Mutterings From Cassandra

[kelly_chambliss]

My LJ friend Alex Voy alexvoy has provided a link to a genuine horror story.

I wish I could say that this article surprised me, but it doesn't.  I see this sort of historical cluelessness among my students all the time.  For extra credit (and what must be personal masochism), I sometimes give them a ten-question quiz on major facts in American history.  Believe me, it's not all that difficult -- stuff like, "In what decade did World War I occur"?, "When did US women receive the right to vote in federal elections?", "Who was Dwight David Eisenhower"?,  "What major event in American history occurred from 1861-65?"  Most of the scores are under 50%.  Students aren't much better with current events or US government basics, either:  Their responses to questions such as "What is the Patriot Act"? and "What is an electoral vote?" say more about kids' imaginative ability to invent answers than to show actual knowledge

 

It's not that these students aren't bright; most of them are.  But somewhere along the line, many of them have never been shown how and why history (and history in the making) matters.  Part of it is just the ego and shortsightedness of youth.  But part of it is a failure of education.  The adults in their world haven't managed to convince them that they should care about the past, probably because many of the adults don't care themselves.

 

In some ways, I can't blame them -- what use has history been to us lately?  I'm a history obsessive, and in the past few years, what good has my knowledge done me?  All it does is make me terrified and pissed off.  It seems as if historians and scientists have become nothing more than modern Cassandras -- doomed to give true prophecies about the future while no one in power listens.  Look at our so-called leaders:  Despite all sorts of historical and scientific evidence, the Bush administration continues to deny the effects of global warming, seems unable to realize that history has shown torture to be a fairly ineffective method of getting accurate information, ignores what history tells us about how natives usually respond to foreign invaders, and on and on. 

 

No wonder I prefer to spend time in Roddenberry land, even with all its sexist and nationalist limitations.

 

Of course, good capitalist consumer that I am, spending money sometimes helps, too.  I spent a fine afternoon last week in IKEA , a Swedish home-furnishings chain.  Their marketers and designers are sheer geniuses.  Somehow, they manage to price and display their wares so that I am simply compelled to buy them.  The only thing I really needed was a desk lamp (black, halogen, modernistic design, $6.99, bulb included.)  But do you think I walked out of that store with a bill for only $6.99 plus tax?  Ha!  I also bought a set three colorful plastic storage boxes (green, purple, turquoise) for which I have no real use.  But they were $1.99!!  And tiny strings of battery-powered rice lights.  Do I need them?  Oh, right.  But . . .they were 99 cents.  And came in three different colors.  Could you have turned down an ultra-designed set of twenty (that's right, twenty) kitchen storage containers plus a cool small plastic pitcher for $5.99?  I certainly couldn't.  And don't even get me started on their bookshelf deals (I own 3500 books and counting.)  The only reason I didn't buy a dozen was that they wouldn't fit in my car.  To top it off, the store cafeteria offers ten Swedish meatballs, red potatoes, and lingonberry sauce for $3.99.  It was as close to heaven as a secular humanist like me can get (at least within driving distance and not involving sex.)

Comments

[seemag.livejournal.com]

Your IKEA story makes me laugh :-) If IKEA wasn't so fearsome in its size and quantity of stuff, I'd totally just go and camp out there every weekend. Plus, IKEA always makes good bloggity :-)