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What was it that one learned through a great books curriculum? Certainly not "conservatism" in any contemporary American sense of the term. We were not taught to become American patriots, or religious pietists, or to worship what Rudyard Kipling called "the Gods of the Market Place." We were not instructed in the evils of Marxism, or the glories of capitalism, or even the superiority of Western civilization.
As I think about it, I'm not sure we were taught anything at all. What we did was read books that raised serious questions about the human condition, and which invited us to attempt to ask serious questions of our own. Education, in this sense, wasn't a "teaching" with any fixed lesson. It was an exercise in interrogation.
To listen and understand; to question and disagree; to treat no proposition as sacred and no objection as impious; to be willing to entertain unpopular ideas and cultivate the habits of an open mind — this is what I was encouraged to do by my teachers at the University of Chicago.
It's what used to be called a liberal education.
The University of Chicago showed us something else: that every great idea is really just a spectacular disagreement with some other great idea.
Bret Stephens's speech warrants a full read. It makes valuable points that we all need to hear, even on SN.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday September 27 2017, @02:29PM (3 children)
"I'm not sure that this is a war that can be won."
It CANNOT be "won". Like many other wars, there is no way to "win". "the only winning move is not to play" - but good luck with not playing the game of life!! Let me see - there's the generation gap. Except, the younger generation always wins, because the older generation dies off - and suddenly the youngsters are the oldsters. Yes, one day you millenials will also be old fools who couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel. Just ask ANYONE born after - ooooooh - 2025.
The battle of the sexes? Women know they are smarter than men, and men know they are smarter than women, but dammit - BOTH sides fraternize with the enemy!! There's no winning that one.
You can't win the war, that's why people invented this thing called "compromise".
Alas - we Americans have forgotten what compromise is. Everything is either left or right, white or black, low or high, and NOTHING IN THE MIDDLE can be considered - ever.
A lot of husbands and wives eventually learn that to get a little, they have to give a little. But, precious few of us ever learn that the same lesson might apply outside the home.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 27 2017, @07:38PM (1 child)
You anger me in that you enjoy being stupidly antagonistic with your right wing rhetoric, and yet you write things like this.
I suspect what you say and what you do may be different things; what is it you really want? because compromise usually isn't something you suggest.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday September 28 2017, @01:29AM
"stupidly antagonistic"
That is an opinion, of course. Maybe you're to close to the problem. Try stepping back, and looking at life. Stupid antagonism comes at me daily - I should give up my guns, I should never defend myself, Black lives matter (and white lives matter less, if at all), straight white males are all bigots and fascists - on and on it goes. When I rebrand the same shit and hand it back, I'm the one who is stupidly antagonistic? Think about it.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 27 2017, @11:01PM
There are plenty of people, I would say the majority, that are willing to compromise. You are basically highlighting the what the propaganda is trying to sell us. It is not reality, it is a manufactured controversy which keeps everyone in their own buckets. Anyone who isn't stuck in a bucket usually gives up after 5-20 years and settles into their more comfortable backyard pool.