Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

  The USA is the world’s superpower in many respects. We have a huge economy, significant military strength, world-class universities, large numbers of Nobel Prize winning scientists, leading healthcare technologies and discoveries, and powerful international businesses like Apple and Microsoft not to mention fast food and financial giants around the globe. We also happen to be a democracy that takes human rights seriously. No. I do not wear rose-colored glasses.   America has some weaknesses too. It’s those weaknesses that might make a difference in 2022 and beyond. Is the US being tested? As I write, Russia has amassed troops on their border with Ukraine. Stock markets are tumbling. President Biden has threatened sanctions. We are sending troops and weapons. It looks like we are on the brink of war. (e.g., CNN ) Earlier today, we learn the world’s second most powerful nation sent 39 warplanes toward Taiwan, which split from China during the 1949 Civil War. Yester...

The news about a college closing got my attention. I had a friend who attended the soon-to-be-closed MacMurray ( CNBC ). The cost of a college degree has consumed more and more of the limited budgets available to all but wealthy Americans. In recent years, student loans were cheap and easy to come by. And the payback of loans seemed so far away as undergraduates embarked on four years of fun— often not affordable by their parents or grandparents who attended local colleges or none at all. Of course, there always were serious students who needed a college degree to enter their chosen career. We'll still need higher education as along as advanced knowledge and skills are necessary to success in one career or another. INFLATED ENTRY REQUIREMENTS The idea of career entry requirements has been inflated as though those making the rules for licenses and certifications were connected to higher education and stood to profit from them. Take my profession of psycholog...