Vigilence is the price of liberty

Respected' humanitarian Albert Schweitzer -- Ph.D., M.D., Nobel laureate, author and maverick preacher -- urged men and women to be "less shallow" and help the world become ethically better by making themselves think.

How timely to recall his thoughtful words during this 2008 election season. As one of our presidents observed, "Americans too often want the luxury of opinion without the effort of thought." Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell said, "Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin, more even than death." A lesser sage urged, "Pull up your socks."

America's duopoly of political parties and their legions of campaign operatives are putting on quite a show, laughing up their sleeves as they prove that media manipulation trumps honest thinking nearly all the time, Money, media spin, catchy slogans, and a hit parade of men and women who can front as hooks to attract favorable psychological projections today loom as the decisive factors determining who will be our next global commander-in-chief and protector of the vested interests.

Unless, as teacher and author Edith Hamilton wrote, "The common people arise and put down the dysfunctional political values that oppress them." People rising up as thinking citizens who realize that vigilance is indeed the price of liberty and well-being. Rising up to condemn the "lying, deceit and perfidy" (again quoting Schweitzer) that threaten to transform American democracy into a trickster-driven demockrisy.

Robert Darcy

Wheaton