The End of History?

Luther's previous post on the disaster otherwise mislabeled "America's public education system" is hugely on target, and gives me an interesting notion: I wonder sometimes if the NEA's animosity toward the "No Child Left Behind Act" is in large part due to the fact that this and other state initiatives are exposing the lousy socialist careerism behind this union's gutting of our education system, over which the teachers' unions hold a near-monopolistic control. They're getting paid a lot of money and teach our kids diddly.

They've hornswoggled even our own neighborhood school system in Fairfax County, Virginia, allegedly one of the best in the country. But most of the Fairfax system's top graduates couldn't hold an intelligent debate on any topic with, say, a 1950s public high school student who managed to time-travel to 2006. Who's fault is that?

One of the ways the educationaloids have managed to gut education while setting up taxpayer-funded propaganda mills is to eviscerate actual subject matter either by replacing it with socialist propaganda. And by engineering fact-based education right out of the system. Certainly we've seen this in literature classes. But have you noted how ignorant the average student is today about history? Busy working parents have little time to notice what's happening. The lefties have taken full advantage of this, particularly since virulently Marxist/New Leftist Boomers took over the educational system in its entirety in the 1970s.

The Washington Post's resident socialist pundit, E.J. Dionne, whom we cordially despise, published an op-ed piece in today's paper (registration may be required to read it) that was truly astonishing. Even he, who never met a Republican he didn't hate, seems to be onto this wreckage of our educational systems, although his piece comes to an inevitably dumb conclusion. Noting the decline of history in public education, Dionne observes how the current conservative government in Australia has seized upon its own similar problem:

MELBOURNE, Australia -- A battle over the future of the past broke out here last week. The fight explains a great deal about how Australia's conservative prime minister, John Howard, has hung on to power for a decade.

Pay attention to Howard. His approach could be a model for how parties of the right -- including Republicans in the United States -- manage to build majorities in turbulent times.

Last week, Howard organized a "history summit" to call attention to the decline of Australian history as a subject in high schools. In most states here, history has been subsumed within (and thus displaced by) a broader social studies curriculum focused on "studies of society and the environment."

Sound familiar? The problem, that is? It should.

Part of the reason the obviously youthful correspondents of leftwing screeds like the Daily Kos scream so much about "the war," "Bushitler," etc., is due to their abysmal ignorance of history. The Anglosphere on either side of the Pacific has been shortchanged for at least a generation when it comes to educating young people in their heritage, which would allow them to place their own lives in the context of a larger history and culture. A generation of our young people has been indoctrinated in socialist theory that caricatures the U.S. while never acknowledging its impressive record against fascism and communist totalitarianism. It's small wonder that significant numbers of them can shout slogans like "Bush lied, people died" without a clue as to how the world really works and who the villains really are. Thus, they prove useful and non-troubling tools for the anti-American puppet masters of the hard left. They are shock troops who are battling bravely to destroy their own lives.

John Howard has encountered similarly profound and aggressive ignorance on his own continent. But what Dionne grasps about what's going on down under is something the Bushies and the Republicans do not. Dionne is mightily impressed by Howard's grasp of the culture wars and the depth to which his nation is being undermined by the left's dominance of cultural and educational institutions. Like our own, these institutions have been transformed into Marxist-oriented propaganda mills bent on creating a permanent fifth column from a generation of student-fodder, all the better to destroy the culture that has made Australia great.

Howard has recognized the true root of the problem: the breeding, by the educationaloids, of pure ignorance. This ignorance, when goaded into a passionate, angry, emotional response against specific targets by the cynical, relativistic modern left, is impervious to both facts and logic. They are completely unpersuadable, impermeable to argumentation. But eminently manipulable by party hacks. Which is just the way the lefties like it.

While citing Howard's rhetoric and approving of its effectiveness, Dionne makes an astounding admission:

"I think we have taught history as some kind of fragmented stew of moods and events," Howard declared, "rather than some kind of proper narrative."

This is the sort of cultural and educational fight familiar to Americans. My gut is with those who see history as a distinct subject. Wherever we live, we should know our country's national story.

Notice what has just happened: This writer, on the other side of politics from the Australian prime minister, has embraced his argument that old-fashioned history is worth teaching.

(Wonker's italics.)

Obviously, Howard's simple logic has awakened something of primal importance in Dionne's pre-Marxist brainstem, which is why he felt compelled to write the type of piece that we have rarely if ever seen in his column. Dionne appreciates Howard's political acumen, realizing that this kind of issue can bring surprisingly different kinds of people into a champion's own tent:

Howard has a genius for picking the right wedge issues. In this case, his argument appeals to conservatives who don't like what Howard has called "black armband history" -- i.e., a history that is primarily critical of Australia's white settlers. But it also draws in many from outside the ranks of the right who have moderately traditional views about school curriculums.

The rest of the piece is mostly in this vein, as even Howard's Laborite opponent in the next election weighs in with substantial agreement. Clearly, this issue has given at least one MSM leftist-in-good-standing, E. J. Dionne, some pause. And some reason to fear that if our own conservatives jumped on this bandwagon, they might find a surprising depth of consensus in many a surprising place.

This blog has long-lamented the way in which the left, particularly in its dominance of educational, judicial, and artistic institutions, has dumbed down or negated our own magnificent culture to the point where many would no longer bother to defend it against the current Islamofascist enemy. We've begun to see evidence, as in today's Post piece, that even some of the leftie perps are beginning to regret the looming world disaster that is occurring at least partially as a consequence of their own actions. But it probably hasn't bothered them enough yet to grit their teeth and pull the "R" lever this November.