We have a need to be right in this country. This need is so strong that it blocks us from learning from each other. We can’t help ourselves. That’s the way we have been trained. It impacts our lives in ordinary and profound ways, whether in the midst of an argument of who said what or to the larger issues of politics, education, religion, abortion, health care and children in cages.
The genesis of this cultural desire to be right is found is our education system. The foundation of our schools is based on right and wrong. Students are rewarded with higher grades for giving answers to questions deemed to be correct. Getting right answers becomes the output of school. This process of being right affirms who we are and inflates our sense of self-worth. Unfortunately, this process may actually interfere with learning.
What is the point of raising your hand to gain the reward of getting the correct answer? It doesn’t teach you anything; you already knew the answer. It simply massages your ego, but it doesn’t inspire a genuine learning experience.
Our cable news channels have become predictable in their coverage, especially in the political arena. An issue is proposed in terms of right and wrong. Two talking heads argue a topic in terms of right and wrong, each asserting differing views while refuting the position of the other—a soap opera, masquerading as informed debate, where neither the pundits nor audience are enlightened. Mindless entertainment where no one learns. Only reinforcement of being right to unenlightened positions.
Our founders warned us about always wanting to be right. During the debate of the ratification of the Constitution, both Madison and Hamilton praised the Constitution’s “spirit of moderation,” contrasting it to “those who are ever so much persuaded to their being right in any controversy.” Deleted from Washington’s final draft of his Farewell address was the caution that “the conflicts of popular factions are the chief, if not the only inlets of usurpation and tyranny.”
Just as we learn how to eat and dress ourselves, democracy has to be learned. To be learned, democracy has to be taught. To be taught, someone has to teach. Where are our teachers that stand before a classroom and proclaim that all people are created equal? Who is teaching that we are an ongoing experiment in self-rule, defining democracy with each generation? Without this generational definition, democracy can not last.
Ignorance will suffocate the will to seek liberty.
