Coming to terms with just how rare really strong thought is...

I can't sleep...even though I have to wake up and work in just 2 hours or so...tomorrow's going to be fun, I can tell...

But I am grateful for my resurgent idealism...

I'm beginning to come to terms with just how rare really strong thought is...how rarely people aspire for it...and how important it is that people be accountable to it...because it's the only and better alternative to all our dumbass brutishness...

I do believe that everyone is capable of brilliance...but I am coming to terms with how rarely people aspire to it...which is what makes it rare more the many various alternative explanations...a biological proclivity...madness as a spark for genius...and the other million different excuses that most people have for why they don't aspire for brilliance, even though it's important in every endeavor...no matter how mundane...

People like Joe Nye stand out because they're so goddamned good...and they're so goddamned good...because they aspired...and they didn't let the nay-saying hold them back...

It's so sad...we just had a discussion, today, in our teacher inservice about why academically successful black children are accused of "acting white" by their peers...and the sad truth is that so many kids...like so many adults...are just insecure...about their intelligence and their abilities as much as about themselves...and instead of seeking to improve their abilities to deal with that insecurity...they seek to bring others down who have talents that they lack...

It's so sad...

And it is how so many people in the world, nevertheless in schools, live their lives...

And the saddest part about it...is that intelligence matters to everything we do...from international policy...to education policy...to military security...to criminology...to fixing cars...to being a decent fisherman...to being a decent teacher and parent...

It matters to everything, really...

But we all live these separate lives...

Because some of us get convinced that there are smart people and dumb people, and they are on one side of the tracks or the other...

Rather than everyone taking thought and learning seriously...

My commitment is to reducing and ending that separation and the subsequent achievement gap in schools and in life that grows out of it...

But I have to say that there is so much to overcome on that one...attitudinally as much as around changing peoples' commitments...and changing relationships between teachers and students so that they both believe this, more...and so that they each have sufficient freedom to bring it into fruition...

Creating a society where brilliance is the soft but real expectation for everyone...will take a lot of time and patience and freedom...in schools as much as in the choices parents and students make about schools...

But it is the only real alternative to a world that is constantly rationalizing its baser, meaner, nastier, dumber instincts...no matter how many people get hurt in the process...and no matter how ineffective those instincts are to accomplishing the goals people desire...

It is the "illusionism" that Joe Nye speaks of in that National Interest article...the failure of people to see how their intentions are not leading to the consequences they desire...

And as I've wrestled with whether or not to trust my judgment...my instincts...my thoughts...my idealism...

Whether it's me that is deluded and the world that is just dandy...and as I am perpetually open to the idea that there are things that I'm just not seeing, yet...

When I think about how rare it is, in the broadest picture, to read someone like Joe...or Benjamin Barber...or Stephen Ambrose...or Amartya Sen...or Abraham Maslow...or Joseph Campbell...

People who have these brilliant insights into the world...

That so few people really have...

The more confident I become that I will be one of those folks, with time...as my ideas and thinking get recognized...

Friedrich Hayek had a really hard time getting hired in economics departments until the University of Chicago hired him...

But what distinguishes folks like Hayek...and more folks like Sen or Nye or Maslow...

Is just how deep and profound their insights are for humanity...

It is disappointing for me to discover just how few people aspire to engage and develop and have such insights...

But it also makes it easier to see just who has more valuable things to say, generally...

And what's interesting...is just how much the best people get recognized, eventually...no matter where they started off...

It is good to see people aspire more...people like the teachers I work with...and my family members...and the friends I engage on various internet forums...and the various groups I've belonged to...and even my lame ass friends (they know who I'm talking about) here in Lawrence, when they have aspired...

But it is really rare to read or meet people...who's insights are so truly profound...that they change the way that you look at the world...

But I do have to say that...

If we can't create a world...where all liberals can appreciate the brilliance of a thinker like Friedrich Hayek, more...

Or where all conservatives can't appreciate the brilliance of Amartya Sen, more...

And where they try to bully one another, instead...

Then the ideas aren't for naught...that's for sure...they're the only thing keeping us afloat in this god-forsaken dysfunctional world...

But the less thoughtful bullies of the world do blunt the impact of great ideas...and make their implementation more difficult...and cause a lot of damage and havok and chaos, in the meantime...

And all for naught...always claiming credit where they don't deserve it...and always overlooking their failures...to keep their defenses in tact...to avoid constructive criticism...and maintaining the cycle...of failure and whining and blame...

Until it can finally give way to more thought...

And that's all she wrote on that one...

Either we'll learn the lessons on this...

Or we'll keep living with the sorry-ass consequences...

All of us...

Though some of us at the expense of others...

But all of us being bankrupted by the cynicism...and the lack of thought...and the lack of openness to being wrong...

For all of the hassle that this life I've chosen has caused me...which is beyond plenty, for me...

I'm glad I've chosen a life of the strongest ideas and the highest ideals...

Because every other life just seems so bankrupt, in comparison...

I don't think it has to be that way...

I think we can all learn to appreciate, better, what each of us has to offer...including our engagement...and criticism...and disagreement...when they are fair-minded and constructive...

But as we build that world...

This life of big ideas is the only one that I think I could ever inhabit and be most deeply humbled and proud of my efforts...and the efforts of like-minded folks...

And the big advantage of casting a broad net for the best ideas...

Is that it makes is so much more clear just how rare and impressive are those folks who have something really profound to contribute...

I respect all of the various doers in the world...from the janitor and the convenience store clerk...to the entrepreneur and the political activist...to the teacher and the police officer and the military serviceperson...to the scholar and the professor and the researcher...

But the people with the really big ideas in the world...who are always doers and thinkers, which is the only thing that makes great ideas possible...great thinkers can't help but being doers because its the only thing that informs better thinking...everything else is too abstract to be useful...which is the fate of the thought of most scholars and non-scholars alike...

But great thinkers and doers...are the folks in this world I admire most...

The people who change the world against all odds...and who imagine better worlds...and think carefully about how to create them and make them better...

By inspiring and leading others to take on those ideas...and make them reality...

And that is where real leadership is and always has been in the world...and the only kind of leadership that sustains itself over the long haul...

I better sleep for a little bit before I have to go to work...

Have a great day, everyone:):)...

Love,
Ben