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THE VIEW FROM HERE - Between 130 and 135 C.E., Pirkei Avot (Sayings of Fathers) asks this vital question. The short answer appears obvious – both. In Jewish tradition, questions are not asked to get an answer, but to launch an investigation. The most famous example of this tradition are Hillel’s Three Questions: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am for myself alone, what am I? If not now, when?”
Why is Study More Important?
Study requires that one ask questions, seek answers, test hypotheses, and engage in dialogue with others in order to gather information.
Why is Action More Important?
Knowledge which does not lead to action is sterile.
The underlying principle is that questioning is indispensable, as Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Yet, today people are screaming ignorant memes at the top of their lungs while abysmally devoid of facts and logic. America’s crisis arises from our polarization between two extremes. Each extreme, MAGA and Woke, has captured a political party where questioning is verboten. Each has its narrative which controls what its followers must unquestioningly believe. Extremists are absolutists who brook no questioning. See The Dangers of Dichotomy
Americans’ Level of Ignorance is Astounding
Few American Millennials and GenZers know that America is not a democracy and never has been a democracy. They criticize the GOP for being “a threat to democracy.” The charge has no meaning as applied to America because we are not democracy but a Republic. Politicians almost always make the same error of confusing the nature of our Republic with one of its features. Voting is one aspect of our Constitutional Republic which is “democratic.”. The Declaration of Independence requires us to have some voting because any legitimate government must have the consent of the governed. The need for consent flows from each individual’s having certain inalienable rights including Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. It would be incongruous to have the inalienable rights if people had no way to exhibit or withhold its consent to the government’s actions.
Thomas Jefferson explained, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, . . . it expects what never was and never will be.” If votes are not based on study of facts and the nature of individual rights, voters will rush ahead based on emotion, whim, and ignorance, voting for “equality in servitude to inequality in freedom." In Democracy in America de Tocqueville explained how an ignorant society’s passion for equality will end up living in a tyranny. Voters do not know the difference between a democracy and a republic become pawns of the nefarious.
Embedded in Democracy Is Notion That the Voters Rule
Too many Americans believe that their votes should overrule Congress and the Supreme Court, without realizing we are nation governed by law. The US Constitution, and not voters’ desire, is the supreme law of the land. If 100% of voters approve of slavery, the US Constitution will nullify their decision. Until today, many held the false belief that Trump’s election entitled him to override the Constitution. Trump’s belief is a throw back to the Charles I’s Divine Right of Kings. The late, not-so-great Charles I lost his head in 1649.
Citizens’ asking questions is morally superior to accepting the politicos’ answers. Daily, asking oneself Hillel’s second question, “What am I,” forces a person to constantly engage in introspection. Asking questions about information, which is shoveled at us from Right and Left, engages our minds more profoundly, rather than our uncritically accepting foolishness because it sounds superficially reasonable. Neither MAGA nor Woke take the time to ask serious questions about Sanctuary Cities. Rather hewing to the party line, asking questions would result in both sides recognizing that Sanctuary cities have benefits and limitations. Polarized unthinking minds prefer to yell memes and mock others.
Is There A Solution?
People can create their own “Questioning Groups.” Likewise, Neighborhood Councils could sponsor questioning groups, but not similar to DONE’s dictatorial Woke brainwashing. In addition to Questioning Groups about the nature of individual inalienable rights an the rule of law, Los Angeles groups could sponsor sessions to study two of Los Angeles’ foundational planing documents. Remaining ignorant of these two documents seriously impairs one’s ability to understand the extreme danger which state and city land use planning has imperiled Angelenos’ quality of life.
(1) 1915 Study of Street Traffic Conditions in the City of Los Angeles
It does not read like an Agatha Christie mystery. It explains the three factors underlying city planning in Los Angeles: topography, mathematics, and finance. If you love memes, you’ll hate this treatise. It requires study and patience while the pdf downloads.
(2) "Density Hawks" Are Changing L.A.'s DNA
This 2008 article in LA Weekly by Steven Leigh Morris warned Angelenos of how illicit forces were setting the stage of LA’s ruin. One will be amazed how he sounds as if he were in present-day LA. Although he does not reference the 1915 Study, it is based on the same premises and comes to the same conclusion, i.e., excessive density is bad.
When studying the Talmud, it is best to study in a small group. The rabbis analogized that as "Iron sharpens iron" (Proverbs 27:17), two or more students debating and questioning elevate the others’ understanding. This group dynamic creates a unique intellectual ecosystem where multiple minds catch a point which one or two might miss. Questioning Groups would use the same small group format. By following this pattern, people can have regular meetings so that they have the opportunity to master the basics of planning. When a mixed-use project is proposed, the Questioning Group members will already be sophisticated and recognize the dreck which passes as city planning.
When Angelenos start asking questions, they will discover for themselves that LA has no housing shortage, that failure to build more housing did not cause the homeless crisis, that Wall Street’s monetization of housing created the inflation of housing costs, thereby causing Millennial to leave the city, thereby imperiling the city’ and the LAUSD’s budget. Unless voters take the time to study these matters for themselves in advance, they forfeit agency in their own lives and will remain pawns.
People have no power in their own self-government unless they study and then take action to stop the horrid behavior which has been ruining Los Angeles since 2001.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a former Los Angeles-based attorney, an author, and political commentator. A long-time contributor to CityWatchLA, he is known for his incisive critiques of City Hall and judicial corruption, as well as his analysis of political and constitutional issues. Abrams blends legal insight with historical and philosophical depth to challenge conventional narratives. A passionate defender of civic integrity and transparency, he aims to expose misuse of power and advocate for systemic reform in local government. You may email him at [email protected])
