A paradox that we have not mastered
On November 2, 2021, 30% of Virginians voted for a political party that was obviously heading in an oligarchic direction. In my opinion, these voters preferred this future oligarchy to a democracy where political leaders can be thrown out with a ballot box. I believed Virginia’s 30% translates to 30% across the United States.
I called November 2, 2021 as the day American democracy died.
American democracy has indeed moved closer to the oligarchy side of the oligarch/democracy paradigm since that date. But the oligarchy is not a done deal yet. More drama needs to happen. We should not be surprised at neither the occurrence nor the defeat of the oligarchy.
The question we should be asking is: “How did the USA get this close to the edge of the cliff?”
PBS & The American Revolution
In November 2025, PBS released a documentary about the American Revolution. It painted a complicated picture. There was nothing out of place from my current understanding of American history. My review is here:
Rightly Righting and Writing the Right American History
But my current understanding was not my former understanding. As a Canadian, I did not study American history in school. But through a mostly one-way, American-to-Canadian cultural exchange of comic books, TV shows, and movies, I absorbed a sanitized version of American history. This history depicted a David-and-Goliath tale, complete with good guys with the right ideas to make a great country and bad guys oppressing the good guys. I believe this sanitized version was and still is being taught to American children.
My position led to a thoughtful comment from Greg Dempster, MFA. He said that history needs to be taught with age-appropriate content. Children cannot be expected to understand all the nuances. Nor should they be exposed to the details of the bad things that happened in history. A lot of thought should go into how this information is presented to children.
Greg also mentioned that the more accurate history has always been there. In his case, it was taught in his high school, in an advanced history class. So if an adult wants to learn more American history, he or she can. With my reading as a young adult, I eventually cast aside the sanitized version of American history.
Dave’s Early Historical Studies
Once Greg and I reached this common understanding, I took our discussion in a different direction.
I recalled my Grade 4 social studies when I studied my province of Alberta. My recollections are vague, but there is one fact that really stuck in my mind. It is Father Lacombe came to western Canada to evangelize the First Nations in the 1860s. In these times, the Cree and Blackfoot people were at war with each other. Father Lacombe was able to broker a peace deal between these two First Nations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Lacombe
Was it true? Most likely!
Was it appropriate? That would be questionable!
What was it trying to teach Grade 4 students? I believe this tidbit of history was deliberately placed to reinforce the prejudices that white Canadians had of their First Nation neighbors — and the need for “Christian whites to fix the Indians.” As if the white Europeans had a great history of peaceful co-existence.
I used to harbor those prejudices. While many have fallen away, some may still be lingering. What if I had been taught a more realistic version of Europeans and First Nations in my formative years?
And today, many white Albertans my age still have these prejudices intact. How much did their early education instill those values?
My son is now in elementary school. He is getting quite a bit more First Nations content in his social studies. He is exposed to a more positive approach to this history. But this history is sanitized, giving the impression of First Nations as being gentle, enlightened cultures, bereft of any negative qualities.
This change, I believe, comes from many years of continual lobbying of First Nations activists and a more acceptance of mainstream Canadian media about the clash of these two cultures. Sometime in the past three decades, someone decided to put this First Nations angle in the Alberta curriculum.
Children Growing Up
As these students move out of elementary school and into middle (or junior high) school, they start finding their own interests and passions. And history is usually not one of them. When we force them into a history class, most put in only enough effort to get the adults to stop nagging at them. Maybe they are learning something; maybe they forget everything the minute they write the last exam.
So when these students leave high school, they have the sanitized, elementary-school version in their minds. And this version is reinforced by popular white culture. And that is their truth.
Then things like January 6, 2021 and November 2, 2021 happen.
The PBS documentary is well done. It can teach history to an audience not accustomed to reading history books. The trick is to put this documentary in front of them. The people who need these lessons are likely not watching much PBS. And certain nefarious forces want to keep it that way.
Setting the History Curriculum
Does the history taught in elementary schools shape the values a generation later? Judging by how strongly some activists and propagandists want to influence the curriculum, the answer seems to be a resounding “yes.”
And I have provided a personal example of how my elementary school teaching affected me. Someone had to make a decision for me to learn about Father Lacombe. Likewise, someone later made a decision to provide a more accurate depiction of First Nations in elementary schools.
In Canada, primary education is the sole responsibility of provincial governments. So the decisions around elementary school curriculum come, directly or indirectly, from governing political parties at the provincial level.
Parties too often take a long time to make such changes. If they make changes, they often do not consult much with the front-line workers, i.e. the teachers. And if these changes do not work, the parties often take a long time to effect repairs. Or maybe a new governing party becomes proactive and changes an otherwise good curriculum made by their political opponents, just in spite. But given the importance of elementary schools in setting future values for society, should we really trust the political parties to make the right call?
So how do we teach this history? In my opinion, we should not tell Grade 4 students about the atrocities that Blackfoot and Cree inflicted on each other. Maybe we should not even mention that they were in a state of war. Maybe we should just focus on their culture, social structure, and how they lived on the land. Maybe we need to only teach that different cultures are not all that bad, just because they are different. And as these students are learning about the Blackfoot and the Cree, they are improving their reading and critical thinking skills.
Maybe we should mention a few of the injustices the white culture imposed on the First Nations for there still needs to be a future reckoning. For example, the forced removal of children from their families. Ask the children about being away from their parents for 10 months of the year. Would this be OK?
What history is being exposed to children is something that should not belong to partisan thinkers with an agenda to push.
Teaching History into Adulthood
Children cannot be expected to understand all the nuances of history — and sort out the propaganda from facts. Teenagers will find other passions than history. So we should not expect most of our students will have the full historical picture when they reach adulthood. They will likely carry sanitized versions of history with them — and this has an impact on the political discourse that follows a generation later.
So society should be more proactive in encouraging adults to acquire more history.
I’m going to throw a new idea out there. Why not have the community colleges offer some history courses, using the PBS documentary The American Revolution? This format is easy for most people to consume either at home or in class; there is no reading of history books required.
When adults are in a period of unemployment and/or need a little extra cash, they can attend this course. If they pass a little test at the end of the program, they get a small stipend for their effort. No one is forced to take this course.
As more American adults move away from the sanitized and toward a more realistic version, the collective understanding of American history improves, which should lead to better political outcomes in the future.
Consider this small-time education as another way of society investing in its people.
History or Propaganda?
Undoubtedly, many people in the USA will be aghast that the PBS documentary would be offered as a reasonably accurate version of American history. This conflicts with their comfortable David-and-Goliath version. Which version is more correct? Who decides what belongs in the school curriculum? Who decides who decides?
So how do we separate one person’s truth from another person’s propaganda?
A Solution
My lukewarm fans know I am an inventor of an alternative democracy. Tiered Democratic Governance (TDG) has no political parties, citizens are trained to vote for good character and capacity for governance, decisions are made by consultation, and an advisory board guides these decisions.
I will offer the TDG as the arbitrator. The future TDG governors at the higher tiers will have earned their positions by being competent and trustworthy at the lower tiers. So when these governors are called, directly or indirectly, to oversee the history curriculum in elementary schools, they will listen to differing perspectives. They will determine where the collective values of society should be a generation from now; they will know elementary school is a good place to start. They will consult with historians to determine how history can teach those values. Then the TDG leadership will consult with various professionals in education and child psychology to determine how much of that truth needs to be told in the elementary school classroom.
Undoubtedly, those perspectives the TDG governors are taking in will be controversial. But neither the more obtuse perspectives nor the mainstream perspectives can influence the elections that put those TDG governors in place. That is a big difference between our current system and the TDG.
And as our understanding of history changes, the TDG will be more willing to reflect that new understanding.
Conclusion
We are already instilling values in elementary school curriculum, whether we agree with those values or not. Someone will always be making these decisions.
These values need to be age-appropriate.
Most students will not develop a sufficient understanding of history in their primary education. Proactive programs should be designed to offer more history lessons in adulthood.
The TDG will find a much better balance in moving children and adults through history lessons than any political party.
It is time for a new democracy.
Published on Medium 2026
TDG Leaders Making TDG Decisions
