Introduction
To read the Declaration of Independence, you'd think consent of the governed was the only source of just power. But no one reads this document anymore. Some kids might memorize parts of it for school, but they don't pay attention, and no one seems to notice that students never consent to how they're governed. When schools and colleges teach unjust power by trampling democracy, it's not surprising that Americans lose interest in voting (Pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/3/in-past-elections-u-s-trailed-most-developed-countries-in-voter-turnout/). Should we be surprised that Americans become apathetic bystanders?
Our ecosystem is crashing, our economy is divisive, our justice is for sale, and our kids are fat and dishonest (A. Simmons, 4/27/18, edutopia.org/why-students-cheat-and-what-do-about-it#). There's no future in any of that, but no one seems to care. We'll care or follow the dinosaurs into oblivion.
Begin with our military. We have the best soldiers and weapons in the world but haven't managed a "clean win" since 1945. Our commanders send our soldiers to kill innocents and die for nothing, and no one cares. Fans hold coaches responsible for losses, but military commanders have carte blanche. We must become fans of our soldiers, and hold commanders accountable. What kind of superpower loses wars as well as its soldiers, or just watches from the sidelines as tyrants, e.g., Bashar al-Assad, persecute innocents? If we want a shot at health, we'll control the commanders, and form a new strategy, e.g., the best defense is the best defense.
When politicians lie, voters can't know what they're voting for or against. There's no future in that. Require all elected officials and candidates for office to promise under pain of perjury to tell the truth to the best of their ability. Only liars will oppose such a law.
Investment bankers exploit. Farmers exploit and pollute. School principals condone child abuse (as collision sport). Professors fiddle while Rome burns. And clergy look the other way. There's no future in any of that.
What's the point in caring or studying? When no reason is taught, students assume it's money. Without the vote, there's nothing non-violent for students to do about repairing the world (Tikkun olam), and, therefore, no reason to learn how to make such repair. The only thing to care about, the only reason to study, is personal aggrandizement, i.e., getting rich.
But Jesus warned against personal aggrandizement as well as getting rich: "Whoever will exalt himself will be humbled and whoever will humble himself will be exalted" (Matt. 23:12). Students should keep this in mind when striving for excellence or summa cum laude. "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 19:24). "No man can serve two masters . . . You cannot serve both God and money" (Matt. 6:24). If that's true, then what should we care about? Why should we study? What should we do? The Judeo-Christian answer is Tikkun olam.
"For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; Naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me . . . When you have done it for one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it for me" (Matt. 35-40). Study to help better. Study to fulfill your destiny: "Justice, justice shalt thou pursue" (Deut. 16:20). "It hath been told thee, O man, what is good, And what the Lord doth require of thee: Only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God" (Micah 6:8). Do that. How? By practicing science and austerity and democracy and charity.
Democracy is essential. The science, austerity, and charity can be done alone. Democracy requires collaboration. We must cultivate it by practice, not just in politics, but in education, business, religion, and wherever people organize. By making democracy our mantra, we will inspire our children to desire it and the essential values and skills. Then, we'll just have to teach those values and skills, preferably by example, ideally in schools and colleges. It won't be easy, for generations-worth of inertia stand in our way. And that's not by accident. The people who profit from the status quo don't want anyone rocking their boat. Enfranchising impressionable students would do just that. Aficionados of apathy argue from reason: Students are unqualified to vote because they are students, i.e., ignorant. They must do as they're told in order to earn the vote. It does sound reasonable, but it's not. Just look at history.
Ignorance was the argument against democratizing America. The masses weren't fit to rule. But they did rule, and better than the kings of Europe. Don't revert now to revering royalty. The masses are literate, and communication is instantaneous and free. We should have more and better democracy, not less. But we have less. Presidents have usurped the power to make war, for instance, and Congress hasn't resisted. And what useless horror our Presidents have unleased. On March 19 2003, Bush II ordered the unprovoked "Shock and Awe" attack on Baghdad, a city of six million civilians. See the movie by that name. The purpose was to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. According to the Iraq Body Count project, 7,186 civilians were killed in that two-month-long attack (insight.livestories.com/s/v2/five-facts-civilian-deaths-in-iraq/4911d75d-bcef-410d-9f80-547aec168616/). And no WMDs were found. How is that attack different from Putin's on Ukraine? Wouldn't it have been nice to put the matter up for debate and vote at American colleges before launching it?
Biden didn't see a way out of Afghanistan without causing chaos (https://abcnews.go.com/Politicsbiden-withdraw-afghanistan-cjaos-ensuing/story?id=79507930). Perhaps if he had put the issue up for debate and vote at American colleges, a clear vision would have emerged, e.g., evacuate the innocents before the jets.
As I write, in June 22, a pro-Trump, billionaire-class, anti-democracy movement is winning Republican primaries and threatening the November elections (Robert Reich, Hartford Courant, 5/23/22) without a ripple of protest from colleges. Where's the public service, colleges are expected to deliver to justify their tax exemption? And how can the so-called great colleges justify their obscene tax-free endowments?
In 2000, the UN Human Rights Commission passed a resolution that democracy was a human right. It's a superfluous resolution, typical of the UN, as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights already clearly specified that right in 1948 in Article 21: "The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; This will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or equivalent free voting procedures." Why do Americans stand by while this right is trampled?
But the history of college is worse than apathetic. Jesuit and Ivy-league colleges and military academies were sexist until the general public put an end to that. And even colleges that admitted women didn't begin to treat them decently until after enactment of Title IX. Southern colleges were racist until the U. S. Army put an end to that. German colleges fueled the Holocaust with lectures on the inferiority of Jews and other undesirables. American colleges taught homosexuality as a mental illness. There'd be no handicapped ramps or parking spaces on any campus if it weren't for the American Disabilities Act. It was students, not their college leaders that marched for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam. Even now, famous colleges accept bribes, practice nepotism, and horde excessive endowments. There is no precedent for colleges leading in matters of ethics. Even when college faculty make discoveries of ethical relevance, e.g., the harm of repeated head trauma, colleges ignore the results. Even Boston University, the home of Dr. Omalu, has club football.
For 36 years, I taught democracy as the antidote to social and environmental decay. I showed the magnitude and rate of decay and warned my students not to mimic Kitty Genovese's neighbors. We're losing human habitat and social fabric. The future of America and the human species is at stake. It's time to be inspired by the likes of John Lewis: "Do something! Get in trouble! Good trouble! Necessary trouble." For all that time, I've been embarrassed by my inability to lead any effective democratic response. Why is there no means to a university-wide ballot and referendum? At the beginning of Arab Spring, I surveyed 400 University of Hartford undergrads. More than 90% wanted more and better democracy. But few were willing to work for it, perhaps because the University President called my appeal for democracy "incendiary and insulting" (K. Schroyer, Professor offends president, The Informer, 2/16/12). What would Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin have thought of that?
School and college administrators are appointed, not elected, and no one objects. Candidates for positions as dean, provost, and president never campaign. No one knows what they stand for or against, if they stand for anything, and there is never any debate on platforms. Once appointed, administrators rule autocratically. The University of Hartford claims commitment "to collaboration and transparency in all operations"...
