thought the crowd was celebrating Viking-awareness day.)

In economics, there is room for Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes.  In psychology, Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud.  So why not make space in history classes for Hannah-Jones alongside the likes of Donald Ritchie and Albert S. Broussard, authors of the popular high school text American History: The Early Years.  Maybe, just maybe, it will avoid another generation of Americans learning, 100 years after the fact, that 300 plus Black Americans were massacred in Tulsa, Oklahoma or other examples of racial injustices which, as so perfectly articulated by comedian David Steinberg, “expose the tattered underwear beneath America’s tuxedo.”

What are those who want to ban the 1619 Project from classrooms afraid of? That students will desert the foundations of the American experience. Or will they, as President Joe Biden suggested in his speech in Tulsa on the 100th anniversary of the death and destruction on May 31 and June 1, 1921, recognize the greatness of America is enhanced every time its citizens’ “come to terms with its dark side.”

POSTCRIPT:  There was one upside to my drive from Amelia Island to Montgomery.  A sign that life in America is returning to some semblance of normalcy as evidenced by the fact, in rural Georgia and Alabama, “Jesus Saves” billboards and yard signs again outnumber Trump 2020 and MAGA posters.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

While teaching at Miami University, I was once asked to be part of a visioning exercise at a Cincinnati architecture firm.  The purpose?  To discuss the mindset of recent college graduates and how that might affect their recruiting and business model in the future.

My invitation was based on an article in Miami Magazine about the creativity class I developed as part of the entrepreneurship curriculum.  A second panelist was William Strauss, co-author of the book Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069.  As I entered the large conference room and went over to introduce myself to Strauss, something about him looked strangely familiar.  Had I watched a televised interview about the book or seen his portrait on the back cover in some bookstore?  It was only when he said “hello” I made the connection.  This was the same Bill Strauss, who, in 1981, co-founded the satirical music ensemble The Capitol Steps, a project which began as Senate staff entertainment at a Christmas party and, until the pandemic, performed weekends at the their own theater in the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.  NOTE:  Sadly, Strauss died in 2007, after an eight year battle against pancreatic cancer.

As we start to emerge from the combined health and economic crisis precipitated by the spread of the coronavirus, I think about Strauss and the lasting effect of the past 15 months.  In Generations, Strauss and co-author Neil Howe establish the “Strauss-Howe generational theory,” described as follows on Wikipedia.

According to the theory, historical events are associated with recurring generational personas (archetypes). Each generational persona unleashes a new era (called a turning) lasting around 20–25 years, in which a new social, political, and economic climate (mood) exists. They are part of a larger cyclical “saeculum” (a long human life, which usually spans between 80 and 100 years, although some saecula have lasted longer). The theory states that a crisis recurs in American history after every saeculum, which is followed by a recovery (high). During this recovery, institutions and communitarian values are strong. Ultimately, succeeding generational archetypes attack and weaken institutions in the name of autonomy and individualism, which eventually creates a tumultuous political environment that ripens conditions for another crisis.

These critical events are labelled “crucibles.”  While Strauss and Howe document 500 years of such crucibles, I will focus on the last century of generation-shaping experiences from the Great Depression to World War II to John Kennedy’s assassination to 9/11 to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The first four fit the Strauss-Howe theory.  Each brought on a period of national unity eventually eroded by another crisis, the best example being the era of social and economic progress immediately following Kennedy’s death which disappeared with each increase in engagement in the Vietnam war.

The last six months raise a different question.  What happens if there are two or more competing crucibles?  Take January 2021.  During the first month of the new year, the death count from COVID-19 in the United States reached a high point of 102,014.  According to Strauss and Howe, such a traumatic shock to the populace should have triggered a recovery characterized by national unity and strong community values.  However, at the same time, America experienced an equally shocking moment on January 6th when a sitting president incited an armed insurrection designed to prevent Congress from carrying out its constitutional mandate of certifying a presidential election.

Why does it matter?  Twenty years ago, our daughter was a freshman in college on 9/11.  In response to an attack on the homeland, she enrolled in ROTC and now serves as a major in the U.S. Air Force, something no one could have predicted based on her pre-9/11 behavior. Generations contains many similar individual examples how a half millennium of historical events changed the course of people’s lives. If I could share our daughter’s story with Bill Strauss, I imagine he would say, “See, that’s exactly what Neil and I are talking about.”

But what about current freshmen in college?  What will be their personal crucible?  The fact that their transformation from adolescence to adulthood, being on your own for the first time, was interrupted?  Or for the first time in 200 years, the U.S. Capitol was breached, not by a foreign adversary, but by domestic terrorists?  How many young men and women will join the medical profession or become first responders?  And how many will join armed militias or conspiracy-based organizations such as Q-Anon?

What did Strauss and Howe miss that would help us understand “dueling crucibles?”  Maybe it was their belief that the cycle of crisis and recovery was the natural order of things.  However, in hindsight it appears a necessary variable is a leader who understands what Rahm Emanuel once stated, “Never let a crisis go to waste.”  Think FDR after the depression, LBJ after the assassination, George W. Bush after 9/11.  In contrast, Trump will forever claim he would have been re-elected by a landslide but for the pandemic.  FDR, LBJ and W, based on their experience would tell him otherwise.  “When you take control of a crisis, regardless how bad, you win.  When you let it control you, you lose.”

Of one thing I am sure.  If Bill Strauss were still around on January 6th, he too would never think of “The Capitol Steps” in the same way.  In 1981, he and troupe co-founder Elaina Newport chose the name based on a rumor which became a widely repeated joke in D.C. political circles.  Rita Jenrette gave an interview in which she claimed she once made love to her then husband Congressman John Jenrette (R-LA) on the stairs to the east entrance of the building.  That meme (I know, an anachronism in 1981) led to a Rita Jennette Playboy cover and photo spread.  What happened on those steps in 2021 was neither a rumor nor funny.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP