Societal Vigilance

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” -Thomas Jefferson

Vigilance is defined in the Oxford dictionary “as the action or state of keeping careful watch for possible danger or difficulties”.

This word is the inspiration for my blog. I feel that vigilance is the perfect word to describe what humanity must do to protect it from, frankly, itself. Societal vigilance and constant questioning protects us from the vices of humanity that attempt to degrade the very fiber of the human condition. Humanity has been bestowed with one quality that sets us beyond most other mammals that walk across the earth: self realization. This has allowed us to question, reason, learn and by extension, pass down history from one generation to the next, recounting tales of when humanity failed to reach beyond its limitations resulting in catastrophes. My concern these days, as a young man in my twenties, is that there are many among my generation that are completely oblivious to not only what has occurred in history, but why it has occurred. I feel that there are growing numbers of people who do not question the current political situation and are therefore not vigilant.

Why did an educated and compassionate country such as Germany fall into fascism and tyranny? Why did the Roman empire, the mightiest empire on the western hemisphere for generations, whither and die? The variables and conditions that set up these situations: political, economic, societal, and religious are not considered or studied nearly to the required depth. “Why” is a word that has been removed from our education system, a system that prioritizes budgets and standardization over open and honest curiosity and questioning. It is easy to teach “what”, but difficult to teach “why”. “Why” allows the human condition to expand, to hypothesize, to test, to reason. Most importantly understanding why allows us to compare and contrast historical factors to current situations, and make appropriate decisions. Without understanding why, our race is doomed to repeat our own mistakes. Without understanding why, we as a society cannot remain vigilant.

This blog is my personal exploration of “why”, and by extension my humble attempt to put in practice the great words of Thomas Jefferson and remain vigilant.