Let's consider for a moment what things have looked like under social constructs, education systems and philosophies that have allowed for anything, everything, and nothing to matter? Let’s consider how we are doing as a society?   How are we doing? 

Maybe now we will seriously consider the idea that there are a few things that actually matter.

Absolute statements of fact: 

• Our freedom to question everything will eventually leave us with nothing. In order to share a society we must share some common foundational values. 

• We cannot possibly know what extremism looks like or where the reasonable middle is, without a singular authority for such things. 

• It's like we have been trying to play a game without any rules. 

• Because there are no rules, nothing is held sacred. People can lie and it doesn’t matter.  

• The resulting storm of distrust and fear of one another is so blinding, the cycle is so deep, we all feel lost. People just shake their heads and hope for the best. 

• There is no right or wrong, no authority for what is true or false. 

• The circumstances perpetuate themselves by producing leaders who are detached from the natural laws, and who do far more harm than they could possibly know, in their unremarkable condition.

(Teacher exercise here; playing a game without any rules - use your discretion)

Discussion quotes: 

• “Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom”. Alexis De Tocqueville

• “A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few; as we have learned to our sorrow”. Justice Learned Hand, 1944. 

• “What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interest alongside its own without bias;...” Justice Learned Hand 1944. 

• “American freedom is … nothing like pure and unmitigated freedom … True freedom must be an ‘ordered freedom… at the center of which is what we call ‘self-government.’ … People would not have freedom from government, but would have freedom from tyrannous government, or from government that might easily become tyrannous.” (Metaxas p29) 

• “Throughout the 20th century, many colleges and universities had a required first-year course [civics courses] … students … [saw] … disagreement as a necessary ingredient of both learning and of life … [and] confronted hard questions about civil disobedience and social change …Then, almost all schools abandoned that model and allowed students to choose from an array of humanities courses…In this vision, individual choice and individual advancement take center stage. Requirements are recast as paternalistic; freedom is understood as doing as one pleases.” “By Abandoning Civics, Colleges Helped Create the Culture Wars,” by Debra Satz and Dan Edelstein

Resources:

By Abandoning Civics, Colleges Helped Create the Culture Wars,” by Debra Satz and Dan Edelstein. 

LTM chapter p174 on first amendment, voices of evil: anything goes! Just because we can say whatever we want, does that mean we should? refer to the rules of Ben Franklin clubs

LTM chapter 4, make the tie to unwritten laws of colonial America.