A Clear & Present Danger

This morning I posted the following quote from the 19th-century Prussian philosopher Alexandre von Humbolt on Facebook:  “The most dangerous worldview is the worldview of those who have not viewed the world.”  I then added that I was convinced that the clear and present danger to the United States of America is “the worldview of those who have not viewed the world.”  

What is a worldview?  A “worldview” is a particular philosophy of life or conception of the world.  How do you see or perceive the world around you?   That is your worldview.  Our worldview is affected by many things:  inherited characteristics, experiences and life situations, the values, attitudes, and habits we have developed, and more—and these vary from one person to another, even though some parts of our worldview are shared by others.  

Have you developed a worldview without viewing the world?  Part of our dilemma in “Make America Great Again,” or “America First,” is that we want to have a world that we think existed “once upon a time.” If our worldview is one of an America we can recognize and be comfortable with (as when we were young)—an America that existed before civil rights, urban riots, and political correctness—an America where coal and steel were the lifeblood of our economy—an America that has not existed since 1963—we are failing to view the world as it is.  We are lying to ourselves and this lie becomes a clear and present danger.  A 1953 worldview, or a 1963 worldview indicates that we have been arrested in time and cannot function in the new world that has come.  Instead of making America Great,  this worldview that “has not viewed the world” will make America small and it will move us “from a democracy that protected the rights of the minority, the literal definition of a republic, and toward a nation ruled by ‘a strong man’—to autocracy.”  “The most dangerous worldview is the worldview of those who have not viewed the world.”