tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6579213173749170024.post1520430857839443399..comments2024-01-02T02:18:30.960-08:00Comments on Israel Thrives: The Houseboat SummitMike L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06450806807610560873noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6579213173749170024.post-49293922793199293492015-09-03T07:42:59.269-07:002015-09-03T07:42:59.269-07:00I think that's the long-term effects of post-m...I think that's the long-term effects of post-modernist thinking that the intellectual class throughout the west adopted. They have disseminated these ideas through the schools and universities. And, of course, the media. There is "no such thing as objective reality," "everything is relative." Once people decided that and also became obsessed with the notion of western civilization being evil, they have been unable and unwilling to teach actual history of any kind. We now utterly fail to teach young people of the evolution of ideas and philosophies that have gone to create western liberal democracies. Most young people know nothing of any history and totally take for granted the societies they live in. As if those societies just rose up out of the sea. They have imbibed the teachings about western " sins" but have no context or understanding to help them have any perspective. Their ignorance is astonishing. It's not their fault, it's the inevitable outcome of the theories that have dominated European and American culture since the middle of the Twentieth century. <br />The west gave up believing in ideas because it indoctrinated itself with the notion that any ideas that stemmed from western civilization must be, by definition, untrustworthy. Therefore, they have reduced everything to slogans and cheap and shallow political positions. And posturing. We no longer teach people <i> how </i> to think, we teach them <i> what </i> to think. We have young people who have never heard of the most significant thinkers, artists, and events of the past. And who have no capacity to think for themselves and to reason out complex and difficult intellectual landscapes. <br />We produce young people who can merely parrot whatever their teachers have told them. khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04651898817618608477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6579213173749170024.post-56500326755516459952015-09-02T13:50:41.061-07:002015-09-02T13:50:41.061-07:00I think the west has abandoned 'ideas'. We...I think the west has abandoned 'ideas'. We no longer have ideas or values about ideas. What we have is positions, agendas, process. In a world bereft of ideas, then it's every man and woman for themselves. We see this in the west's approach to all of things we discuss here - Israel, terrorism, Islam, refugees, war, the media and so on. The west gave up on arguing for an idea. They no longer matter.<br /><br />I spend time every week talking to young people about a variety of things mostly about religion and education and the thing I find frustrating is that young people, tomorrow's leaders no longer have the ability to think in terms or context, metaphor or allusion. They are literal minded to a pathological fault. It's like talking to Rain Main to some extent. They simply don't find any use for and so have capacity to think broadly or long rang or conceptually. They stuff their heads with jargon and process and repeat the same things over and over. What point, after all is even the existence of Israel to them when they're not standing in Israel at that very moment. It's not that they don't care, they don't see it as a relevant point. "Well wouldn't you at least want to have a Jewish homeland for your children to enjoy someday?" and they look at me with a serious look and tell me "Oh no we don't plan on vacationing there (or whatever piques their interest...) and anyway my aunt has a condo in Snowmass where my Bat Mitzvah will be. We're not going all the way there....." and so on.<br /><br />See, no ideas. We're losing the war of ideas because we're trying to fight the war of ideas and no one else is fighting that battle. Empress Trudyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06073538968722986065noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6579213173749170024.post-90174116383658159112015-09-02T12:16:25.056-07:002015-09-02T12:16:25.056-07:00Off-topic.
So, the deal is done.
Off-topic.<br />So, the deal is done.<br />khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04651898817618608477noreply@blogger.com