A barbarian is someone who destroys without the slightest interest in the value of what he's destroying.
The Left became a barbarians about 30 years ago. The Right became barbarians in the last 10. Both claim to be the guardians of democracy. Both should read Burke to find out why that isn't a compliment.
I think the most powerful antidote to mass historical ignorance is simply reading. Very few people read, and it shows. They don't think logically or have much of an imagination. They take scenes from popular fantasy movies and assume that history pretty much follows this. Thus, to even correct them on various points of fact mean little because their whole capacity for understanding is so limited. This only gets worse with moral questions, like those regarding slavery or war or minority rights. They have no clue what earlier societies were struggling with or what forces were at play.
Case in point: I once was friends with a history teacher who prided himself on being an intellectual. We were discussing the history of the Renaissance and the Middle Ages, and he condemned the Catholic Church for not developing a modern socialized healthcare system that could better address plague. He just assumed that all the infrastructure, resources, and even technology were there to organize what we now associate with modern hospitals. I found this an odd contention to make, but he thought it was purely reasonable.
Oh, and he was a card-carrying Marxist. The real stuff has never been tried, you know.
This has soured me on trying to win historical arguments. The framework is so far from existing that all our public discourse degenerates into senseless babble.
What you read matters. Women, for example, read a lot, more than men. But they consume primarily pop fiction. This, as you might imagine has a big impact on their worldviews, including their politics.
That history teacher has no business teaching anyone. This country still respects teachers way too much.
You are right, this is remarkable, esp. given this woman's career trajectory, which seems to be undercutting every kind of sexual norm, or at least flouting them. Maybe the study of history will be her ticket back to the natural law humanism that has made our world habitable and successful, and to the peace that passes understanding. God's ways are mysterious.
I'm sure I won't be the only one to point this but Cromwell wasn't executed, at least not in his lifetime. -- his posthumous execution took place 28 months after his death by natural causes.
A barbarian is someone who destroys without the slightest interest in the value of what he's destroying.
The Left became a barbarians about 30 years ago. The Right became barbarians in the last 10. Both claim to be the guardians of democracy. Both should read Burke to find out why that isn't a compliment.
I think the most powerful antidote to mass historical ignorance is simply reading. Very few people read, and it shows. They don't think logically or have much of an imagination. They take scenes from popular fantasy movies and assume that history pretty much follows this. Thus, to even correct them on various points of fact mean little because their whole capacity for understanding is so limited. This only gets worse with moral questions, like those regarding slavery or war or minority rights. They have no clue what earlier societies were struggling with or what forces were at play.
Case in point: I once was friends with a history teacher who prided himself on being an intellectual. We were discussing the history of the Renaissance and the Middle Ages, and he condemned the Catholic Church for not developing a modern socialized healthcare system that could better address plague. He just assumed that all the infrastructure, resources, and even technology were there to organize what we now associate with modern hospitals. I found this an odd contention to make, but he thought it was purely reasonable.
Oh, and he was a card-carrying Marxist. The real stuff has never been tried, you know.
This has soured me on trying to win historical arguments. The framework is so far from existing that all our public discourse degenerates into senseless babble.
What you read matters. Women, for example, read a lot, more than men. But they consume primarily pop fiction. This, as you might imagine has a big impact on their worldviews, including their politics.
That history teacher has no business teaching anyone. This country still respects teachers way too much.
You are right, this is remarkable, esp. given this woman's career trajectory, which seems to be undercutting every kind of sexual norm, or at least flouting them. Maybe the study of history will be her ticket back to the natural law humanism that has made our world habitable and successful, and to the peace that passes understanding. God's ways are mysterious.
I'm sure I won't be the only one to point this but Cromwell wasn't executed, at least not in his lifetime. -- his posthumous execution took place 28 months after his death by natural causes.
Thanks for the correction.