"Life In The 21st Century"

It's been a while since I've posted a Teacher of the Week (just too busy). So in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, I am thrilled to introduce you to a true modern day philosopher. He is also my colleague, Dr. Joseph Bertolini. The short resume is that Joe is our senior advisor, teaches American History, AP history, and Philosophy. Joe authored the book The Serpent Within: Politics, Literature and American Individualism and is also a contributor to The Philosophers' Magazine. His recent article, The Hobbesian state of America takes an in depth look at how Hobbesian and Lockean philosophies have influenced modern America.

Here are some recurring themes from Joe's article: democracy, freedom, societal ills, and world views of America. He poses some fascinating insight and cleverly threads together past philosophies and how they connect to the realities of today.

"There is much social data that supports the idea of America becoming a more and more self-regarding, Hobbesian society. Whether one looks at the divorce rate, the self-centered coarseness of much popular culture, declining schools, the increase in the prison population, corporate greed, deficient social services, environmental abuse, the increasing rate of poverty and the increasing gap between rich and poor and so on, it is difficult to assume that the average American does not think of himself/herself as a Hobbesian nation of one."

"Thus, America 's monolithic Hobbesian-Lockean ideology has had resultant, inevitable, serious foreign policy implications. America has been isolated, throughout its history, not only by geography but also by its incapacious political philosophy. Wholly committed to its exclusive, unique, Hobbesian-Lockean liberalism, the US has traditionally viewed other nations with other political ideas as, by turns, unimportant, strange or dangerous. The rest of the world, politically, is to be regarded as either odd or threatening to American survival."

"There is much social data that supports the idea of America becoming a more and more self-regarding, Hobbesian society. Whether one looks at the divorce rate, the self-centered coarseness of much popular culture, declining schools, the increase in the prison population, corporate greed, deficient social services, environmental abuse, the increasing rate of poverty and the increasing gap between rich and poor and so on, it is difficult to assume that the average American does not think of himself/herself as a Hobbesian nation of one."

Today's students can benefit from historical thinkers when they have a teacher who can help make the modern connection for them. Clearly, Joe is that link to the past. I wonder if he'll let me sit-in on his philosophy class for a refresher on these great minds?