Morning Memo – 2024-05-07

What kind of a mess have we created?

I have resorted to watching more YouTube and Netflix to avoid the incessant images of protesters on college campuses. I don’t fully understand why anyone would get so passionate about things about which they are so ignorant. What specific acts have jews directed toward them? How do they ignore the actions of Hamas that allegedly triggered these mobs? (Where do they get the gall to demand anything, much less food and water, from the institution they have attacked?)

But these are not the questions that trouble me the most.

Whenever I witness bad actors I ask, “From where do they learn such behavior? Is that behavior the symptom of a larger problem in our society?”

Sources of Bad Learning

Parents –

These people all have parents. What sort of behavior did their parents model for them? Did their parents think for themselves and model introspection for these children? Did their parents help them to learn how to separate propaganda from reason?

“Teachers” –

Many of these protesters are also “teachers.” Most of the questions I outlined above also apply to “teachers.” Did those “teachers” help their students engage in critical thinking, or were they just part of the propaganda mill? Formerly respected colleges and universities have become institutions of shallow thinking.

(If you wonder why I put “teachers” in quotes, mostly they now play the role of propagandists.)

Contemporaries –

With the models of shallow thinking I cited above, young people have few contemporaries they can emulate. A big burden falls on the few young people who have not lost themselves.

A Bigger Problem

Does the current bad behavior represent a symptom of a society wide problem.

Yes!

Please observe the events occurring in our society. Please do some introspection to ask, “Do I contribute to a growing problem?”