Politic scholē

I don’t mean to sound too academic, too proper, or too “influencer” in this post. However, I did write this due to a large number of my peers inquiring about my political views.

The first thing I will tell anyone is to revert to the root meaning of “politics”.

It comes from the Greek term ‘politiká’, or ‘affairs of the cities’.

Now whats interesting is the fact society has advanced tremendously from the socio-economic status of the Greek culture.

Education has advanced to levels never imagined by the Greeks, the Romans, or any dynasties of the past. More than ever, college-level education has become the norm — and not the exception.

Being the case, we should have a much more well informed populous — or ‘polis’ as the Greeks referred to it.

So how does this play into our current state of Democracy?

As many of us are currently contemplating: What is the state of our Democracy and what is it, exactly, we are dealing with when it comes to informed elections (a pillar or successful democracy)?

I believe we are dealing with a classical dilemma of the polis.

Technology has always outpaced politics.

The Obama administration was the first administration to harness the full power of social media — and saw tremendous success in doing so.

The Trump administration was the first to take advantage of a more technically savvy understanding of the power of social media since platforms had been established and normalized among a broad populous.

Included were disinformation campaigns — affecting both extremes of political parties.

The question is: How will this issue be dealt with going forward?

Nations, Economies, and Cultures are built on trust.

If information and facts become mercurial, how does the ‘polis’ effectively play the proper role within Democratic institutions?

I propose two immediate solutions.

First — Our schools, our universities, must make technology a focus point when it comes to education. If our populous doesn’t have simple access to information; cannot understand the flow of information; and cannot act on and trust that very information then we are handcuffed to limited decision making.

We need to make internet access universally available and teach students to seek information first hand. Teach them to critically question the sources and become pseudo journalists for the important topics that impact their very communities.

Technology has outpaced politics but it has also outpaced education.

Why do we still make students memorize equations that can be programmed in an Excel spreadsheet or TI83 calculator? Why do we insist on rote memorization of history and not teach students the cause and effect of policies?

We need to look beyond the traditional education model and transform it according to available technology — with proper funding.

Second — I believe corporations need to rethink their hiring criterion.

You are already seeing this by forward thinking companies like Google, Apple, and Microsoft.

College students are graduating with advanced degrees and only utilizing 20% of their knowledge or skill sets.

Instead, corporations should invest in educating young potential on technical skills that can create immediate value while also take the liberty to teach them ethics, political practices, and other humanitarian studies.

I spoke with a friend this morning who graduated from Tulane with a biotechnology degree. He shared his story of only being able to find entry level field sales roles and I questioned whether he would have been ahead had he started at the same corporation the same time he started college.

He replied “I’m worried so”.

To draw everything together: an informed populous, who is able to meet the technical demand of our economy, and can spend their spare time (the scholē) educating themselves on the ‘affairs of the cities’ will lead to a more prosperous democracy.

We need to rethink the way we tie education to politics and create a more informed populous that has the leisure of focusing on civil matters.

Yes — both parties have means to this ends but these are my thoughts on the root issue.