At the risk of confusing your scholarly friends, be on the lookout for a new book that seems to cover education, social change, economic futures, and topics that anyone interested in economic futures should not ignore. have to pay. Current turmoil in American politics.

Will Bunch, senior writer and national columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and 1992 Pulitzer Prize winner, wrote, “When the Ivory Tower Collapses: How Colleges Destroy the American Dream and Blew Up Our Politics.” Taka” author.

This is not hacking the book. I’m interested in this topic because I’ve written about it repeatedly over the years to support continued education and discovery, aided by experience and observation.

I don’t have a college degree, so some may object to me addressing such issues. This seems to be an example of a key point in Bunch’s analysis.

The book jacket synopsis for this topic is that the American dream of college for all has gotten out of hand, creating a huge divide between the college-educated population and the blue-collar and office worker population. is. As a result, it gravitated towards the “liberal” camp and the “conservative” camp, the D camp and his R camp.

Participating in political talk shows, participating in forums and political rallies causes problems. America’s great rifts run along socioeconomic lines, and conservatives dig in to sustain the encroachment of liberal thinking (indoctrination) that runs from grade school to post. -Graduate programs.

We split into two camps. On the one hand, we put on the national table more liberal thinkers in favor of social diversity, new ideas about government mandates, all races and identities, and public action that cares less about tradition than about individual expression. On the other hand, a commitment to frugal and limited government spending, but a strong government commitment to law and order, traditional values ​​in morality, historical social identity, and religious beliefs. management.

Another explanation for the disparity is between young “clear brains” who are college educated, college educated, and who secretly think they have all the answers, and people who are mostly older and less racially diverse. It’s a generalization between blue-collar, non-degree workers who lack knowledge. Education prevents them from fully understanding the problems of modern life.

This seems so simple that it makes me wonder how it keeps growing. One problem is that we do not share a common definition of education.

An education and a degree are not synonymous. The other is basic. We defend self-awareness at the expense of shared respect for people with different mindsets and life histories.

We therefore stand in the camp of those who look and think as we do, and from both ends of the argument to the more radical and absolutist extremes, we do not quarter or compromise. We divide camps by status defined by race, sexual orientation, religion (or lack thereof), possessions and positions.

A lot of investment has been put into our self-awareness. We see others by the standards we were taught early on in American homes: the meritocracy ideal. Get a good job with a good salary, a house, a car, nice appliances, etc. For some, it’s a myth and unattainable.

Education is delivered in a variety of ways, including traditional campus degrees, experience, individual initiative, and community support. Some of it comes down to luck and circumstances. But as trust in sources, trust in institutions, and even the value of virtue and integrity diminishes, we find ourselves unable to justify our own inability to communicate, to accept other perspectives, and I resorted to the flimsy accusation that it was my fault. Others’, ‘they started’, etc. are just another form of schoolyard excuse.

Unfortunately, there are those who build and protect their hold on power by stoking discontent on the basis of disinformation and outright lies.

Dean Minich served two terms as a Carroll County Commissioner while still a Republican.