2015-2023
The genesis for my intial attempt at blogging came with retirement. By 2021, 300+ posts, and without any marketing effort, it hit 25,000+ views from 10,000 visitors from 89 nations. After being hacked, and my shift in focus to teaching political history at the UC Riverside Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, my effort in developing a new page became sporadic at best. Although much of what is contained in this archive may no longer be considered contemporary, the themes are still at the core of our own political discourse. While a few posts have expired links, most of them are still very relevant. Some need to be rewritten or at the very least, updated. I’m working on it.
This site is a reflection of our contemporary and historical selfs. It is a compilation of snap shots of our cultural identity, our political, economic social, and physical enviornments.
In part using my own travels as examples, this page points to the underlying importance of the lost art of civic responsibility and compromise, of maturing and civility. It will periodically provide source information pertaining to socio-economic trends, local, regional and global profiles, demographics, culture, the environment, technology and as the iconic Hans Rosling has demonstrated, Factfulness. In a sense, this site provides a sampling of viewpoints about where we are as a nation and where we are as citizens of the world.
Hopefully it will be of interest.
Steve Harding
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Hi Professor Harding!
I’ve been reading your posts on and off for a few years now. We share a common concern, well, many actually, but the one that lights my fire is why we don’t teach Civics in Junior High or High School anymore.
I admittedly dabble in watching FOX News. One of their segments consistently focuses on how lame American youth is when it comes to understanding simple government. The interviewer, typically a young journalist, asks simple questions about the government. I find the answers given to simple civics hilarious but frightening at the same time.
At 71, I am still working in municipal planning and zoning. Some of the things I hear at public meetings down here in South Carolina (formerly California) just curl my hair. It’s astounding how uneducated the vast majority of our citizens are.
Whatever happened to Civics 101?
Hi Mark–It’s good to hear that you are still out there fighting the good fight. You certainly did good things back here in California. As to your point, the dumbing down of “Civic” knowledge in the U.S. is 50 years in the making. It is the the nation’s historic illiberal side and it’s reaction to the progressive agenda of the 60s and early 70s. This has only mushroomed with the advent of Christian Nationalism. Regardless, there have been multiple efforts towards the civic education, and the responsibility that goes with it, aimed at K-12 systems across the country. What I’m more concerned about are the ignorant adult generations that missed those lessons. How do we reach a recalcitrant population mired in it’s own arrogant cognitive biases? https://our-civic-culture.com/2024/09/17/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it-by-richard-t-moore-for-the-aspa-pa-times/
We look forward to your posts and always find them based on history and facts not on propaganda and wishful thinking.
Roberta and Phil