We Are Being Tested

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Welcome to this week’s Bill Harvey Blog.
July 17, 2026

We are being tested the way Job was tested.

It was a setup. Starting way back in the 1960s. As early as the 1960s, as documented by Yoni Applebaum in this month’s issue of The Atlantic, the way that American history was taught in schools bifurcated into two warring narratives. One emphasized the American ideals of what we have always aspired to be, and have generally been, to our own people and in our dealings around the world. The other narrative told it like it was, warts and all, not pulling punches about our imperfections, even as we were getting better year after year.

By 2001, when George W. Bush and Congress created No Child Left Behind, they dodged the bullet on setting a single standard for the teaching of history. The unintended net effect was to virtually mute the teaching of American idealism in schools for the past quarter of a Century. Although the trend toward subordinating American history as a school subject started back in the 1960s.

Can we see any effects that might be traceable to this change in the way schools have taught about what America means and is?

An AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that about two-thirds (67%) of U.S. adults say a democratically elected government is highly important to the nation’s identity. Conversely, this means roughly 33% of Americans do not see it as extremely or very important—a significant jump from 2021, when 80% viewed it as highly vital.*

The Generational Divide: Apathy or detachment is heavily concentrated among younger generations. Only 50% of Americans under 30 believe democracy is a key element of the U.S.’s identity, compared to 81% of those ages 60 and older.

Rather than outright hostility toward democracy, experts note that this detachment often stems from a growing belief among everyday citizens—especially younger generations—that the political system is fundamentally broken, corrupt, or simply failing to address their day-to-day problems.

If they had been taught the way the Old Guard had been taught, some of our current problems might never have been possible.

I’m not preaching in favor of whitewashing, but in favor of telling not only all the good and bad details, but also the philosophical drivers for why there is a USA designed the way it is. The ideals, the values, the logic, and reasoning based on deep studies of pre-American history and the types of governing systems there had been and how they fared. The Founders didn’t just make it up. They never claimed that they had received the Light from Above. They had assimilated Enlightenment philosophies and had studied history going as far back as it goes. They debated for 17 years from 1774 to 1791. 17 years to get it right.

And get it right they did. No republic has ever lasted as long as we have.

But loopholes existed. And things that The Founders had warned us against, like the two-party system happened despite their warnings. And the things that Washington said would happen if we went to a two-party system, have now happened big time. The people who felt that their Party was shrinking away found a leader who found those loopholes and has leveraged them. At a time when the schools had pressed the pause button for too long on reminding us of our ideals.

Even when idealism was being taught in schools, we have always, as citizens, not been 100% engaged. Other interests occupied our attention, for most of us, and only a fraction of us (usually around 40%) voted in elections. Socrates, who was all for having a republic, felt that it was a citizen’s duty to serve that republic, might have been shocked to see how lackadaisical the majority of Americans have always been about chipping in some time to serve in the role of engaged citizens.

In the 2024 US presidential election, approximately 85.9 million eligible voters did not cast a ballot. While 2024 tied the highest voter turnout rate in over a century (tied with 1960), the 85.9 million people who sat it out actually outnumbered the total votes cast for either major candidate.

This goes back to the feeling that none of us can do anything to change the inept, corrupt, and distracted from the needs of The People system as it now is. People who don’t vote feel that if they did vote, it would make no difference. As Simon & Garfunkel wrote and sang, “Going to the candidates’ debate, Laugh about it, shout about it, When you’ve got to choose, Every way you look at it, you lose.”

So, we’ve been set up to be tested, prepared by a quarter century of not teaching our own brand of American pragmatic idealism in schools, supported by the most successful governance system in world history and spoiled by it so as to take its benefits and our rights for granted without needing to lift a finger or even vote. And now, if we fail to stand up and be counted, and to vote against the removal of our rights to freedom of speech and assembly, cynicism and low meanness and corruption more blatant than ever before by an order of magnitude, the test will result in a longer period of learning to pass it.

That’s the way that the Universe works. It teaches us things. It first tries teaching it to us in ways that are fun. If we don’t get it, it teaches us with a few hard knocks. If we still don’t get it, the knocks get harder and harder the longer we cling to obstinacy and refusal to open our minds and eyes and see what the Universe is trying to tell us.

As the Father of Our Nation warned us, we might be obstinate because of the two-party system and what it has done to make us feel that the political party we cling to is vital to our personal identity. It is not. Our personal identity is unique in the Universe; it has nothing to do with which teams we root for.

Pass the test. Help us all pass the test. Plan to vote no matter what. Show what you’re made of.

And then when we have retaken our country and are again recognized as the seat of all governing power, “We, The People,” we have some loopholes to fix. In a moment of forgiveness, sometime in the future, we will thank the folks who called those loopholes to our attention so we could fix them before some more talented, more professional, more intelligent baddies come along and find them.

*However, according to a PBS News/NPR/Marist poll released in July 2026, the overwhelming majority of Americans are deeply concerned:

  • 82% of Americans believe that the future of American democracy faces a serious threat.
  • This worry spans across the political spectrum: 74% of Republicans, 83% of independents, and 91% of Democrats share this view.

In that same poll, it was found that 84% of us feel that we know too little about history.

My best wishes to all,
Bill

The Human Heritage: Word Pollution

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Welcome to this week’s Bill Harvey Blog.
July 9, 2026

This is the second in the new MIND MAGIC / MIND EXPERIMENTS book excerpt series. The first one, Release Your Self from the Hypnotic Power of Words, was published on June 5.

 

Humans come into the world. We find out certain things: for example, we find out that fire burns us. This “finding out” we call knowing: when someone has a true picture in his or her mind— “true” meaning that the picture cor­responds to the external reality—we call this knowing. So, if we have a picture in our mind of fire burning our hand, we say that we know that fire can burn us.

So far, language does not yet exist. We can know without language by holding true images in our mind. There is no “believing.” “Believing” comes into the picture when lan­guage is invented.

With language, one person who knows something can pass on this knowledge to another person who has not yet discovered it for themself. The latter person, in accepting the former’s knowledge as true, “believes” it. As we all now know, this “believing” often leads to the holding of untrue pictures in people’s minds.

The cure is to cut down on believing—tend to only hold pictures in one’s mind of the things one has seen oneself.

Belief was never much of an issue before words.

Belief = be lief = be for me. I believe him = he be’s for me on that. He was there. He saw it. He sees it for me. He sees it—I see him see it.

Cosmic humor: Most belief is founded on the form, not the content, of the words believed in.

Disidentifying with the feeling of belief

At almost every instant, you are likely to experience the feeling about a given postulate: “It is so.” Look for that feeling, and when it arises, remind yourself: “It may not be so.” Be willing to act based on your judgment as to whether something is more likely to be true or to be not true; but do not believe that it is either true or not true. In this way, belief is unnecessary to action.

Be especially wary of the feeling of belief at times when you have a thought and then do not contradict it. Simply, the experience of non-contradiction suggests to the belief program that it energizes itself. Thus, you must guard against the tendency to believe any thought you generate. This can best be done by remembering to say to yourself (but not in words), “It may not be so” in response to every thought.

TRUTH - INTELLECTUALLY - ACTIONABLY

The definition of Truth at the intellectual level is what can be made to sound reasonable based on the words you use. Intellectual reason can find some truth and some falsity in every statement, depending upon how it is interpreted.

The definition of Truth at the action level is what works when you actually try it in reality . . . i.e., what the uni­verse reinforces.

We need to make action decisions each second. We need to make intellectual statements a few times a day. The two are usually unrelated.

Few people living in the Scientific Age have realized that the Scientific Method can be applied to Life . . .

Mind Experiment

What do you believe?

List your beliefs on one or several sheets of paper using only the left-hand side of the page. (Or on your laptop or tablet if you prefer. We recommend paper, so you don’t need to bother with formatting, auto-correct, etc.) Use question marks next to any beliefs you’re not sure you fully believe.

If you’re not sure where to start, you might start with beliefs about God, an afterlife, the purpose of life, and what is good and what is bad.

Where did they come from? Why do (did)

I believe that?

In this game, one remem­bers where each belief came from.

Easy if you take them slowly, one at a time.

No longer needing to have beliefs

In this stage, one faces the situation of no longer really having any beliefs, yet realizes that this is true freedom to learn. Often accompanied by brief ecstasy.

It may not be so.

To do this experiment, simply pick a period of time, and in that time watch your thoughts, remembering to realize that each thought might be right or it might be wrong.

This is one of the most universal forms of meditation.

The way it usually goes, you keep getting sucked into iden­tifying with some thought or another and forget to doubt it—then catch yourself and back out of auto-agreement with the thought.

Over time, you begin to see how your idea-generation process, your conviction-decision process, and your other mental processes work. Then you will have control over these processes rather than being controlled by them.

Love to all,
Bill

A July 4th Message from the Father of Our Country

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Happy 250th Birthday, USA!

Welcome to this week’s Bill Harvey Blog.
Updated July 3, 2026. Original post: July 2, 2021

An excerpt of the Farewell Address given by President George Washington to the people of America.

For at least two decades from July 4, 1776, George Washington was the most trusted person in the United States of America.

The Walter Cronkite of his times.

He served as President when, to him, the job was a burden rather than a prize.

He was the glue of authenticity and integrity that gave our country its chance to build a foundation that would last.

For two decades, he made parties unnecessary, because all differences could be resolved in him.

And then, when the party divisions arose with their bitterness and hate, he stood down and would not accept another term as President. He was 64. Average life expectancy for an American male was 36.

In departing, he was sure to warn us about the forces that were arising to counter the most innovative governmental structure in history.

In this post, I will read you some excerpts from George Washington’s final address, his last guidance to the children of the country he helped create and lead through its fragile infancy. I’ll also provide the link to the full going away letter he left for all of us, which is read annually to both houses of Congress.

I hope it revitalizes your true loyalty to our true bedrock principles, and helps bring the unity we need now more than we have ever needed it before.

Washington begins by humbly and diffidently explaining why he will not accept another term in office:

Transcript Excerpts of President George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796)

Friends and Fellow Citizens:

The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made.


Later in his address, he warns of the dangers of the political parties just then sprouting up in America:

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.

He goes on to warn against the danger of one branch of government becoming dominant:

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. 

To me, the humility, authenticity, and kindness of the Father of our Nation comes through loud and clear in these his last words of advice, to us his children, endowed to carry on the idealism of the Founders.

Let his spirit re-inspire us to our original Mission and Values, and help us return to unity with forgiveness and a renewed dedication to work together for the good of all of us.

What you feel when you read these words of George Washington…
You are feeling what it is to Be An American.

This American Noble Experiment is worth preserving!

Commemorating and honoring that Beacon for The World, here is a song from the heart of Ray Charles in 2022, 50 years after first singing this rendition of it on the Dick Cavett Show.

I hope you agree with me that this post should be sent to as many Americans as possible. If we each send it to 10 or more people asking them to send it to ten or more people, by the sixth round at least a million people will have received it.

My best wishes to all,
Bill

 

Starting Over

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Welcome to this week’s Bill Harvey Blog
Created June 26, 2026

It’s a gloriously beautiful day in the future. The dark days of endless hate and hopelessness have finally ended. The United States has voted in a competent, pragmatic President who is inspired by the spirit of America and its dream for the world. The American dream of the preciousness of each human life and the dignity of every individual.

There is a lot of rebuilding and repair to do. Augean stables abound.

Rather than being overwhelmed by the scope of the task, Americans who begin this resurrection will feel grateful to be the lucky generations whose timing has granted them this historic honor. “We are the new Washingtons, Franklins, Jeffersons, Hamiltons, Lincolns,” they dare to realize with awe. “Completing their work.”

Starting over. A feeling of enormous creative license, freedom to paint on a grand scale canvas. And yet an imperative to start from and hew to originalism, the original Constitution, its exact words and meanings.

Even though that Constitution did not protect us from falling away from The American Dream into an American Nightmare.

That is where the creativity comes in. How do we Amend the Constitution so that it can never happen again?

Finally, a social media conversation worth having. A collaboration, a wikimedia, crowdsourcing at the highest level. With guard rails and guidelines contributed by experts in Constitutional Law.

Something better to do with the amazing media we have created.

A sense of common purpose.

Starting over is a lovely feeling.

What sorts of things will be up for discussion? What are some of the different ways things can turn out?

In one scenario, there may be a ban on the two-party system.

The idea of political parties is never mentioned in the Declaration of Independence nor in the Constitution.

In fact, many of the Founding Fathers were deeply suspicious of them. They referred to political parties as “factions” and viewed them as a threat to national unity.

For instance, George Washington famously used his 1796 Farewell Address to warn Americans against the dangers of political parties, arguing that they would lead to “alternate domination” and distract the government from its duties. Similarly, James Madison wrote extensively in Federalist No. 10 about how to control the negative effects of factions.

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

The landmark political science book Partisan Hearts and Minds: Political Parties and the Social Identities of Voters by Green, Palmquist, and Schickler argues against the common political science theory that political party affiliation is a rational, calculated choice based on policy. Instead, it’s a deep-seated social identity, much like religious or ethnic alignments. People adopt a partisan identity early in adulthood. This identity acts as a perceptual lens that filters all future political information. Major events like recessions or scandals rarely shatter a voter’s core party identity.

A social identity does not have the same psychological status as motivational drives; it is more like a mask that is worn, not the inner urgings which cause all of our behavior. We stick to our early self-classification as Democrats or Republicans because otherwise we feel a loss of identity and as if we no longer live within the safety and support of a large group. All of this goes on below the level of our conscious minds. This is why we can be rabble-roused and manipulated to hate each other. If our conscious minds were in control, we would not let that happen.

When the reconstruction comes, there may no longer be political parties. The first new President may be an Independent. This was never thought possible, but today we see great erosion in the images of both parties. Americans want a real change and this might not be possible with the current two parties.

How do we stop money from controlling politics?

This is really a media question.

If there were a foolproof mechanism for identifying candidates willing to serve and who have proven by their actions to be the kinds of people that could possibly serve us well, the media exposure of those candidates could be provided for free, mandated by law. True, this would reduce advertising revenues by about 3%, but perhaps that would be worth the cost.

One way or another, in the reconstruction, we have to stop the buying of elections by the amount of money raised for advertising.

Neither gerrymandering nor filibuster appears in the Constitution. The Electoral College causes gerrymandering, so it is time to switch to popular vote. The two-party system causes filibuster, so in the Second Life of America, we can sweep those out together.

The FCC may have been a bit prissy in regulating American media before there was digital, but on balance, we were better off then than now in terms of what we allow in media.

With AI, it is well within technical capabilities to automatically fact-check everything and to filter out lies and false statements made innocently – or to allow them with the fact check alongside – something for all of us to decide together. Then we get the best of Free Speech without the current Orwellian, Skinnerian conditioning of our whole population’s acceptance of blatant lying as the new way of being we are all supposed to adopt because somehow it is manly?

We who are suffering through the new Dark Ages are entitled to let our hearts and minds have respite by living in the future when we emerge again in the Light.

Starting Over.

Love to all,
Bill