A Civic People: Reversing civic illiteracy

Reversing civic illiteracy

A recent article[1], by Timothy S. Goeglein, on “civic illiteracy” suggests a swamp of controversial history and motivated me to binge-read companion articles. I think readers have slim chance to pursue goodness, because many writers unintentionally skirt the topic – writers often fail literacy. Goodness necessitates writing with precise, accurate, and deep word usage, which is difficult for both writer and reader. In fact, I won’t let any author bind me to their “civic” or their “illiteracy”. It’s a matter of freedom in grammar, word usage, and thus thought.

Civic literacy

Few people would consider Goelglein’s suggestion, “civic literacy”, as I reverse and use it: awareness-of how-to pursue necessary goodness in living, both individually and collectively. My view stems from global slogans like “live and let live” and “do the right thing” – necessarily practicing goodness rather than accommodating badness and tolerating evil. Civic citizens may and can constrain bad actors and eradicate evil villains. With civic intentions, the reliably responsible individual neither initiates nor tolerates harm to or from anyone and aids civility and governance, in order to pursue statutory justice. A civic society continually discovers injustice and amends unjust laws. Goodness is necessary, in order to pursue justice. Neither divinity nor government can usurp humankind’s duty to pursue necessary justice.

The civic citizen’s greatest power is reliable responsibility against harm. Yet individual pursuit of goodness may be repressed by local badness, such as war, even while humankind steadily discovers and practices goodness. Personal goodness may and can accelerate, even when temporal badness represses society. Yet humankind continually pursues goodness, intending to prevail over badness and not tolerate evil.

The role of physics and its progeny

The laws of physics, especially conservation of energy and economic viability, drive three types of civil behavior: independent, dependent, and villainous. Dependents, such as sloths and criminals rely on civic citizens, and villains terrorize the other two groups. Both elected and appointed government officials necessarily collaborate to constrain if not eradicate evil villainy, so that society may operate. In short, the able and the willing citizens collaborate to constrain the evil actors. Civic illiteracy, then, is personal and collective failure to pursue economically achievable necessary goodness.

Guidance regarding how to pursue necessary goodness on earth may and can be sought in the reports and consequences of human development plus application of recent discoveries. Discovery is lame, even harmful, if unapplied. Consequences of human choice do not yield to reports about happenings. For example, the United States accepted its Civil War of 1861, in order to accelerate humankind’s march toward responsible independence to every inhabitant of earth. The world neglects this gift so that slavery can still be practiced.

I think three factors dominate civic literacy: most human-beings feel yet do not articulate that necessary goodness is a self-interest; nations compete over The God or none; and the United States republic remains promising to the civic world.

Motivation and inspiration

Powerful as they are, the laws of physics may be meaningless to the person who has not discovered, trusted, and committed-to human being (verb). The human-being practices, facilitates, and encourages civic integrity. The alternatives are mineral (nothingness), vegetable (consumption), animal (self-satisfaction), spirit (mystery), and villain (intentional harm).

These options bemuse the individual, because many laws of physics have not been discovered. At any moment in time, an array of persons do not accept some laws. Both unknowns and personal arrogance against physics sustain a continuum of human behaviors from pursuit of perfect goodness to evil.

Among Homo sapiens, there are only two viable types: female and male. The female’s body generates eggs (ova) and a male may inseminate a viable egg to produce an embryo. Gestation and delivery of a healthy infant gives opportunity for a human-being to develop. Ovum, embryo, or infant may be subjugated by the female and male who conceived the baby.

Authentic females choose reliable males, and together, they produce offspring to receive the couple’s care for life unto grandchildren and further descendants. Suffering the mistakes of their parents, children develop better parenting practices and debate their elders about the changes. Thereby, mistakes do not make traditions. Each generation may and can retain past good practices and establish improvements, so that successive generations may accelerate necessary goodness. Authentic single people do all they can to aid development and maintenance of children unto mature adulthood.

It takes a quarter century for the human body to develop the wisdom-building parts of the brain, and the aware person spends their first quarter century acquiring the knowledge and intentions to pursue human being (v). Choosing a mate for life before comprehension and intention were acquired creates risk to personal success. Time is unforgiving and the person who does not discover and adopt these principles risks erroneous choices. When the choice of necessary goodness is not obvious to an actor, waiting is often the better choice.

Discovering and ruling-to goodness

Goodness and badness existed from the beginning -- before the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago. A sequence had to happen: the earth had to form, bipeds had to emerge, and Homo sapiens had to dominate human-being. Homo sapiens developed during more than 200,000 years, and they seem distinguished by a brain with rapid, capacious neurons and synapses so as to utilize an exponentially increasing flow of information and decision making. Only human-being may and can discover goodness as justice and no one knows if a new mutation will be required for the discovery.

The invention of grammar, more than 10 thousand years ago empowered Homo sapiens to negotiate treaties. The Code of Hammurabi, nearly 4 thousand years old, divided inhabitants according to 4 practices: goodness, civic dependency, badness, or evil. Civic citizens collaborated to aid the dependents, reform bad actors, and constrain/eradicate evil people. But “eye for eye” rule rendered offending citizens dependent, lessening economic viably. Physics demanded revision to republicanism – constitutional law with intentions to statutory justice.

Some nations improved republicanism. And 237 years ago, framers and signers published the religion-free 1787 United States Constitution. Its amend-ability and intentions empower “ourselves and our Posterity” to pursue statutory justice. The intentions are stated in its preamble, and every citizen should earn their view. Mine, today, is, “The civic faction, We the People of the United States, facilitate and practice 6 public pursuits — integrity, justice, safety, strength, prosperity, and responsibility, “in order to” pursue necessary goodness “to ourselves and our Posterity”.

Religious primitives to Judeo-Christian monotheisms

In primitive Mesopotamia, there were 3,600 gods[2] compared to 4,200[3] religions today. The Code of Hammurabi resulted from socio-political innovations by Sumerian kings and their divinity schools during the period 10 thousand to 4 thousand years ago, when the Babylonians conquered Sumer. The polytheistic Sumerians also conducted research in physics and progeny with exemplary success, for example, inventing irrigation and fertilization of the land. Their city-state treaties became codes of law. They pursued civic goodness, for example, civil aid to widows and orphans. Eventually, societies took responsibility to educate their youth.

Soon, competitive monotheism began to dominate socio-political trends.[4] Also, the nearby Greek civilization proposed human being (verb) by the 5^th century BC.[5]

Semitic-speaking people in Ur departed to escape human blood and body sacrifice for worship to various gods. They left to prefer animal/ fowl killing in idol worship.

A branch of Semitic-speakers developed Judaism, with non-human blood sacrifice, tradition, and continuous development of the law. Israel developed as separate branches of descendants, who controversially worshiped Yahweh, yet divided over observance of the law. A faction predicted a descendant of King David would be anointed to unite the tribes as a nation (ostensibly to civic earth’s benefit). They discontinued blood sacrifice when the Romans destroyed the 2^nd temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE and continued to pursue necessary goodness.

A faction of Jews thought Yeshua of 2 thousand year-ago Nazareth was the anointed one from David and projected him onto Jewish literature and Yahweh tradition, constructing the miracle-worker now called “Jesus”. Attention to Jesus lessens Yeshua’s civic influence to humankind, since Homo sapiens cannot raise their dead. In 50 CE, Paul declared himself apostle to the pagans, who objected to male circumcision, which Yeshua suffered at age 8. Paul’s ministry created “Christ”, whose blood and body were sacrificed to redeem elected souls rather than to encourage civic living. Christianity canonized The Trinity to compete with Yahweh. In this review, I mentioned 5 divinities: Yahweh, Yeshua, Jesus, Christ, and The Trinity. It attests to insufficient humility toward The God – whatever constrains the consequences of human choice. I have not addressed the Holy Ghost, which may span Judeo-Christianity. I accept the importance of these 5 divinities and more, while encouraging everyone to consider Yeshua’s civic influence to necessary goodness.

Education critical to humankind

The Holy Bible collects thoughts of Homo sapiens in Mesopotamia, preserved from the past millennia. Genesis 1:26-28, 3,500 years old, segues from Mesopotamian polytheism to a monotheism, yet suggests that only humankind may and can rule to necessary goodness on earth. The advent of competitive monotheism bemused humankind’s pursuit of goodness by persuading factions in city-states to believe their god would eventually relieve their descendants of the ancestor’s pain and suffering. Kings employed military commanders and religious priests to persuade the people to look to higher power for salvation from physics and its mysteries. Slogans like “our god is more powerful than your god” bemused the people to ignore the Genesis 1:26-28 directive to constrain chaos in their individual and collective ways of living. Parents taught children tradition, thereby preserving the good with the bad and accommodating evil. The chaos the world suffers in 2024 can be stopped through personal intention to acquire comprehension and intention to pursue human being (verb).

Every individual may consider the division of Homo sapiens according to personal choice to either pursue necessary goodness or settle for less. A more detailed grouping includes the following:

1. Civic citizens

2. Collaborative citizens who

a. Are willing yet lack capability for civic wholeness and integrity

b. Or are not now applying capability

c. Or are lazy

3. Citizens who actively cheat yet have potential for reform

a. Some game well-fare assistance

b. Some practice crime

4. There are habitual criminals

5. Some are evil villains

Fellow citizens in groups 1 through 3 may and can collaborate to either constrain or eradicate people in groups 4 and 5 under constitutional statutory justice.

The lack of rule to necessary goodness in the world suggests radical change, in order to constrain the chaos. It seems no longer can the individual assume governments can pursue necessary goodness. And no longer can humankind hope that “our God” will relieve posterity of erroneous practices. Females and males worldwide may and can rule the earth to necessary goodness.

Recent affirmation of humanity

The precocious political philosopher from 2000 year-ago Nazareth affirmed Genesis 1:26-28 – humankind may and can rule to necessary goodness on earth. The framers and signers of the religion-free 1789 United States Constitution affirmed Genesis 1:26-28. James Madison had no clue when he imposed freedom of religion to Congress at the expense of the people, authoring the First Amendment.

The information age facilitated by the Internet makes it possible for anyone to entertain themselves by becoming an authority on James Madison’s controversies. He authored both “Memorial and Remonstrance” and the religion clauses Congress included in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clauses grant Congress freedom of religion at the expense of the civic faction of We the People of the United States. It is up to the people to reform this tyranny.

Conclusion

Anyone who dreams of order among Homo sapiens, rather than division we behold in October 2024, may and can imagine teaching youth and adults to pursue human being (verb). Rather than ponder controversial Madisonian American history, youth may leave K-12 education with their own interpretation of the preamble to the United States Constitution. My view is that the civic faction of We the People of the United States use integrity, justice, safety, strength, prosperity, and responsibility, “in order to” pursue necessary goodness “to ourselves and our Posterity”. The actions of a civic people accommodate the pursuit of perfection that is suggested in Genesis 1:26-28.