Mauve Moments with Orlando Plumbe

OpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail

Link: OpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail.

We are risking something very basic by failing to communicate the basic ideals of America and instead, as historian David McCullough told me, "raising a generation of students who are historically illiterate." But many of those students will eventually become curious, and without a solid grounding in the past, they could easily fall prey to revisionist history, whether it be of the Confederate or Oliver Stone variety. Yale professor David Gelernter says that "ignorance of history is destroying our judgment." He points to Sen. Dick Durbin's ignorant comment comparing the actions of U.S. personnel at Guantanamo Bay to those of Nazis and Soviets. His remarks went largely unremarked upon by fellow senators until talk radio made them an issue. Future leaders may make even more horrific missteps: a 2003 survey of seniors at the top 55 liberal arts colleges found that over half thought Germany, Italy or Japan had been a U.S. ally in World War II.

Weak knowledge of History and Devalued Rhetoric

Link: We Are Our History -- Don't Forget It.

"Gulag" must not go the way of "Nazi" and become virtually meaningless. Europeans love calling Israelis "Nazis" — a transparent attempt to slough off their guilt like rattlesnakes shedding skin. ("See, the Jews are as bad as we were!") I'd like to ban the word "Nazi" except when applied to … Nazis. Lawbreakers would be ordered to learn what Nazi actually means.

Phony Argument Drowning Out Real Argument.

Society needs real debate. Instead, most debate today is set up in the phony "point/counter-point" or "crossfire" mode of having two extreme positions advances in a take no prisoners way, and then calling the tournament "balance." Not only is style unhelpful, it is also drowning out real discussion consider this from Martha Bayles. Link: ArtsJournal: Serious Popcorn.

Columbia University reported Monday that it is closing its well known National Arts Journalism Program.

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The overriding problem is what linguist Deborah Tannen calls "the argument culture": the media’s habit of framing every topic as a highly polarized debate between two extremes, even when this is not appropriate. This has a distorting effect on many issues, including the arts. Just think about the quality of discussion, even among reputable critics, on issues like government funding of the arts; violence in entertainment; censorship and the Internet; and the "canon" in the humanities.