I think they should read Thomas Paine. Thanks to people like Glenn Beck, Paine is sort of a hero on the nutcake right. Yah, let them read Paine's "The Rights of Man," his "The Age of Reason," and of course, "Agrarian Justice." They might actually learn something.
Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant
---------- Original Message ---------- From: Michael Smith <mjs at smithbowen.net> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Texas school board drops Jefferson, adds Calvin Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:59:04 -0400
On Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:30:34 -0400 Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Like I say, I'm no fan of Jefferson. But he's pretty important to
> the evolution of American politics, no?
He little knows of 'Murrca
That only 'Murrca knows.
Seriously, I was being unserious -- well, semi-serious. What's taught as "American history" in America is such a sad gallimaufry of propagandistic nonsense that the poor kiddies would be better off reading Marvel comics; almost any change would be an improvement, under the law of regression to the mean; best of all would be to ignore the subject altogether; and in *Texas*, well...!
But to pursue the subject semi-seriously -- one of the core nonsensicalities of 'Murrcan history as she is taught is what you might call "American originalism" -- the idea that the Founders were mighty thinkers who had so many new bran-new ideas every day they had to have slaves to keep track of 'em. If the kiddies are going to be reading anybody, better they should read people who actually were important thinkers.
Now qua politician, Jefferson is certainly an important figure. Why, he gave us the Democratic Party! There's reason enough to dig him up and give him the Oliver Cromwell postmortem honors.
--
Michael J. Smith mjs at smithbowen.net http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
____________________________________________________________ Diet Help Cheap Diet Help Tips. Click here. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=QLkG1izGG2NiOkG5UZv1CQAAJ1DoEMrytxsVXKlEh0tvqeWlAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYQAAAAAA=