As always, a fascinating discussion. I am reminded of the Hunger Games and the spectacles put on to entertain the mindless elites.
Re education, in Canada it has come to light that school boards across the country are welcoming kids who wish to transistion to the gender of their choice, and then tell their class mates to be careful not to tell the parents of those children. When children are left with adults who are not their parents, one of the cardinal rules is, there are to be NO Secrets. Perhaps there are no adults in the schools now.
Claire, I know your interest in the culture wars is limited and Canada is rarely mentioned in your writings ( you cover Europe, Asia, fly to the US, and then pivot to Australia) but you might find Jordan Peterson's travails of interest. He is being threatened with expulsion from the Ontario College of Psychologists for political comments he made outside of his professional capacity. One was made when he was discussing world population with someone who stated that the population of the planet should be limited to some number, and Peterson invited him to leave it. The College has accused him of encouraging someone to commit suicide, among other things.
The point is that professional associations, corporations and government bodies are all starting to get into the re-education and social engineering business.
Fortunately Peterson is as obstreperous as he is stubborn and the coming battle will be interesting.
I think Zena Hitz (see Lost in Thought) --translating Augustine's curiositas as "love of spectacle"-- has a nice discussion of this problem. It's not a new one.
I am curious how Adam and Claire would classify the famous floor fights(in the physical sense) of East Asian Democracies including Japan. Are these part of the same phenomenon of affluenza inflicting Western Democracies or is it something sui generis to East Asia? I have to personally proving Adam's point since I started learning about politics in middle and high school in the 1990s a part of me has always wanted these famous floor brawls from Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan to come to the US House of Representatives. More life WWF Wrestling than Barnum and Bailey but the point stands.
This is a very interesting essay and a delight to read. It’s very rare to find a pundit who writes as well as Adam Garfinkle.
With that said, I’m skeptical that loss of the skill of deep reading is a major factor in either the clown car character of American politics or the rapid debasement of our culture. When exactly was the American working class immersed in deep reading?
Did the militia men cooling their heals at Valley Forge pass the time of day reading deeply? Did the assembly line workers in Ford plants? How much deep did peons toiling away at Facebook or Google ever do?
Isn’t the ability or inclination of elite Americans to read deeply equally absent. I think you have to go back to the Founding Fathers to find American elites deeply interested in reading books and seriously confronting the ideas presented therein. Were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson deep readers? Of course. Were Andrew Jackson, James Polk or any of the Presidents who came after them? Maybe a few, but not many. Were Senators and Congressman who served in the past less dimwitted than those serving now? I doubt it.
As always, a fascinating discussion. I am reminded of the Hunger Games and the spectacles put on to entertain the mindless elites.
Re education, in Canada it has come to light that school boards across the country are welcoming kids who wish to transistion to the gender of their choice, and then tell their class mates to be careful not to tell the parents of those children. When children are left with adults who are not their parents, one of the cardinal rules is, there are to be NO Secrets. Perhaps there are no adults in the schools now.
Claire, I know your interest in the culture wars is limited and Canada is rarely mentioned in your writings ( you cover Europe, Asia, fly to the US, and then pivot to Australia) but you might find Jordan Peterson's travails of interest. He is being threatened with expulsion from the Ontario College of Psychologists for political comments he made outside of his professional capacity. One was made when he was discussing world population with someone who stated that the population of the planet should be limited to some number, and Peterson invited him to leave it. The College has accused him of encouraging someone to commit suicide, among other things.
The point is that professional associations, corporations and government bodies are all starting to get into the re-education and social engineering business.
Fortunately Peterson is as obstreperous as he is stubborn and the coming battle will be interesting.
I think Zena Hitz (see Lost in Thought) --translating Augustine's curiositas as "love of spectacle"-- has a nice discussion of this problem. It's not a new one.
Any chance of exploring myth maintenance further?
Many of the "myth" writers unnerve me. I think I prefer historians.
Mr. Garfinkle is standing, pulling his hair out, and stomping, creating the very spectacle he is deploring. Why was this piece included in CG?
I am curious how Adam and Claire would classify the famous floor fights(in the physical sense) of East Asian Democracies including Japan. Are these part of the same phenomenon of affluenza inflicting Western Democracies or is it something sui generis to East Asia? I have to personally proving Adam's point since I started learning about politics in middle and high school in the 1990s a part of me has always wanted these famous floor brawls from Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan to come to the US House of Representatives. More life WWF Wrestling than Barnum and Bailey but the point stands.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTmgwX8taQQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpSUq8lu74Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2b-2YnfZso
Apparently Turkey, India, and Ukraine have been known to have physical brawls in there legislatures as well.
This is a very interesting essay and a delight to read. It’s very rare to find a pundit who writes as well as Adam Garfinkle.
With that said, I’m skeptical that loss of the skill of deep reading is a major factor in either the clown car character of American politics or the rapid debasement of our culture. When exactly was the American working class immersed in deep reading?
Did the militia men cooling their heals at Valley Forge pass the time of day reading deeply? Did the assembly line workers in Ford plants? How much deep did peons toiling away at Facebook or Google ever do?
Isn’t the ability or inclination of elite Americans to read deeply equally absent. I think you have to go back to the Founding Fathers to find American elites deeply interested in reading books and seriously confronting the ideas presented therein. Were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson deep readers? Of course. Were Andrew Jackson, James Polk or any of the Presidents who came after them? Maybe a few, but not many. Were Senators and Congressman who served in the past less dimwitted than those serving now? I doubt it.