A generation of ahistorical (but devout) morons?
Visiting the LBJ Ranch in the Texas hill country this weekend, our ad hoc tour group included a gaggle of high-school students from “south of Houston.” They generally seemed pleasant, self-conscious, goofy and teenager-ish. They also seemed entirely ignorant of the 1960’s, even the basic timeline of 20th Century U.S. history. At least one couldn’t quite remember the name of the 36th President whose ranch this was. Standing in front of the Western White House (a lovely spot on the banks of the Pedernales, by the way, shaded by 400-year-old live oaks), this lad asked the National Park Service ranger, “When did he die? Was it 1993?” The ranger looked slightly puzzled, perhaps because he had already mentioned 1973 as the year of Johnson’s death and because all the biographical material in the park conveyed that key fact. So the kid decided to clarify the subject of his query: “The guy,” he said, evidently either unable to call LBJ’s name to mind or truly unaware of where he was and why he and his pals were taking this tour in the first place.
That was the first of a grand total of two questions posed by these dozen youngsters. The second came while we were inside the President’s office (the only room one can currently tour, considering that this building was Lady Bird’s weekend residence until her own death barely 18 months ago and the Park Service is planning gradually to open more of it to visitors.) “Was he saved?” inquired a girl. That was it. We were standing in a place in which were made any number of momentous decisions involving any number of key figures in U.S. history from 1964 through 1968. (The ranger had mentioned “Martin,” for example, as the epochal civil rights act was being planned.) But the only topic of evident interest to these kids was LBJ’s relationship to God.
Stained-glass Jesus photograph by MAMJODH on Flickr
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January 5th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Wouldn’t it be far more accurate to state that only one of the teens was interested in his relationship with God, and that the rest were wholly (but maybe not holy–we can’t be sure) disinterested?
But, then, that would get in the way of a fun title for your post, and a chance to bash ‘dem yokels’ from south TX, yes?
(Note: I am not in any way religious, but you do yourself–and this blog–no favors by indulging in the cheap and braindead rhetoric of Christian-bashing. Would you have responded with the same condencension had the child asked if he was gay? All signs point to “hell no”.)
January 5th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
ECE: Give us a break.
January 8th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
This scientist finds it deeply saddening that so many of our fellow citizens have no clue–or curiosity–about the origins of the world they experience every day. How can one possibly have no interest in the origins of one’s surroundings? Do none of these students ever wonder where Texas came from? (Intelligent design, perhaps?)
One might construct an interesting experimental survey based on the new movie released this holiday season, “Valkyrie.” One might hope that viewers could respond intelligently to questions like “What was Claus von Stauffenberg’s background?” or “Where is (was) East Prussia?” “What happened to it?” Sadly, I suspect that the questions that would elicit the most varied answers would be questions like “In what century did World War II occur?” or “Who was Adolf Hitler?”
January 8th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Finn:
I take this as insight into your deepest thoughts. It’s not enough for you to simply worship your god — the state, but now you must attack Christians based on a casual meeting of sorts.
Could your bitterness be the result of some — the Christian remnant, if you will — who do not accept your vision of a statist utopia?
I have watched you lead TBF closer to government. In my view, you — Finn — have taking the institute far from its original purpose.
A little personal advise (on the web nonetheless): Why not hit some economics and history books yourself? Your lack of knowledge in those areas is also telling — more times than not.
January 8th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Don Langenberg:
If you are tracing origins, how about this one: What was the original intent of public education? (hint: research Mann, Prussia, and the desire to create the first state that was the antithesis of the American Ideal.)
Once you answer the above, the rest of your history makes perfect sense.
note: While you are at it, read the speeches and writings of Hitler, Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao (the writings of the last four are free over at Marxists.org, so there is no reason to not know what they wrote and said) to see what they had to say about public education. Or is that an inconvenient truth?
January 9th, 2009 at 4:51 am
And I would add, go read at the blog spot of Lynn Stuter. She is an expert on the subject of the government brain laundries.