Our work on identifying the “great issues of our day” actually began in the mid-1990’s as a result of developing our worldview correspondence school called “Strategic Life Training.” In that school, we offer a two-year course study on the great concepts that created Western Civilization from Greece, Rome, and Israel, up until so-called modernity, and now post-modernity. I and the other course developers have had extensive formal training in philosophy, political theory, economics, and theology. Out of our collective academic experiences, we began developing a general grid work of concepts to help people discover three important conceptual tools:
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The important differences between “news events,” which may be reports on isolated incidents,
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“Trends,” which deal with shifts in culture, business, or political issues, and
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“Major issues” which are the universally important concepts and universal human needs which drive history and affect every nation in real ways.
Out of these multi-year studies, we have identified six great issues which we believe drive the major challenges, and political and social dynamics of both people and nations. TheTransforum.com, therefore, is seeking to help everyone recognize the general truths embedded in these questions so as to help all of us think more clearly.
Here are the six great questions and the general issues we see affecting all people groups in our modern world:
1. How Do We Build Strong Relationships?
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Talking Isn’t Action
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Relationships Are a Process
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Love vs. Trust
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Bridge of Trust
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Power of Agreements
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Listening Skills
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Forgiveness
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Conflict resolution skills
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Love Runs on Rails
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Elephants Under the Rug
2. How Do We Train and Educate Our Children to Succeed in Life?
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Education (scope & sequence)
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Parental rights and responsibilities
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Succeeding relationally
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Generational transfer
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Sex education
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Principles
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General Building Laws
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Family
3. What Values Will Both Preserve Our Freedoms and Hold Us Together?
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The Constitution
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One and the many
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Rights vs. responsibilities
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Cultural survival
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Church – State
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Law as religion
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Arts & entertainment
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Law & justice
4. How Do We Create Long-term Economic Prosperity for the Largest Number of People?
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Employment
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Health care
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Capital creation
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Taxation
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Monetary-fiscal policy
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Entitlements
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Debt
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Environmental issues
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Housing
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Prosperity
5. What Is the Proper Balance of Power Between the Federal Government and State or Local Government?
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Federalism vs. centralized government
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Local government
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Community values
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Freedom
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Communities
6. How Do We Balance the Need for Global Cooperation Without Giving Up Our National Sovereignty?
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International law
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Foreign policy
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Defense
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Freedom
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Foreign Policy & Defense
Our task then, is to help the users of TheTransforum.com see the wisdom of this attempt to organize and simplify the apparent chaos of current events and to also further clarify our thinking by working through the principles we believe bring sense to these questions. The left-right game continues to confuse and contort these issues, making villains of their opponents with scant clear references to what the real issues on both sides really should be.
We hope this serves you, challenges you, and will help you think more clearly as you discover more about our work, products, and services. This is TheTransforum; let’s engage.
Related Resources:
For more information on the author, Dennis Peacocke, go to: http://www.gostrategic.org/
