I’ve been re-reading all my “formative years” literature, like Huxley, Orwell, Burgess, Soviet authors who smuggled their work out or defected. I was born and raised in a time (GenX) where horrors of totalitarianism was the historical shadow. The Holocaust was fully dissected, autopsied, xray, and splayed out so school kids could study i…
I’ve been re-reading all my “formative years” literature, like Huxley, Orwell, Burgess, Soviet authors who smuggled their work out or defected. I was born and raised in a time (GenX) where horrors of totalitarianism was the historical shadow. The Holocaust was fully dissected, autopsied, xray, and splayed out so school kids could study it. We knew what governments were capable of. Not to omit equally abhorrent regimes, the Eurofascists club, as well as the Soviet and South American/Caribbean communists, the African warlords, etc. Spain’s Gen. Franco was prominent in my development, since I was raised by Basques who fled to the US during the Civil War. Its shocking that in a mere 2 generations, all that collective wisdom was lost. What we, youth in the 80s, took for GRANTED, was forgotten to the degree that we are here, having to talk under the fold about what’s going on, because the powers that be captured everything above the fold, “for your own good”. And people complied. It boggles the mind.
Much of the US public, even well educated people, have little working knowledge of great works which used to be requisite for a liberal arts education.
I called in yesterday to WNYC and wanted to bring up George Kennan in a segment where Gary Kasparov was being interviewed on the Ukraine situation. The screener had no idea who Kennan was. Ron Paul has a good article today quoting Robert Taft; a generation ago most Ivy League and lesser college graduates would have known these names and what they stood for.
Hardly anyone today has a working knowledge of the Adler-Van Doren book list. Critical thinking is seen as too negative. Those writing policy are almost invariably "nice" people with good "social skills", with charm, animal magnetism and other desirable skills, which are fine, but without ethics, soul and conscience they are worthless.
I’ve been re-reading all my “formative years” literature, like Huxley, Orwell, Burgess, Soviet authors who smuggled their work out or defected. I was born and raised in a time (GenX) where horrors of totalitarianism was the historical shadow. The Holocaust was fully dissected, autopsied, xray, and splayed out so school kids could study it. We knew what governments were capable of. Not to omit equally abhorrent regimes, the Eurofascists club, as well as the Soviet and South American/Caribbean communists, the African warlords, etc. Spain’s Gen. Franco was prominent in my development, since I was raised by Basques who fled to the US during the Civil War. Its shocking that in a mere 2 generations, all that collective wisdom was lost. What we, youth in the 80s, took for GRANTED, was forgotten to the degree that we are here, having to talk under the fold about what’s going on, because the powers that be captured everything above the fold, “for your own good”. And people complied. It boggles the mind.
Much of the US public, even well educated people, have little working knowledge of great works which used to be requisite for a liberal arts education.
I called in yesterday to WNYC and wanted to bring up George Kennan in a segment where Gary Kasparov was being interviewed on the Ukraine situation. The screener had no idea who Kennan was. Ron Paul has a good article today quoting Robert Taft; a generation ago most Ivy League and lesser college graduates would have known these names and what they stood for.
Hardly anyone today has a working knowledge of the Adler-Van Doren book list. Critical thinking is seen as too negative. Those writing policy are almost invariably "nice" people with good "social skills", with charm, animal magnetism and other desirable skills, which are fine, but without ethics, soul and conscience they are worthless.
Fahrenheit 451 is another excellent vision into the "Hell of Good Intentions."