Nolan Finley and Patriotism
Nolan Finley's column on Sunday was about patriotism, more specifically he(and Judge David Warren)is upset that our schools do not do more to instill it. According to Finley, our school faculties are full of Anti Americans who concentrate too much on the "blotches and warts" in our history and not enough on our triumphs. This leads to "cynical" students who "blame America."
We have of course heard this before. It is standard cant from America's right wing. As usual, the argument is lacking any specifics --the names of these Anti Americans, what they teach that is biased, what texts are offensive etc. But I don't want to focus on that right now. I want to focus on the word "cynical."
It seems that anyone who is not in full Babbit mode 24/7 or who believes that our country may have made its own bed is branded a cynic. I think this is a powerful misuse of the word, and more importantly just another rhetorical device to marginalize arguments you don't like. But more importantly, I think it is critical to understand what makes cynics. It is not just bad news. It is bad news that has been coverd up and distorted: disillusionment; finding out that people are not what they say; finding out that things are not how they have been represented. And that is an important point, because the course that Finley proposes will create more cynics than he may know. You see, people do not become cynical when they gain an honest understanding of our country's (and our leaders) failings. That just makes them realists. What makes people cynics is teaching them something they later discover to be untrue. That makes them mistrustful of the institutions behind the lie and undermines the credebility of our schools, government and authority figures.
I suspect Nolan and I have at last one thing in common. We both got the standard "we rock" course in American history. Our texts and teachers reinforced the fact that America always occupied the moral high ground, that we were always right and our enemies always wrong. We were often victims of the deceit and greed of others but our motives were always pure. If we made mistakes it was -- gosh darn it -- because we erred on the side of generosity and integrity. Unlike Nolan though, I found out this not really to be the case. I found there to be quite a lot of empty propaganda in the standard recitation of American history. That does not mean I have lost sight of the very special values that underlie this coutry, nor am I blind to the incredible potential of this country and the gifts that -- at our best -- we can bestow on the rest of the world.
I just recognize that the lion may write a different history than the hunter and it is better to get his side of the story earlier rather than later. Because the folks who just believe the hunter end up either stupid or cynical. Neither is a very good goal for our educational system.
We have of course heard this before. It is standard cant from America's right wing. As usual, the argument is lacking any specifics --the names of these Anti Americans, what they teach that is biased, what texts are offensive etc. But I don't want to focus on that right now. I want to focus on the word "cynical."
It seems that anyone who is not in full Babbit mode 24/7 or who believes that our country may have made its own bed is branded a cynic. I think this is a powerful misuse of the word, and more importantly just another rhetorical device to marginalize arguments you don't like. But more importantly, I think it is critical to understand what makes cynics. It is not just bad news. It is bad news that has been coverd up and distorted: disillusionment; finding out that people are not what they say; finding out that things are not how they have been represented. And that is an important point, because the course that Finley proposes will create more cynics than he may know. You see, people do not become cynical when they gain an honest understanding of our country's (and our leaders) failings. That just makes them realists. What makes people cynics is teaching them something they later discover to be untrue. That makes them mistrustful of the institutions behind the lie and undermines the credebility of our schools, government and authority figures.
I suspect Nolan and I have at last one thing in common. We both got the standard "we rock" course in American history. Our texts and teachers reinforced the fact that America always occupied the moral high ground, that we were always right and our enemies always wrong. We were often victims of the deceit and greed of others but our motives were always pure. If we made mistakes it was -- gosh darn it -- because we erred on the side of generosity and integrity. Unlike Nolan though, I found out this not really to be the case. I found there to be quite a lot of empty propaganda in the standard recitation of American history. That does not mean I have lost sight of the very special values that underlie this coutry, nor am I blind to the incredible potential of this country and the gifts that -- at our best -- we can bestow on the rest of the world.
I just recognize that the lion may write a different history than the hunter and it is better to get his side of the story earlier rather than later. Because the folks who just believe the hunter end up either stupid or cynical. Neither is a very good goal for our educational system.
posted by Jack Reed at 9:54 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home