Riddick and the Life Interior

Yes, Riddick, who else?

"Now be afraid... be very afraid!"

The results of world wide testing show the USA in 14th place in Reading. It goes downhill from there. A rich interior life depends upon education. For some reason, we have never been capable of a sustained effort in education, and every 10 years we have to ask why Johnny can't read.

Sustained effort takes vision. We get our vision quest second-hand from televangelists. In the past, we had no vision but to settle from sea to shining sea and make as much money as possible. Then we wondered: what? Oh, we may say that our progress was directed by Providence, but anyone can take a gold star with "God" written it and put it on one's own forehead.
When we find our vision ends, we discover it was a short-term vision and more like a will-o-the-wisp. Now what?

When the Cold War ended, we thought there was nothing of which we could be afraid. But, like the Krel in Forbidden Planet, we did not think of what lay inside ourselves: the great empty void wherein monsters are born.

The Life Interior is the hearth of life where visions play. Visions are the source of progress: corn gods of agriculture and benzene rings of science! All dreams and visions.
However, the Life Interior is also the source of human sacrifice and atomic war. If our internal life is soft and flabby, we will be the prey of nightmares.