8. What is the quality of citizenry necessary to the quality of life in a peaceful world?

"... if the family is right the community will be right,
if the community is right then the state will be right,
if the state is right, then the nation will be right."

Confucius

A peaceful world civilization cannot be created from the top down. That is a dictatorship of educated elite who believe that it knows best how "I" should lead my life. This is the foundation of an elitist leadership. It cannot last long.

World Peace begins in me and with my view of you. Do I respect you? Does my family respect your family? Does my community respect your community? Does my state respect your state? These are basic questions needing an answer because without this foundation a leadership will not arise that respects the people. This leads to the weaknesses pointed out above.

This leads to the value of education. The Marxists knew this very well and it is also one of the major reasons for the problem in the Japanese educational system. Conversely the Roman Catholic Church understands it, which is why the Catholic school system is so widely respected and parents of non-Catholics seek to send there children to its schools. Understanding this point by Moslems is also the reason why the Islamic fundamentalist Madrasa is so feared by the west, yet sought after by the parents of Islamic children. And why so many parents in the west are so desperate that they home school their children.

The only people who seem not to understand it are the people who need to – like politicians and local public school teachers.

What is central to education and when does it begin? Is science and math most important to being educated? How about art or history? What is the most important aspect of education.

If a scientist invents something what determines more than anything whether or not it will be used for the good of humankind or bad?

The fundamental component in education is “character” education. Without this aspect the addition of arts and sciences creates a person of dubious character who is likely to be short on ethics and concern for or respect for their fellow man.

The problem with modern western public education is that this component is lacking – until perhaps university when it is way too late to have an impact on the budding psyche. Why is it lacking? Because of the almost paranoia of separation of church and state, the teaching of moral education is lost to all but the private religious schools.

Because of the connection between instruction in morals and the connotations of morals and religion, instruction in the subject in a non-religious environment is avoided. Thus we are seeing the maturation of young people with a relativistic view of life and licentious lifestyle. They have little regard for authority or the feeling of others. This kind of person seeks power for power's sake and views the situation of others as of secondary importance to his/her own.

One of the most central individuals to effect the formation of this present trend in society, I believe, was Dr. Benjamin Spock. He’s theories of infant and childhood education and discipline, I would say, is a root cause of “the fall” of western civilization. A striking if not shocking thing to say, perhaps.