People do not seem to think that understanding history deeply helps with understanding present problems, and it’s fascinating to see how the erosion of the humanities has contributed to this.
I read a comment on LinkedIn a while back about how useless history is if you are destined to be a great entrepreneur. Without any trace or irony. Disheartening.
My history teacher once said; history is a manual for life, if you know the past, you may understand the present and sometimes even foresee the future.
I realized last night while hearing an ad for a STEAM program again that STEAM builds technicians (who are valuable!) but fails to build generalists, especially the intricate, multi-discipline, layered thinkers that challenge those in power.
Not sure fascinating is the word I would use, but yes. The erosion of the humanities is deliberate, because understanding history and literature lets you understand the past and link it to the present, and literature gives you empathy for other kinds of humans - neither of which fascists want.
Living the zombie life. Fascists reduce you to a consumption/production unit, with no past or future. That this is the capitalist end run is no accident. That economics acts as if this was true reinforces the ahistorical mindset. I could go on...
One thing that surprises me is how many folks my age (60), who lived through the radicalization of the GOP, pretend to not understand what’s happening now.
Unfortunately, including many senior biblical scholars who ask for unwavering support and “in unambiguous terms, without recourse to complex historical realities”
Well, to be fair, with Bible Studies that was bound to happen eventually. Let me know when the exiles have ingathered, the battle commenced, and the age of renewal drawn near, would you?
Some get annoyed when I point out how a lot of what is going on is not as “unprecedented” as they think it is. That and what followed such events and what could stop such things. It’s like talking to a brick wall. The denial is frustrating.
Ugh. I have been having exactly this argument.
No the current level of disinformation is not unprecedented. People were not better informed when their sole source of knowledge was a 13th century religious institution.
Unprecedented this and unprecedented that. It's maddening.
Just developing a generic feel for how institutions operate, and how they're constrained by their internal procedures, would make people less likely to believe that a cabal of "globalists" or the like regularly call up all the major press outlets to give them their talking points.
We’ve been talking about this for some time in secondary ed. most ss—even high achievers—are blank slates when they come to us ( I teach APUSH). The thought is that there’s been such emphasis on reading comprehension that content knowledge has been squeezed out in k-8.
Yes. My third grader's homework is just multiple choice "which detail supports the idea that X?" "What is the main idea of section 3?" The idea that reading might give you something to think ABOUT seems far-fetched.
It is part of a more or less deliberate effort to keep people from actually understanding the structur=re & history of current issues. The whole attack on the humanities is part of this.
I agree completely. I have a highly technical education with very little background in the humanities. Yet I find that the writers, thinkers, the people I respect, all have deep roots in the humanities. It is critical to our future that we stop thinking that STEM is the path to a good life.
The working title of a book I’m writing about five straight years of camping in rural America in all of the Lower 48 is “Dumbass.” The level of ignorance in America is its most frightening feature—and it *is* a feature, not a bug. The right wing war on education guarantees them a base.
Yes. I love the idea that history rhymes (rather than repeats). The book 'The Fourth Turning is Here' by Neil Howe explores that point in an interesting way.
