Coffee shop irksomeness

I walked passed a table with two cadets studying for what I'm sure was an upcoming philosophy test. They sat reviewing terms. "Wait, what is virtue?" one aked. "Oh well, that is a trait that someone values as being good," responded the other. "Then what's value?..." And on.

They may have well been reviewing terms for economics or physics. Philosophy is just another class here at the Academy. Few care about what it really means to be a "lover of wisdom." So many study as if these terms - like virtue, perfection, morality, evil, soul, justice, truth - have nothing to do with them. Should we ever be forced to come to terms with the age old question of good and bad, right and wrong, then I shall await some moral pacesetter of a teacher that will surely speak out against such blatant wickedness! To think, the student must judge for themselves!

Slap me sideways you who should ever find me reviewing philosophical terms for some debilitating quiz come philosophy 310.

Manly character, vigor, or spirit. -Virility
To think hard; ponder; meditate -Cogitate
A moving force; impulse; stimulus -Impetus

words.

Cold Metal Bust

Some body stands in the stairwell.
Another strides the expensive ground. It's late.
A bust of a great man propped up where
none stroll or get lost looks on... blankly, cold.

'A pilot, you think?'
'What else.'
Visitors ooh and aah over
the war stories and
fantastic thoughts regain conciousness.
Regret's on all fours.
But I wonder what he would say
if one stopped and
committed more than a self-
righteous blank cold stare?
'Don't worship my half-lived life.'

Academy corruption surfaces

Cheating, drugs, porn, theft, and sex - The Air Force Academy's honor crisis. The Superintendent of USAFA announced last week that the moral compass of cadets here has gone astray. The school is investigating dozens of honor cases involving freshmen cadets cheating on military knowledge tests. A small minority of cadets have been accused of drug abuse. Last fall the communications squadron discovered why the the internet was moving so slow - cadets have been illegally streaming porn and other questionable material on their personal computers. Pirating music is at an all time high. And apparently we have another sexual assault to top it off.

I know very well the strongest argument most noble cadets offer in response to the news: the culprits represent only 1% of all cadets! Not bad. The numbers (at least those published) do in fact yield less than 1%. One must realize, though, that immoral cadets are not just the ones who get caught - and I am highly confident the Academy has not caught everyone.

Truthfully, the numbers don't mean much to me. It's hard, if not impossible, to quantify morality. The primary consequence of this Academy's corruption breaking the surface of acknowledgement is this: each cadet can't help but spend some time instrospecting. And from my own introspection I've no problem admitting that I am not the perfect, most honorable cadet. Then, when I examine the moral landscape of the Academy I consistently reach the conclusion that most cadets are not perfect and even in some cases the epitome of human depravity. So now what? Is this place hopeless? Maybe.

Cadets aren't pillars of moral perfection - I'm not shocked by that realization, we live in a fallen world. But I should ask what is the Academy doing to encourage and inspire cadets to put forth sincere effort into becoming "officers of character" and following the honor code: We will not lie, steal or cheat?" First, I wonder where the Academy adopted these virtuous rules from? I'd venture to say the Bible. Just take a look at the 8th and 9th commandments. If not, I'm only creative enough to suggest they're engraved on the Academy for some economic or differentiating gimic. If so, our country (and the world really) is worse off than I thought. Now, assuming the honor code is founded on biblical righteousness and following God's commandments, what's the best way to motivate a cadet to follow what the world says is worthless, too lofty, or unprofitable? I say profess truth. Invite God into the classroom, invite Him into our conversations, encourage communal prayer, brotherly and sisterly love, reintroduce apologetics. What has the leadership at the Academy done? All that is secular.

How can the Academy hope to create officers of biblical character without citing the Bible and without using God's name? It's a sad venture. Leaders are restrained from government powers, by those lobbying for tolerance and moral relativism. Why should the government be able to pressure the Academy like this? Money. Every cent comes from tax money and tax money spent has stipulations.

Why should the Academy expect to create officers who honor moral absolutes set by the Creator of the Universe when they can't teach His decrees?

I live in a paradox where leaders challenge cadets to be "good" and to disdain "bad" choices, but when asked "what is good and bad?" I hear the silence which best describes the United States Air Force Academy's moral climate.

What then shall we choose?

I had an enlightening experience with Allan Bloom and his book "The Closing of the American Mind" in the coffee shop this morning. Read this and try not to cringe in the face of truth:

Natural science asserts that it is metaphysically neutral, and hence has no need for philosophy, and that imagination is not a faculty that in any way intuits the real - hence art has nothing to do with truth. The kinds of questions children ask: Is there a God? Is there freedom? Is there punishment for evil deeds? Is there certain knowledge? What is a good society? were once also the questions addressed by science and philosophy. But now the grownups are too busy at work, and the children are left in a day-care center called the humanities, in which the discussions have no echo in the adult world. Moreover, students whose nature draws them to such questions and to the books that appear to investigate them are very quickly rebuffed by the fact that their humanities teachers do not want or are unable to use the books to respond to their needs.

The enlightenment springs from my newly found intelligible support for my elderly intuitional desire to leave the Academy. I will soon patch it altogether in some literary composition.

For now, I will pose this question. The question ranks among the most important I've ever struggled answering. If the moral fabric of this nation is in mature degradation due to, in large part, the collapsing function and execution of higher education and classical liberal studies in today's universities, what then shall I choose? Hope and encouragement, I've recently found, comes from Bloom's genius matter-of-fact:

After a reading of the Symposium a serious student came with deep malancholy and said it was impossible to imagine that magic Athenian atmosphere reproduced, in which friendly men, educated, lively, on a footing of equality, civilized but natural, came together and told wonderful stories about the meaning of their longing. But such experiences are always accessible. Actually, this playful discussion took place in the midst of a terrible war that Athens was destined to lose, and Aristophanes and Socrates at least could foresee that this meant the decline of Greek civilization. But they were not given to culture despair, and in these terrible political circumstances, their abandon to the joy of nature proved the viability of what is best in man, independent of accidents, of circumstance.

Thank you, Mr. Bloom.

A Life of no Sound

A life of no sound sounds appealing to me.
Empty words cease screaming,
annoying drips cease dripping,
and it stops the buzzing of the bee.

The Great Silence comes all at once...
She and he will question me,
I'll don a look and offer glee
And they'll think me crazier than I was

Their caged minds I will unlock.
Peace I'll give to ignorance
and War I'll give to compliments
and pray they'll learn the better of them both.