The Pox In Both Houses

Every day I receive more than a dozen “personalized” political solicitation messages. I get them from political candidates, party leaders, PACs, and crusading organizations. Some are overt desperate pleas for money. Some are covert surveys pretending to want my opinion. I’ve received many thousands of them over the years. They all pretend to be personal, but none of them are.

Every one of them is a disingenuous commercial – a prod, a probe, and an attempt at milking that treats me like just any other member of a herd. They are not designed to learn what I think, nor in any way to engage me in a meaningful conversation. These messages are tactical digital drones designed to acquire information, pump opinions, and suck money. They are the lures of a predatory machine’s digital fishing hooks.

Though the parties’ goals are very different in so many important ways, there is little difference in their unethical predatory messaging machinery. Both parties’ “marketing” systems are designed to “manipulate constituent behaviors”, not “steward constituent learning and dialogue”.

This is what I send to politicians who attempt to engage me:

You can’t lead the country out of Trumpism by using the same disingenuous and manipulative messaging ethics that Trump uses and that you are otherwise so rightfully at war with on so many fronts. The history of America’s leadership has always been based on the politics of “manipulating citizen behavior” not “stewarding the learning of our citizenry”. That’s how we got Trump.

Bigotry, racism, Trumpism, like predatory capitalism, all have a common ancestral root. They are manifestations of the same underlying ethics that gave license to slavery. We fought a war to make it unconstitutional for people to own people. Yet today we all accept as “normal” and the “American way” that “people are manipulable assets” – “buyer beware” – “nothing personal, it’s just business”. The ethics underlying slavery have simply morphed into a more insidious license to manipulate people’s economic and political behaviors. Our survival and viability as a country depend on challenging this out into the open, as we did with slavery, and eradicating it. Today, civil war 2.0, in all its various forms, is a struggle to end this all too commonplace form of predation.

History is repeating itself. We are not the 1st democracy to be in the grips of the predatory machinations of self-aggrandizing politicians.

The architects of the United States created a constitutional framework that liberated and made possible a vastly more learning-oriented way of being a nation than had ever existed before.

Not perfect, but more perfect. More perfectly conducive to a new kind of collective learning that ultimately led the United States to become the world’s most intelligent and successful nation.

Today, stupidified by the predatory machinations of profit and power, our population’s collective intelligence is in a dangerous downward spiral. Our political parties behave as if they are trying to persuade a herd of low-EQ teenagers. Spin the channels, whichever silo you land in, it’s pretty much about convincing and persuading. Our political leadership hasn’t yet learned the importance of stewarding our collective intelligence because it’s too busy manipulating the voting behavior of our collective ignorance.

We live in a profoundly learning disabled country and we will continue to do so until we collectively learn otherwise.

You can’t be a good steward of the learning of the population and use predatorily behavior manipulating messaging machinery (it’s necessarily learning short-circuiting and disabling).

What we must learn from Trump:
Trump’s Law = nothing trumps learning

Whipping up and propagandizing believers to profit, financially-politically, from their behavior is how we got into this mess. The deep transformation the US must go through to improve the future of “we the people” can only happen through the learning in and of the people. In terms of the future well-being and health of the country, there simply is no substitute for having a more learning-oriented and learning-able population.

The central dynamic of collaborative collective improvement is collaborative collective learning. The future of the U.S. depends on how well its leaders learn to steward such learning – how well they learn to steward the learning of we the people.

To those of you involved in the political and technological construction of this messaging… We can easily create more mutually learning-oriented political messaging machinery. We just have to see the need for it. Do you?

David

PS – If I ever get a non-robotic-spam message from you, I promise I will respond personally.

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It starts with recognizing the fundamental, profound, and capital value of ‘stewarding the health of our children’s learning.’

“I agree. I think everything points in that direction. I think you want to get to a basic set of principles and this is clearly it.” – Dr. James J. Heckman Recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

Is there an educational mission that trumps, that is more important than “stewarding the health of our children’s learning”?

“No when put that way”. Dr. Grover (Russ) Whitehurst 2002-2008 Director of the Institute of Education Sciences and Assistant Secretary of Education with the U.S. Department of Education.

Ultimately what’s going to shift the behavior of the country over the long-term is understanding how fundamental this [healthy learning] is to everybody through the economic channel. …We must come up with a way of describing, measuring, and supporting the health of children’s learning. It is the unhealthy learning environments that are the problem.

Yes, that’s the message. That’s the message you’ve got to get across. Arthur Rolnick Senior V.P. and Director of Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, and Associate Economist with the Federal Open Market Committee.

It’s not that somebody ‘knows’ the current science, because the current science might be wrong. But it’s that somebody knows how to learn about new science, and adapt. It’s also how they learn to adapt to workplaces… how to learn to do something that they had never even thought about doing when they were in school. That’s the key element. Dr. Eric Hanushek Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.

So then the fundamental intention of our education system must be to use knowledge, skills and experience not just as the end, but as the means through which we’re exercising how well someone is able to participate and become self-extending in learning what they need to learn when they need to learn it.

Precisely.

The Institute for the Study and Prevention of ACQUIRED Learning Disabilities.

“This is critical to the future of our society as a whole! I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and cannot begin to put into words how powerful it was. The general message (Healthy Learning) being spread is something that everyone needs to hear and understand in order to maximize the learning and success of future generations. The one-day experience was remarkable and unforgettable!” – J. Shirron, Teacher, LodiUSD, Lodi CA

“The most powerful professional development experience I have ever had. This was truly an awakening for me! – Julie Colley Lowery, Education Specialist, Alabama State Department of Education, Special Education Services

“A Mind-Blowing Way to View Learning. While many of us have observed this effect on an intuitive level, it took writer, researcher, and learning activist David Boulton to express the problem of incomplete learning in terms of its devastating effect on kids.” – Patricia Kokinos at ChangeTheSchools.com

“You made a wonderful contribution. The topics have stimulated classroom discussions. We are extremely pleased with the impact made in our community. ALL the comments heard from the registration people, people in our classes this week, table discussion leaders etc. have been positive. You are great. The BIG picture was outstandingly FINE!” – Linda Koehler, Professor of Special Education, University of Central Missouri

“The training was extraordinary! Six months later, conversations are still occurring around thoughts from that event. It was the easiest and best event we have done! Thank you for outstanding professionalism and customer service while delivering dynamic, relevant information and challenge!” – Mary Ashe, Coordinator,The Literacy Connection Project Enlightenment, Raleigh, North Carolina

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NOTABLE PAST LIVE EVENTS:

Science of Educating Conference – National School Mental Health Association – 21st Century Learning Initiative – World Futurist Society – PBS: New Science of Learning – Future of Learning Keynotes for Apple – New American Schools Design Team – National Technological University – California Education Summit – Dalian Medical University (China) – International Dyslexia Association – Nebraska School Psychologists Association – South Carolina Education and Business Summit – Scientific Learning’s National Circle of Learning – Lindamood-Bell Conference – Carus Foundation – Contra Costa Literacy Coalition – Convocation for New Britain Schools – Burnaby School District – JP Associates – University of Greenville SC – ACE of Florida – Michigan Council for Exceptional Children – Florida State Literacy Coalition – United Way – Rotary International – National Center for Family Literacy – Fundamental Learning Center – Wyoming State Education Leadership

“After listening to David Boulton, who explained and played several video interviews in his (National Circle of Learning Conference) keynote address, it was as if the pieces of the puzzle magically appeared and fit into place.” – N. Schmidt, Trainer, Onondaga Cortland Madison County BOCES, Syracuse, New York

“Clear explanations that do not focus on the blame game but work toward solutions. This was a tremendous awakening! This much needed information must be spread to the masses!” – B. Smyzer, Educator

“You are doing a great service – you are a voice crying in the wilderness about a problem that is very real right now & is only going to get worse (given the ongoing demographic changes of the US) AND you are presenting the way to help (rather than just admiring the problem!) you’ve done (& continue to do) outstandingly well!!! good show! good work!” – Dr. B. Stone, Psychologist, Kansas

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