4 thoughts on “Nostalgia”

  1. Never forget that it is all about power with the Left. Power over you, specifically.
    The definition of diversity is completely arbitrary. There is no reason to believe that more diverse societies are more successful. Look at how diverse Europe was — just before the start of the First World War. Diversity causes conflict and disunity (that’s what ‘diversity’ means, duh).
    But what the worship of diversity does is give the government and other institutions the ability to shatter communities. It directly conflicts with freedom of association. This is the goal of the diversity autocrats. They want all human interaction to be managed by the state, and they identify very strongly with state power.

  2. This is a fortuitous topic, to which I’d like to ask your indulgence to add an excerpt from an essay I read this morning.

    Some of you may have already seen it, but it’s worth re-reading if you have. This is from Partick Deneen, Professor of Constitutional Studies at Notre Dame (used to be a Catholic institution of Higher Learning). Emphasis mine.

    How a Generation Lost Its Common Culture

    My students are know-nothings. They are exceedingly nice, pleasant, trustworthy, mostly honest, well-intentioned, and utterly decent. But their brains are largely empty, devoid of any substantial knowledge that might be the fruits of an education in an inheritance and a gift of a previous generation. They are the culmination of western civilization, a civilization that has forgotten nearly everything about itself, and as a result, has achieved near-perfect indifference to its own culture.

    It’s difficult to gain admissions to the schools where I’ve taught – Princeton, Georgetown, and now Notre Dame. Students at these institutions have done what has been demanded of them: they are superb test-takers, they know exactly what is needed to get an A in every class (meaning that they rarely allow themselves to become passionate and invested in any one subject); they build superb resumes.

    They are respectful and cordial to their elders, though easy-going if crude with their peers. They respect diversity (without having the slightest clue what diversity is) and they are experts in the arts of non-judgmentalism (at least publicly). They are the cream of their generation, the masters of the universe, a generation-in-waiting to run America and the world.

    But ask them some basic questions about the civilization they will be inheriting, and be prepared for averted eyes and somewhat panicked looks. Who fought in the Peloponnesian War? Who taught Plato, and whom did Plato teach? How did Socrates die? Raise your hand if you have read both the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Canterbury Tales? Paradise Lost? The Inferno?

    Who was Saul of Tarsus? What were the 95 theses, who wrote them, and what was their effect? Why does the Magna Carta matter? How and where did Thomas Becket die? Who was Guy Fawkes, and why is there a day named after him? What did Lincoln say in his Second Inaugural? His first Inaugural? How about his third Inaugural? What are the Federalist Papers?

    Some students, due most often to serendipitous class choices or a quirky old-fashioned teacher, might know a few of these answers. But most students have not been educated to know them.

    At best, they possess accidental knowledge, but otherwise are masters of systematic ignorance. It is not their “fault” for pervasive ignorance of western and American history, civilization, politics, art and literature. They have learned exactly what we have asked of them – to be like mayflies, alive by happenstance in a fleeting present.

    That last quote really spoke to me. I’ve often said we cannot blame the snowflakes for their ignorance; you cant learn about a thing you don’t even know exists.

    Anyway, read the whole thing.
    http://www.mindingthecampus.org/2016/02/how-a-generation-lost-its-common-culture/

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.