DIY Civic Fitness

Civic fitness is the Jan Brady of Open-Source Learning; it’s the easiest of the five fitnesses to overlook. Now it’s starting to feel ignored, and it’s acting out.

People generally understand the importance of mental fitness. Physical fitness is the stuff of magazine covers. Spiritual fitness is literally awesome. Technological fitness constantly dominates the headlines. Civic fitness doesn’t peacock for two reasons: 1) the palindromic name brings to mind middle school history class and your older sister’s first car; and 2) everything about civic fitness can be reduced to adulting. Voting, volunteering, managing your finances, understanding the economics of war and the practical implications of public policy… civic fitness is not always sexy.* (*Until you talk to prospective romantic partners of a certain age about security and predictability.)

When I give talks about how we can learn what school doesn’t teach us — how to grieve, or how to file our taxes, or how to eat for optimal energy and emotional well-being, for example — I often mention that leaders in these fields make millions of dollars. Econ 101 says this information is valuable enough to pay for it.

Not paying attention to civic fitness is also costing most of us dearly while benefiting a select few. I’m no conspiracy theorist, but when an effect this obvious goes unaddressed for this long, I do start to wonder why. What if the general lack of civic fitness isn’t a design glitch? What if it’s a feature?

Over two thousand years ago, Lucius Cassius was the highest elected official in Ancient Rome. When Cassius served as consul and then as censor (which was like a Supreme Court of one that administered the census and adjudicated issues of morality and finance), he would ask: “Cui Bono?”

Who benefits?

Who benefits from American K12 and college students not knowing how to calculate APR or evaluate the credibility of online content? Or not understanding the historical economics of war or how our government works? Or how vaccines prevent disease, or why ultra processed food will make you miserable and shorten your life?

At last count, Jeff Bezos has nearly $250B. Elon Musk has more than $450B – as a reminder, that’s BILLION. It seems painfully obvious that they have thought more about how to take our money than we’ve thought about how to keep it. It seems equally obvious that corporations have fooled us into thinking we have a choice when we buy food. According to a 2021 investigation by The Guardian and Food and Water Watch, “A handful of powerful companies control the majority market share of almost 80% of dozens of grocery items bought regularly by ordinary Americans.”

And why bother with mediation or restorative practices when there’s more profit in incarceration and enforcement gear? The Jamestown, North Dakota (population: 15,823) police department has received more than $3.2M in military equipment in recent years. Many police departments in small communities now have military grade weapons and surveillance technology. Armored humvees. Tactical gear. Thermal imaging units.

Civic fitness is essential for self-reliance. Each of us must develop our own capacity for peace and prosperity. If we can resolve our differences with each other, we don’t need the S.W.A.T. team. If we can effectively steward our own resources we are less vulnerable to predatory lending practices and false advertising.

Civic fitness is also essential for doing those things together that we can’t do by ourselves. In 2014 I visited Boston for the first time to give a talk at the Macarthur Digital Media & Learning Conference. I totally geeked out and took the whole tour of the city. I visited Paul Revere’s House, Faneuil Hall, Beacon Hill, and the Old South Church. It was there, at the Old South Meeting House, that Samuel Adams gave the signal for the “war whoops” that started the Boston Tea Party.

That’s what gave me the idea for civic fitness in the first place. I was standing at the edge of Boston Harbor, thinking about all the American civic firsts I had just seen – the first public library, the first public school, the first public park, the first subway – that had been collaboratively built by the community, for the community, through taxation with representation.

And then, my daily dose of irony. Around the time of my trip to Boston, a group of Republicans called themselves “The Tea Party” and advocated for less taxes and government spending. Under their policies, we couldn’t have public infrastructure, unless Mr. Musk or Mr. Bezos bought it for us.

As a country, we recently voted for a leader who has vowed to dismantle much of our government. It’s entirely possible that we will have cabinet members who – all politics aside – do not have experience or expertise that matches their job descriptions. If the Department of Education is destroyed , or the Secretary of Defense is busy trying to get students to pray, or the Secretary of Health and Human Services convinces people that vaccinations are bad…

We are way past partisan politics. As Abraham Lincoln famously observed in the Gettysburg Address, “Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.” I would respectfully add, “If they show up, and if they have some idea what they’re talking about.” We need to build our capacity for civic fitness in a hurry. One good place to start: How We Can Meet the Challenges of Authoritarianism.

Curiosity is worth practicing. That’s how we get better at it. When it’s done particularly well, curiosity can be elevated to an art form. Curiosity makes life worth living. I am literally Curious AF. And now you can be too! Click HERE to unlock your free membership subscription.

Here is a taste of what I’m reading, watching, and thinking about.

What I’m Languaging –

I recently bought a subscription to Babbel because I want to level up my skills in Spanish and Italian. Then I read about Nigel Richards..

Nigel Richards has won five Scrabble world championships in English. That’s awesome. He also recently won the Spanish world championship. Which is even more awesome, because Richards doesn’t speak Spanish. And this isn’t the first time he’s done it – Richards won the French Scrabble world championship, after memorizing the French Scrabble dictionary in about nine weeks, because he doesn’t speak French either. From The Guardian: “When Nigel Richards sits at a table, everyone loses their nerves, even the biggest champions,” he said. “Playing against Nigel Richards is like playing against a computer.”

Teens and Tech –

Most teens use social media and have a smartphone, and nearly half say they’re online almost constantly, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 conducted Sept. 18-Oct. 10, 2024.

Which is one reason a family has filed a product liability lawsuit against Google’s Character.AI. From NPR’s Lawsuit: A chatbot hinted a kid should kill his parents over screen time limits:

“A child in Texas was 9 years old when she first used the chatbot service Character.AI. It exposed her to "hypersexualized content," causing her to develop "sexualized behaviors prematurely."

A chatbot on the app gleefully described self-harm to another young user, telling a 17-year-old "it felt good."

The same teenager was told by a Character.AI chatbot that it sympathized with children who murder their parents after the teen complained to the bot about his limited screen time. "You know sometimes I'm not surprised when I read the news and see stuff like 'child kills parents after a decade of physical and emotional abuse,'" the bot allegedly wrote. "I just have no hope for your parents," it continued, with a frowning face emoji.”

Your Mother Was (likely descended from) a Neanderthal –

Several people I know got their proprietary DNA results back over the last few years with a surprise bonus: A Neanderthal in their family tree! Turns out they’re not alone. From NBC News: “Hidden in many people’s genetic codes is a mystery that has long intrigued scientists — a tiny slice of Neanderthal DNA that persists tens of thousands of years after the species vanished. Most non-African people can attribute around 1% to 2% of their DNA to Neanderthal ancestors.”

Long Live the Bookstore –

There is nothing like perusing the shelves at a neighborhood bookstore. I always find myself in an interesting conversation, and I never leave empty handed.

So I was heartened to read that bestselling author James Patterson goes out of his way to reward the saints behind the counter and in the stacks: “Booksellers save lives. Period,” Patterson said in a statement released Tuesday through his publisher, Little, Brown and Company. “I’m happy to be able to acknowledge them and all their hard work this holiday season.”

Quotes I’m pondering —

A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.
– Jerry Seinfeld
I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, 'Where's the self-help section?' She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.
– George Carlin

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