Turn on any news or business channel and you are inundated with stories about our supply chain challenges. Our U.S. economy is dependent on foreign imports of raw materials for our manufacturing facilities such as zinc, cobalt, cadmium, and uranium. Our agricultural producers are dependent on fertilizers from overseas to grow crops. The appliances, computers, and vehicles we produce require massive amounts of computer chips of which most are produced in other countries. While these shortages are real and detrimental to our success as a nation, they are not our most critical supply chain challenge.
Today in the U.S. we have a critical shortage of citizens with the ability to research, analyze, and take action to solve problems…critical thinking. That is the most important supply chain shortage. We are not taught how to accurately identify a problem, analyze what caused the problem, list the possible solutions, and take actions necessary to solve the problem. For many, the fear of making a “wrong decision,” or upsetting some group keeps them from making the hard decisions to solve challenges. Far too many of us allow government “experts” and media “analysts” to make these major decisions for us. This creates the real supply chain crisis, the shortage of effective leadership caused by the lack of critical thinking. How did we get here?
First, we redefined the meaning of “right vs wrong” making everything relative to the person and the situation. We allowed our colleges and universities to stop teaching critical thinking in favor of indoctrination…giving the students “safe spaces” to avoid anything that “offended” them. Classes in American and World History became laboratories about how flawed America was. That we in the U.S. are irreparably broken. Our students were trained to look at a person’s race and/or sexual orientation as the most important of life’s decisions instead of how to make a living, raise a family, protect our country, and support their communities. These students became teachers in secondary and elementary schools teaching their students. In short, our classrooms have become the tools of indoctrination of foolishness and ignorance rather than educating students with required life skills.
We allowed these same views to become primary in our media: TV, Radio, and Internet. With their power of communication, we have been repeatedly told that we cannot make decisions for ourselves and must rely on government “experts” to make decisions for us. That action takes the decision-making authority away from us and our elected representatives. Then, the people whom we choose to represent us do not take responsibility for the problems caused by government “experts” who were trained in the schools mentioned previously. Additionally, our media produces programs, movies, videos, and music to ensure that all of us believe how rotten America is, and that the deviancy, immorality, and violence of what they produce is normal.
With the breakdown of education, government, and media causing the destruction of families we are now reaping what we have sowed. Unrestrained violence thrives in our cities when criminals are not held accountable for their actions. Our businesses and factories cannot hire workers because many use the government as their source of income. Our military has reduced readiness and effectiveness due to the lack of leadership and discipline. And our government, whom we were taught is being run by “experts” because we are incapable making our own decisions, is corrupt, nepotistic, and making decisions based on dividing us into groups to win elections instead of raising the standard of living for all of our citizens…together.
Our problems are caused not only by poor decision-making, or by a lack of critical thinking and personal responsibility, but a lack of effective and moral leadership. Leaders need to make informed moral decisions based on identifying problems as they really exist rather than on analyzing them through a prism of race, sex, and political expedience. Our schools must return to teaching basic skills including real mathematics, science, and history, plus critical thinking, language and written skills. In other words, teach skills not politics. And we must strengthen the family unit as the basis for our success. John Adams wrote, “Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
In conclusion, to solve the real supply chain crisis…the shortage of effective leaders, we must…
Return morality and personal responsibility to both individuals, organizations, and government. Decision-making and responsibility go hand-in-hand. We all make mistakes. Analyze them, correct them, and move forward to a better place.
Encourage, support, and reward successful nuclear families. The family unit is the basic building block for EVERY successful society. The government cannot replace parents nor should it strive to do so.
Return control of schools to parents and local citizens to reflect the values of the community. We all must assume responsibility for teaching critical thinking and morality to our children.
Our media and news outlets must be reformed to present us with facts. Tell us what happened. Don’t omit stories or report half-truths to support a narrative. Citizens can make up their own minds if they are given ALL the facts. Encourage personal responsibility in your reporting and in those on whom you report. Movies and videos must support the family as well as morality.
In business and government, leaders must support and encourage morality, critical thinking, and work for the benefit of citizens and shareholders, clients and customers, as well as employees as they strive to grow better and more successful organizations.
We would all do
more, be more, and create more if we followed the Rotary
International 4-way test for making decisions using critical
thinking:
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Larry Bonorato is the best selling author of WORK WITH ME NOT FOR ME which is available on Amazon at the link below:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5NYR5PW
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