Don't Know Much: Americans' 'historical perspective' is sadly and obviously lacking
Did you hear about Dana Perino’s confession?
You know, Dana Perino, the accomplished woman who works near the pinnacle of government power in the United States, as the White House press secretary. One would assume that she’s bright and reasonably well educated (she has a master’s degree), and one would assume that, given the nature of her job, she must be more interested than most people in politics and public affairs.
So Perino, who usually tries to manage the news, became a news story herself when she revealed a secret on last weekend’s edition of the National Public Radio quiz show Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me. During a White House press briefing, Perino said, a reporter made a reference to the Cuban missile crisis, and she panicked - because she didn’t know what it was.
“It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I’m pretty sure,” she said. — Linda Brinson, Winston-Salem Journal
You know, Dana Perino, the accomplished woman who works near the pinnacle of government power in the United States, as the White House press secretary. One would assume that she’s bright and reasonably well educated (she has a master’s degree), and one would assume that, given the nature of her job, she must be more interested than most people in politics and public affairs.
So Perino, who usually tries to manage the news, became a news story herself when she revealed a secret on last weekend’s edition of the National Public Radio quiz show Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me. During a White House press briefing, Perino said, a reporter made a reference to the Cuban missile crisis, and she panicked - because she didn’t know what it was.
“It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I’m pretty sure,” she said. — Linda Brinson, Winston-Salem Journal
posted by Strother | 10:26 AM
1 Comments:
Well, how about that? Linda Brinson has written something with which I agree. Mostly.
But in her defense, Perino probably is pretty typical of even college-educated people of her age.
Right, since everyone else is stupid, it's all right for Perino to be stupid. Is that really what you meant to say, Linda?
I was 14 in 1962.
I was 6 in 1962 and I remember it vividly as well. I came home from school at lunch time (yes, we used to do that) to find my Mother frightened and crying (yes, Mothers used to stay home, too). She was a teenager during World War II, and the memories of everyone's fathers and brothers going off to foreign lands, and too many times not coming back, was very vivid in her memory. I remember the grave faces and tones of TV news anchors on our old Admiral black-and-white television (yes, there used to be actual news reporting on TV). It was one of the formative experiences of my life since it would later cause me to seek out knowledge on why someone would threaten us like that.
They don’t know what an astounding event Woodstock was.
They do know, however, that the myth of Woodstock far exceeds the reality. Astounding might be just a wee bit hyperbolic, Linda. It was historic simply because it was the first of many. It was a generational event in American culture, and as such, it's importance will fade with its generation, as well it should.
For our children, John F. Kennedy is probably just another name on the list of assassinated presidents.
And I can't think of a single reason why it should be any more or less so. You're falling prey to your own rhetoric, Linda. Kennedy was no more or less important on the scale of things than any other assassinated President. Once again, the Kennedy myth far exceeds the reality.
...I doubt that they really comprehend how that war tore this country apart.
I also doubt that they comprehend that it was the beginning of the end for the powers in America who seek to subjugate us through fear. Yes, we're still gullible in so many respects. We bought the lies that led us to the latest conflict abroad, but it took Americans over 15 years and tens of thousands of dead American boys to get worked up enough over Viet Nam to demand change. By contrast, it has taken them less than three to see through the neocon charade.
The locally temporal effects of the Viet Nam War are unimportant. The posters and the hippies and the songs are so many tears in the rain. The important lesson is the one that teaches that our leaders will use bogeymen in foreign lands to wrest power from our hands. That's the lesson that will kill us if we forget it.
That lack of knowledge probably explains why, sadly, so many teenage girls fail to take advantage of the opportunities that others helped make available to them.
Sorry, Linda, but that's wishful thinking. Girls and young women are very well aware of the long-term effects of the women's liberation movement: 40-year-old angry, childless spinsters, decimated families, crack-whore welfare mothers, and a destination leading to loneliness. And in their more honest and lucid moments, they know full well that women's "liberation" has directly resulted in the advent of Bush and his neocons. Think about it, I'm sure you'll figure it out. Or maybe not.
Learning about something in school (and history classes rarely make it to recent events) will never be the same as experiencing it.
I'm going to pass over this Captain Obvious award-winning statement.
But we need to try to do better than we have in passing the lessons lived by one generation down to those that follow.
Yes, Linda, we do. We could start by actually teaching history in the schools, and we could start by doing it in a manner that is free of agenda. We could stop teaching liberal mythology as truth, for a start.
We could teach the actual thoughts and deeds of Thomas Jefferson, one of the greatest champions of liberty the world has ever known. Instead, we choose to teach that he was just some rich white guy who fathered children on his slaves.
We could teach that the Europeans who settled this continent braved mortal danger for the realization of an idea. Instead we teach about conquest and subjugation and theft, leaving out the conquest, subjugation and theft that were already going on when we arrived. We leave out the atrocities and abominations visited by the denizens of the continent on one another before we came and instead teach of the crimes and misdemeanors of the Europeans.
That “historical perspective” really is important.
But you left out why, Linda, and I wonder from your writing whether you really understand why.
It has been said, by numerous men on numerous occasions that history is written by the winners. To some extent that is true, although as time stretches outward, it becomes less so. Teaching history is an important part of that effect. But most importantly of all, as many men have said before, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
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