(A snippet of conversation from Oct. 18, 2011)...My fundamental assumptions about what this country is supposed to be are indeed exactly what I'm talking about. The fact is that our society's own assumption of who we are and what our purpose is has become unhinged from its door post and increasingly fragmented.
Once upon a time there was a prevailing narrative that was taught to children that the US was good, was a force for good, and though flawed, was best place man had yet contrived. It was left to the tincture of time and experience of adulthood to temper this ideal into a pragmatic view of who we had become, from the standpoint of whence we came, in order that the American mantel could be aptly and responsibly taken up by a mature generation. This understanding of how we are to form our assumptions as well as how and when we are to exert our influence on society based upon those assumptions has been and is being undermined on at least two fronts. First, we no longer indoctrinate our children into that prevailing narrative of goodness. Two examples, one each from opposing political perspectives, are Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Jefferson used to be the nearly beatified narrator of our core ideal, The Declaration of Independence. Now, through the efforts of academics like Annette Gordon-Reed, Jefferson is a racist, adulterous slave owner, and this impression is presented with a gravity and to an age of student that was formerly thought wholly inappropriate. Lincoln was likewise nearly beatified as The Great Emancipator, but now, through an increasingly more accepted argument (for which I apologize for the lack of citation), Lincoln is practically the destroyer of states' rights and by extension our entire republican federation. Second, we no longer pass the mantel to the next mature generation. People in American over the age of 40 are the first people in history to learn their society's survival skills from the younger generation. The youth of America increasingly drive our national conversation at exactly the time when they are the least qualified to do so!
I empathize with the sentiment of OWS, I really do, but I believe that their aim is misguided, their goals incoherent, their understanding of the issue misinformed, and I believe they are willingly lending their enthusiasm to groups representing political ideals whose implementation would literally be a horror to most of the country including, likely, themselves. I may take up other aspects of this conversation later as time allows, but for now understand that my fear is that our country's educators have been doing a gross disservice to our nation's youth for a host of reasons; none of which are even in our nation conversation right now for the most part.
Once upon a time there was a prevailing narrative that was taught to children that the US was good, was a force for good, and though flawed, was best place man had yet contrived. It was left to the tincture of time and experience of adulthood to temper this ideal into a pragmatic view of who we had become, from the standpoint of whence we came, in order that the American mantel could be aptly and responsibly taken up by a mature generation. This understanding of how we are to form our assumptions as well as how and when we are to exert our influence on society based upon those assumptions has been and is being undermined on at least two fronts. First, we no longer indoctrinate our children into that prevailing narrative of goodness. Two examples, one each from opposing political perspectives, are Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Jefferson used to be the nearly beatified narrator of our core ideal, The Declaration of Independence. Now, through the efforts of academics like Annette Gordon-Reed, Jefferson is a racist, adulterous slave owner, and this impression is presented with a gravity and to an age of student that was formerly thought wholly inappropriate. Lincoln was likewise nearly beatified as The Great Emancipator, but now, through an increasingly more accepted argument (for which I apologize for the lack of citation), Lincoln is practically the destroyer of states' rights and by extension our entire republican federation. Second, we no longer pass the mantel to the next mature generation. People in American over the age of 40 are the first people in history to learn their society's survival skills from the younger generation. The youth of America increasingly drive our national conversation at exactly the time when they are the least qualified to do so!
I empathize with the sentiment of OWS, I really do, but I believe that their aim is misguided, their goals incoherent, their understanding of the issue misinformed, and I believe they are willingly lending their enthusiasm to groups representing political ideals whose implementation would literally be a horror to most of the country including, likely, themselves. I may take up other aspects of this conversation later as time allows, but for now understand that my fear is that our country's educators have been doing a gross disservice to our nation's youth for a host of reasons; none of which are even in our nation conversation right now for the most part.
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