what i've learned since my 'vacation'

I know it's been a while since last I posted. I know I've spent a lot of time away and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back to this (I'm talking to you Willie Chuck!). Needless to say, I've done a lot of thinking since my last post(s), spent a lot of time in study, reflection, meditation and active interpersonal exchanges (is that redundant?). I'd like to think that I've learned a couple of things since last we all met in cyberspace... but I've decided to let you all be the judge of that. It's not a complete list just yet: I may add to it from time-to-time. No formal format this time... just off the proverbial cuff. Everything I've listed below is something that I've had to learn myself the hard way because I was, at one time, the worst offender I knew. Anyone that's known me for more than a year will laugh at how true this is.

What I've learned about politics, government and economics and would like to share:
- The republican form of government is a particularly clever way of continuing the feudal aristocracies of the Middle Ages. To entertain the notion that the United States is an actual democracy is to be mistaken.

- Capitalism was not the founding economic model of America... open up a history book sometime. There was a significant movement in the 19th century to adopt Marxism by the emerging "middle class". This movement was effectively shut down by the efforts of the robber-baron industrialists of the period. If you support capitalism, that's fine - but you should do so from an informed and factually accurate point-of-view.

- Glen Beck is a grade "A", irresponsible, first-rate and ideologically-charged demagogue... and a jack ass.

- Socialism isn't the devil, it isn't un-American and it isn't un-Christian. Claiming otherwise only proves two things: a) you apparently don't understand what socialism is and, b) you don't understand traditional American values or traditional Christian values.

- If you think that having no military experience disqualifies you from being the President of the United States, I'd like for you to look up the military records for the following men: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Quincy Adams. Four out of the first five presidents of the United States did not serve in the military and the one that did (George Washington) claimed that the greatest threat to liberty and democracy was a standing army.

What I've learned about religion and would like to share:
- A lot of evangelical Christians in America balk at the word "religion", so I want to make sure people understand what I mean when I use that word: a religion is a framework of beliefs concentrated around an idea of the sacred or divine. Technically the word religion means, in the original Latin re-ligio, "that which binds together." As I've said before in other posts, this definition is the equivalent to what I call "ideology". It not only includes theology and worldviews but traditions as well.

- I get the accusation of sounding smug and elitist when I say this to people. I realize how it comes across but I still think it is worth saying and I apologize ahead of time if you take offense to this: if your primary understanding/interpretation of the Christian Bible comes from an English translation - then it is highly likely that you don't understand what you're reading. Unfortunately for Americans without fluency in Greek and Hebrew (myself included), the Bible was not written in the English language or with an Anglo-Saxon cultural context. In other words: if you want to understand the source-text for the Christian religion, then you cannot approach the text with a modern American Christian mindset. Period.

- The God talked about in most religious (or sacro-ideological) communities and traditions is impossibly small and shallow to me. There are ways to approach an idea of the sacred and the divine that exist outside of institutional religious communities that are worth exploring without condemnation.

- I'm not entirely sure that the Jesus talked about in Christian religious traditions is broadly-enough defined. In other words: Jesus is interpreted too narrowly for my tastes within most expressions of Christianity.

- The Bible is not a historical text, despite the presence of historical events described in it. It is a work of hagiography. The sooner you read the Bible with that understanding, the sooner a lot of the information in it will begin to make an incredible amount of sense.

- I've read the Bible and quoted it as much as anyone else I know, but beginning a claim about truth with "the Bible says..." immediately undercuts one's credibility.

- Belief, especially religious belief, is one of the only conventions in the human repertoire that will blatantly defy "reality." And no, that's not a good thing.

- Superstition is the most offensive kind of ignorance I've ever encountered - in both its "charmed" and "cursed" forms.

What I've learned about education and would like to share:
- Education is the process by which you take an empty mind and replace it with an open one.

- Too much of what passes for education is really just indoctrination. To educate someone is not to teach them what to think, but how to think.

- Students are the only demographic in America that want to get less-and-less for the money they pay.

- What you put into your education, you will get back with dividends.

- A Master's Degree is just that. Think about it for a second. It is a degree that confers on you the title of master. If you think it's ok to just "get by" in a Master's program, you have completely missed the point and don't deserve to have the title. As a graduate student, you should be shooting for a hard-earned "A" in every class. Period.

- Open-mindedness isn't a cure-all for what ails us intellectually... but it's a good start and the foundation for a truly educated person.

That's all I've got for right now. I'm sure to add more to it later. Feel free to comment as you see fit.