Wandering the information superhighway, he came upon the last refuge of civilization, PoFo, the only forum on the internet ...
Thomas Sowell
Explaining to the grandkids
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Those of us who are optimists believe that someday sanity will return to our society. Our media, our officials -- perhaps even our schools and colleges -- will begin to talk sense. Those of you who are young may live to see it.
But there is a downside to sanity. Once there is a whole generation raised to think -- to examine evidence and use logic -- you are going to be confronted with a need to explain to your grandchildren how our generation could have done the things we did. You don't want your grandkids to think that your whole generation was crazy.
"Grandpa," they will say, "today we were reading in history -- "
"History?"
"Yes, Grandpa. There's a subject in school called history."
"Well, we didn't have that back in my day. We had social studies or current events or multiculturalism. But we didn't have this thing you call history."
"Well, history is about what happened in the past, Grandpa -- like back when you were young."
"I'll be darned."
"Anyway, we learned in history today that back in your times, people who refused to work were supported by people who did work. Is that true, Grandpa?"
"Well, yes, we were compassionate to the poor and the downtrodden, like the homeless and such."
"Why were people homeless, Grandpa?"
"They didn't have enough money to buy houses or rent apartments."
"Were you homeless, Grandpa?"
"No. I had a regular job and used part of my salary to pay the rent."
"Why didn't the homeless do that?"
"Well, it is hard to explain. They had a different kind of lifestyle, they sort of dropped out of society. They lived a more laid back kind of way."
"Took drugs?"
"Yeah, drugs, alcohol, stuff like that."
"And you gave them money that you had worked for, Grandpa?"
"Well, not so much personally, but I paid taxes and the government gave money to the homeless, provided places for them to sleep, and so forth."
"But you voted for the government, Grandpa."
"Yeah, most of the time."
"If the voters didn't want their money spent this way, the elected officials wouldn't have done it."
"You sure do a lot of thinking things out, honey."
"That's called logic. They teach that in school too."
"Logic? I heard something about it vaguely, but we didn't have time for it in school when I was young. We had to express our feelings about things like trees and animal rights and being non-judgmental."
"You weren't supposed to have judgment, Grandpa?"
"Well, if you were judgmental, that might hurt someone else's self-esteem."
"So you couldn't tell the homeless to go get a job like you had, because it would hurt their self-esteem?"
"Exactly. It would be cultural imperialism -- and that would be wrong because one culture is just as good as another."
"But, in our history class, we learned that people from all over the world were trying desperately to get into the United States -- some paying to get smuggled in from Mexico or Asia, some trying to cross the Caribbean in leaky boats and drowning."
"Why, yes, that happened."
"But, if all cultures were equal, why were these people risking their lives trying to go from one culture to another?"
"I never really thought about that, honey. Gee, they must be working you pretty hard in school, to have you doing all this thinking."
"Aren't people supposed to think, Grandpa?"
"I suppose it's all right for those who like it. I don't want to be judgmental."
Thomas Sowell
Explaining to the grandkids
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Those of us who are optimists believe that someday sanity will return to our society. Our media, our officials -- perhaps even our schools and colleges -- will begin to talk sense. Those of you who are young may live to see it.
But there is a downside to sanity. Once there is a whole generation raised to think -- to examine evidence and use logic -- you are going to be confronted with a need to explain to your grandchildren how our generation could have done the things we did. You don't want your grandkids to think that your whole generation was crazy.
"Grandpa," they will say, "today we were reading in history -- "
"History?"
"Yes, Grandpa. There's a subject in school called history."
"You can't believe a damned thing unless you here it on Fox News...history and science and arts and law are all written by people who are biased and who hate America..."
"Oh...anyway, we learned in history today that back in your times, people who refused to work were supported by people who did work. Is that true, Grandpa?"
"Well, yes, we were compassionate to the poor and the downtrodden, like the homeless and such."
"Why were people homeless, Grandpa?"
"They didn't have enough money to buy houses or rent apartments."
"Were you homeless, Grandpa?"
"No. I made money the old fashioned way...I pandered to people who were pissed off and full of hate...people paid good money to hear that kind of thing back then...yep...don't ever let anyone tell you America isn't the land of opportunity kiddo..."
Dave, Potemkin, Ombrageux: the three pillars of Western civilization. - Donald"Grandpa," they will say, "today we were reading in history -- "
"History?"
"Yes, Grandpa. There's a subject in school called history."
"Well, we didn't have that back in my day. Anything Texas deemed right-wing enough is what the all powerful invisible hand put in our textbooks. We were mostly taught “to identify significant conservative advocacy organizations and individuals, such as Newt Gingrich, Phyllis Schlafly and the Moral Majority.” "
"Well, history is about what happened in the past, Grandpa -- like back when you were young."
"I'll be darned. I had thought it was only about banning learning about people, like Jefferson, that were secularists."
"Anyway, we learned in history today that back in your times, people who refused to work were supported by people who did work. Is that true, Grandpa?"
"Well, yes, we were compassionate to the poor and the downtrodden, like the homeless and such. That's at least one good thing that came from the Bible - As Luke wrote, "But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind."
"But that violates the Free Market! Is that why were people homeless, Grandpa?"
"They didn't have enough money to buy houses or rent apartments. Which is proof that God hated them."
"Were you homeless, Grandpa?"
"No. My grandparents were child labourers and, with the help of the New Deal - like millions of others - formed a new middle class."
"Why didn't the homeless do that?"
"Because we elected Reagan in to office, who destroyed what saved ourselves so nobody else could get our stuff."
"Did they take drugs?"
"Yeah, drugs, alcohol, stuff like that. Though, really, the poor mostly sold drugs to the wealthy and middle classes since we effectively cut off every other support that they could depend upon."
"And you gave them money that you had worked for, Grandpa?"
"Well, we thought we could keep buying our drugs from the poor and ban drugs at the same time. As for their actual lives - as I learned in school it was correct to shit on the constitution and make sure that this government money first went through churches. By the fifth year of his presidency, we has succeeded in funneling 15 billion federal dollars in to churches instead of directly providing for the poor. And that was just the beginning!"
"But you voted for the government, Grandpa."
"Yeah, most of the time. As I learned that the right-wing and religious were always right because Republicans in Texas said so, I voted as I did."
"If the voters didn't want their money spent this way, the elected officials wouldn't have done it."
"You sure do a lot of thinking things out, honey."
"That's called logic. They teach that in school too."
"Logic? I heard something about it vaguely, but we didn't have time for it in school when I was young. We had to make room for biblical curriculum in the classroom and make sure that Christians weren't offended by biology."
"You weren't supposed to have judgment, Grandpa?"
"Well, if you were judgmental, that might hurt someone else's self-esteem."
"So you couldn't tell the religious to learn about science, because it would hurt their self-esteem?"
"Exactly. It would be socialism -- which in our new libertarian language, just means 'bad.'"
"But, in our history class, we learned that people from all over the world were trying desperately to get into the United States -- some paying to get smuggled in from Mexico or Asia, some trying to cross the Caribbean in leaky boats and drowning."
"Did you learn about how many people were trying to kick the US out of their countries?"
"No, I was educated by the same right-wing fanatics that poisoned your educational system."
"I never really thought about that, honey. I guess I'm an idiot too."
"Wait, if we're supposed to adhere strictly to the Bible and capitalism - how does that even begin to work? Aren't people supposed to think, Grandpa?"
"No. Just do what the invisible hand of capitalism demands of you and praise our beloved shadowy Bonapartist masters."
"I love the Tea Party."
"I'm going to show you just how Lot loved his daughters now."
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