The Importance of Thinking Like Me

Last Tuesday's Viewpoint column in the Commercial Appeal, by regional reporter Bartholomew Sullivan is a revealing glimpse into the mind of a member of the press. The title, "Social studies help keep us on same page," seems mild on the surface, but it really has a deeper meaning, one that grows obvious to a deeper reading of the column.

He quotes from George Orwell: "Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." Sullivan seems to be, in the column, arguing for keeping social studies classes as a vital part of the school curriculum. But what is it he hopes the social studies to teach? Try:

riots, assassinations, demonstrations,
abdications, general strikes and wars on poverty
and against the Red menace were exciting, living
political dramas. Partisan politics...

He mentions those in rhapsodising over his own school days:

when there were such things as liberal Republicans, and New Left
radicals had some influence over the Democrats. Richard Nixon
advocated national health insurance. There was, for a time, a broad
political spectrum.

A "broad spectrum" indeed. From the very far left to the center-right! Confirming this point, Sullivan calls the Democrat and Republican parties the "two dominant, somnolent center-right parties."

He frets that "our children may never get to know dissent," even as he extols the demonstrations by anarchists, environmentalists and anti-capitalists. Yet somehow, he seems to have forgotten the most visible examples of vocal dissension: the anti-income tax demonstrations going on in this very state for the past two years!

But that doesn't mesh with his politics. He writes:

...our General Assembly failed us once
again this month and prepared to throw tens of thousands of
citizens off state-administered health care coverage while raising
the regressive sales tax that falls hardest on the poor.

When one is so far out of step with the politics of his neighbors, then it becomes obvious why he desires to see social studies kept in schools--so that it can be administered by like-minded people who will make sure that future generations think as he does.

Social studies classes are not for teaching the history and development of this country, its social and political structures, its peoples and cultures, but to:

the development of such...skills as understanding
competing policy alternatives, deciphering propaganda,
considering why to vote, or even knowing what's legal and
what's not. If those skills aren't yet being de-emphasized, others
say, it's still time to be vigilant.

Why? To counter the

conflicting and contradictory economic and political messages
cross[ing] twice or three times per news cycle, responsible citizens
have to be able to filter the self-interest, lies, commercial spin
and demagoguery that buzz from every electrical device.

Notice he doesn't include the paper media. Hmm.... And doesn't that last bit, about "self-interest, lies, commercial spin and demagoguery" sound suspiciously like the criticisms levelled at his employer? Said employer also being a capitalist entity dedicated to the pursuit of profit, including fighting tooth-and-nail with its own unions and buying up the competing papers only to absorb them and shut them up? To keeping under lock and key all information about their own profits?

George Orwell also famously created a whole new lexicon in his prophetic book, 1984. One word was "doublethink," or the ability to hold two separate and conflicting ideas in the head at the same time, without distress. It seems that Sullivan has learned that social studies lesson quite well.

Until next time, that is all.