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Styndall's avatar

So much to think about (as I’m reading this 2 days after the election) - and what I am struck by is how the “experts” got the mood of the country so wrong. As the dust settles, I think many of us were absolutely blindsided by the outcome. It’s going to take a while for reality to set in, and in the meantime, I’m going to focus on the meaningful relationships in my life - and what’s really important on a soul level. Thank you for reminding me of that, Andrew.

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Biz's avatar

As always Andrew, I appreciate the insightful perspective and the timely nature of this terrific piece. I especially enjoyed all the AdT quotes and the pictures from Robert Frank's book, new to me. Stunning pictures in his book and taken early in my lifetime.

The US has clearly stated aspirations in our founding docs (Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Federalist Papers etc.) and I always think that US society missed the boat by not teaching K-12 history and governance classes consistently from the point of view of how events, proposed laws, election promises align etc with those aspirations. If we were all taught from the jump with that aspirational structure consistently, maybe we would all have the same truth and ruler to measure our choices against? It seems Alexis de Tocqueville seemed to report on observed social behavior without consistently calling out how that compared to the stated aspirations in our founding. Were there not enough formalized aspirations at the start to allow us a consistent standard? Seems to me there were plenty, no?.

Thanks for writing so well and with such great insight. It always gets me doing some rethinking and rereading.

Biz

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