Thinking Citizen Blog — Why I Am Running for US President in 2024
Thinking Citizen Blog — Friday is Education and Education Policy Day
Today’s Topic: Why I Am Running for US President in 2024
Think of the President as the Teacher-in-Chief. Yes, he/she is also Commander in Chief. And yes that is potentially the most consequential part of the job. And yes I have zero military experience. But it just occurred to me that being Teacher-in-Chief might be the single most important part of the job. And that job is to focus the mind, heart, and soul of the nation on the issue that matters most of all — education. Education is not only the civil rights issue of our time — it is the key to our economy, our democracy and our identity and if you don’t put it first you are not putting first things first and no one should vote for you. No other candidate is putting education first. Vote Muresianu in 2024! But more urgently, spread the word via text, phone, email, bull horn, and any other technology available to you. Organize a local chapter of Muresianu for President before you go to sleep tonight, and let’s together make the world a more focused (and therefore better) world. But putting education first is not enough. You must understand what it is.
WHAT IS THE AIM OF EDUCATION? WHAT IS THE AMERICAN DREAM? WHAT IS YOUR DREAM FOR THE WORLD?
1. To me all three are the same: that every child born reaches their full potential for joy, productivity, and responsibility. Stop. Pause. Re-read it. Gnaw on it. Turn it over. Share it.
2. Do you know of a better one? If so, please pass it on. I’ll junk this one. But I don’t believe there is one, and that is the first reason I deserve your vote and your unflinching support starting now.
3. But how can a child reach their full potential for joy, productivity, and responsibility? Well, that’s what I have spent the last ten years writing about and the result is fourteen book-length pdfs which are fourteen more reasons to vote Muresianu in 2024 and fourteen bits of evidence to share with all your Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and other buddies before you eat dinner tonight. All fourteen documents are available for free. To all humanity. Now. Not to mention four websites each of which has a “biography” section.
EDUCATION IS ABOUT ETHICS FIRST, JOY SECOND, AND THINKING CITIZENSHIP THIRD
1. Education is about knowledge, skills, and attitude. Attitude is a synonym for ethics, for values.
2. Gratitude, called piety by the religious and positivity by atheists, is the first principle of ethics.
3. Whatever you call it, it means waking up in the morning with a primal scream of “Yes! Thank you! Another chance to become a better person and thereby make the world a better place!”
NB: To become a better person means opening your mind, heart, and eyes with every breath you take so that you will learn as much as possible every day of your life. Starting now. It also means structuring every week of your life around a thematic sequence of joys and civic issues because thematic continuity is key to depth of thought. It also means writing every day because reading without writing is like eating without digesting.
THE SEVEN JOYS OF LIFE AND THE SEVEN ISSUES OF THINKING CITIZENSHIP
1. Education is about taking kids from “I can’t!” and “I don’t like!” to “Wow! I can!” and “Wow! This is so cool!” in the seven joys of life — music, art, sports, math, literature, science, and thinking citizenship.
2. Thinking citizenship is the ability to make a strong case for all three sides in the next election — Left, Right, and Center marshalling three very different things (principles, facts, and solutions) for each of the seven issues so important they should influence your decision (foreign policy, economic policy, climate change, health care, education, social justice, and political process reform). If you have not analyzed all of them thoroughly you can’t make a rational decision.
3. A rough estimate is that thinking citizenship will take about 10,000 hours to get a base level of mastery and continued daily practice for the rest of your life. Truth wins but truth hurts. What are you waiting for. Go to http://www.thinkingcitizen.com and find out if you are a thinking citizen yet.
DON’T WAIT FOR MY SUCCESSFUL ELECTION IN 2024 TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE — GET AHEAD OF THE CURVE AND DO IT NOW
1. Reading without writing is like eating without digesting. Start writing today about what you think is the best way for you to contribute to the transformation of American political culture to one focusing on the positive, the shared, and the future.
2. We need a culture of “we” to replace a culture of “us versus them.”
3. Form a “Muresianu for President” group in your community focused on exchanging ideas on what matters most and how to make our dream for America and the world come true sooner rather than later. Shall we dance?
FOOTNOTE — CROWD-SOURCING THE BEST NAME FOR THE PARTY
1. Gratitude First Party
2. Gratitude: The Party of We and Yes
3. The Party of We and Yes
NB: Party of Unity and Positivity. Think positive. Think shared. Think the future.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to education or education policy. Or the coolest thought however half-baked you had. Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to education or education policy that the rest of us may have missed. Or just some random education-related fact that blew you away.
This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your own mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something that is dear to your heart.
