Professor Reich, this is one of the most endearing texts I ever read.
Looking at those little kids, I think about my four year old and hope he grows up to become as brilliant as you are and, who knows?Perhaps even president one day.
We are immigrants, but he was born in this amazing country.
Thank you for being the keynote speaker in my graduation at Berkeley in 2015.
One of the gifts that I received from reading Robert Coles, a psychiatrist who volunteered to advise and counsel the family of Ruby Bridges at the challenging time she was integrating her public elementary school, is the idea that when we look back at these people (Clinton, Bush, Professor Reich) they--and all of us--start out as little children with the potential to do wonderful things.
I is interesting to see the growth and ideas each of the 4 people mentioned took different paths. All but one had the idea of building America and helping with different routes for sure. One privileged person became a menace and cheat his whole live with only his own personal gain in mind. He has set loose on America a flood of beliefs which will be hard to turn back. We must use every effort to make sure the tide does turn or our democracy will fail.
Trump was spoiled and ruined as a child, literally a bassinette millionaire, thanks to dad and his tax-evading mentality. In a way, he was an abused child, never learning valid social skills, never becoming a worthwhile citizen. Instead, he became a white-collar criminal, a dangerous man if ever given power.
I hope that Tchump is not completely typical of his socioeconomic class == that is, I hope that his total egoism is not typical of his class == but it seems to me that his unquestioning belief in his own superiority is in fact typical of his class. Why should I expect people of such privilege to be aware of it?
Trump is not typical of any class except the class of sociopaths/psychopaths. Anyone who has any doubt about this should pick up either of Mary Trump's books and start reading anywhere. It shouldn't take long to be convinced.
She has a PhD so she uses terms like psychopath. I did a minor in psychology, so I speak the language. You will have to do your own translation. It won't be too hard.
I’m not so jaded or shortsighted as to blame your entire generation for everything we face now (even Trump) seems to me every generation has its hero’s and villains.
It’s now up to my generation (millennial) and those born after me to make sure the ideals of American Democracy survive.
The whole GOP Trump debacle seems to me to be caused by a lack of the ability to think critically. The first thing I thought when Trump was mentioned as a candidate was what an opportunist that fool is. For all the press about him and the real issues people had with him I would have thought others would want to avoid him. His speeches ran from nonsensical to damn near and maybe right into hate speech. My father, born in 1930, said Trump frightened him as he could remember Hitler's speeches they sounded so similar in tone and intent. So, for all the foibles and the imperfect nature of democracy can we trace the downfall of the GOP, as a viable politcal party representative of democratic values, and assent of someone like Trump to cuts in public education dating back into the 1970s? I, personally, think the cuts to education were started to decrease opposition to the wars like Vietnam that would come in the future and continued because who wants to pay taxes anyway, especially the particular way education is funded in the US. I'd love to read what others think.
"caused by a lack of the ability to think critically." Is that the human condition? Have there always been people who are easily conned? Who vote against their better interests because of blatant lies? And if so, has that ability to think critically, logically with factual background in mind...has that minimal ability been degraded by social media and/or something else?
Or is it in the water? My mind is boggled by the millions who swallow hateful nonsense. I am beginning to think that the presence of micro plastics and PFAs (forever chemicals) may be dulling the brains of the masses. I have no facts. No science to back this up. Just speculating that we may be like the Romans who drank from vessels containing lead.
Bill, that's an interesting thought, perhaps much like the problem with leaded gas, but I have no idea whether it's correct. Still, very interesting. However, I don't want to take the pressure off of governments to increase education standards and fair distribution of resources for education. There are or were several countries, perhaps Finland and Sweden (?), that did not allow private schools. That caused the wealthy to want to spend on education to ensure that their children got a great education and this ensured that all children had that same opportunity. That should be the model everywhere, in my very humble opinion.
Couldn't agree more. We are so far from "equal" education as to be laughable. We fund schools by zip code which keeps the upper class comfy and holds down the rest. I would fund K-12 at least on the state level. College or trade school as well. Germany funds their kids from K to employment. They prepare them for life.
I enjoyed reading your dialogue. I wonder what your perspective is on the current "well-educated" politicians from Ivy League Institutions that RR wrote about in a former script. What part do parental values and societal norms play? Thanks!
"What part do parental values and societal norms play?" A parent forms a huge percentage of person's world view. Some of us are lucky. I was. My folks always judged people as individuals - regardless of their background. They had their opinions about religion and politics. But their very dearest friends belonged to a church they found to be despicable. They would have taken a bullet for them and their right to believe they way they wanted to.
I don't know what "societal norms" are any more. At one time I would have suggested that the core tenets of most religions were similar - "love they brother...golden rule", etc. Such is not the case now. And it would be "normal" to accept the results of elections. No more.
This suggests a collapse of society - not just a country - but a whole bunch of people who don't care about basic standards of behavior. Chaos and anarchy are on the way if this isn't suppressed.
I read Bill's response and yours to his before responding. I'm not a religious guy, so my thought about people is that is all that we have. We have each other and should treat each other we'd like to be treated. As for well educated people in the GOP, well I can't explain that. I can't say how any of them were raised or what they learned from their peer groups but it would seem to me that they are out for no one but themselves. There may be a few trying to resurrect the old GOP, pre-Reagan, but it seems most are simply terrible people. At this point, I think those even claiming they are trying to fix the party should just move on.
4 Boomers. IMHO the three presidents are all a national embarrassment and I wouldn't take pride in being in their company. None of that group personally experienced war, unlike their parents. Robert and Clinton were exceptional students. The others were legacies.
The silent generation that preceded the boomers demographically support the characterization "caused by a lack of the ability to think critically." 52%-43% supported Trump according to 2020 Pew statistics. I am a member of that group.
Boomers were equally split. I don't think education or environmental factors have much to do with politics.
I know it sounds racist, but I still think the difference is Trump's superior ability as a demagogue to send the dog whistle to the racist collective subconscious of the core of his support.
Yes. I think so. It's something in the wiring that makes them susceptible to indoctrination. Most never get near the college level freshman course Intro to Logic or Critical Thinking 101.
Consider Hawley. Methodist at a Jesuit high school. Bet he was the fish out of water. To defend himself had to out rationalize the rationalists. Highly "educated" pedantically but sociologically perverted. Thus theocratic reading of the Construction and obedience to Trump.
Bill, I suspect it is social media, hate radio and Fox. The same commercial skills that once sold us soap now morphed into selling us lies and hate. Yes, there have always been men (and it is almost always men) who sold us vicious bile. But they did not have free access to our psyches 24/7.
I saw this coming with social media and refused to use it. Godwin's Law: "As an online discussion grows longer (regardless of topic or scope), the probability of a comparison to Nazis or Adolf Hitler approaches 1."
I agree and I will add that the non-critical thinkers who devour streamed movies with hateful, vicious and anti-government propaganda are losing the ability to separate fact from fiction. Trump, the con man posing as an astute business tycoon on his TV show was bought hook line and sinker by many.
I so agree with you. Our education system has failed us because the would -be tyrant and his officers know that an uneducated populace is the key element of fascism.
Keeping superstitious non-sense of religion in privileged status is another mistake and un-American! Religion is following a fantasy without question. If people read all of their religious texts, they would never defend it! It makes a good gullible base.
We’ve allowed the zealots to invade our formerly good education system. Allowing religious intrusion to ANY public square is tragic! We need teacher who can help students with critical thinking skills. We must pay respectable teacher salaries but also insist on fully competent & knowledgeable teachers.
Teachers & students are at risk of gun violence. What kind of idiot society doesn’t change gun laws after so many slaughters! That is what is shameful.
Round about 1990, a woman at a school department meeting in Massachusetts told me that critical thinking is code for challenging authority, and it was NOT what she wanted taught in her school system. According to Jonathan Haidt, hewing to authority is one of the primary conservative values, one that liberals hold, but lower on their list [fairness being highest]. Hmmmmm….So, yes, critical thinking is definitely something we need more of, but if it gets people challenging their “betters,” you’re going to see a lot of push back from the Right.
I was born in 1943, and I was born to challenge authority. I did repeatedly, often, at major cost to myself. And I still do.
Consequently, I suppose, I tend to look down upon those unwilling to challenge authority. My father was a "war hero," but I refused to bend to my family's desire to "honor" him or to imagine that WW II accomplished anything worthwhile other than to show the world that allowing the "authority" of Hitler was wrong.
One should resist. And I did in small and in great things (read the novel by Jodi Picoult and see MLK's original use of "small great things"). I refused to accept my appointment to the USAFA class of '66. I opposed the US campaign in Vietnam. I opposed the racism of George Wallace, et. al. I opposed all spiritual, academic and political kowtowing to authorities of whatever ilk. I taught at private secondary schools and universities for seven years and for 40 at Public schools and universities--always bucking against confining traditions or narrow philosophies.
Nevertheless, a major part (1/3rd) of my studies for my Ph.D. at Notre Dame were on Critical Theory. Professor Buttigieg was head of the department. It is NOT fair or balanced to refer to me or to the lady from Massachusetts as "liberals" or to anyone as "conservatives" or from the "Right." Those labels do not register. Their meanings are indefinite and too slippery to use as a definition of a person or his/ her stance toward anything.
But I’m gonna disagree with you on whether Left, Right, Liberal or Conservative have or don’t have any value in characterizing someone, at least peripherally. I find Left and Right losing their value, but they’re still helpful for me to understand the landscape in front of me and get an idea where people stand when I meet them. And the culture is attacking the idea of “liberal” [small l] by demonizing Liberal [capital L], so that is morphing and becoming less useful.
Mmmmm….The more I think about it, the more I think all these terms ARE becoming so attenuated that they’re too indistinct to mean anything.
At this point I'm seeing the major axes as good and evil-- depending upon the humanity, compassion, truth of the individual, regardless of left or right. While this is a bit tongue in cheek, I can't help being so judgmental.
Yes, I was shocked! I had expected the ability to apply critical thinking to important issues would be a universally held virtue. Coulda knocked me over with a feather.
But at some point after everything he’s done, does that critical thinking not kick in? I see it as he gave the willfully ignorant and racist a megaphone and control of a major political party. Some of them are getting exactly what they want.
Derek Wessner ; Those of us who are older are still voting and we have something to say and do too. Yes, the younger generations born after you should "make sure the ideals of American Democracy survive". But you would have no idea what those ideals are without those who have come and gone before you.
I meant no disrespect with my comment, I apologize if it came off that way. Of course your generation still has a say and you did pave the way for future generations.
I simply meant we must all do our part to ensure that this country not only survives but thrives.
Laurie, Spot on. Every citizen is responsible. There is not one great generation and there is not one loser generation. We are battling with a party that has been allowed to lie on national tv, to incite violence and entrench their racism. The majority of us do not want this. That should be obvious when we continue to win the popular vote! I.E., the voices of the people!
The Boomer generation are the one that fought in Vietnam and fought to get us out of there. We were the ones who “didn’t trust anyone over thirty,” and wanted to change the trajectory of our country. We did some of it. We missed doing some of it. Some want to undo the stuff we DID do.
The generations following us will do some good and will have to struggle to hold back the negatives, as we did.
This world will always pass on to the next generation, and it will be theirs to keep or lose. My deepest hopes for a good and decent world are with those who come after me …
Having intelligence and the ability to think makes a real difference. Also is disappointing as you wonder why people get caught up in money vs. loosing freedom. The ability to think critically is essential.
I don't think it's a question of generation success more of emancipation and progressivism even if I doubt that a graveyard generation on top of almost everything with more or less the whole Ownership of everything which is worth in the global world and already more dead than agile can be in interest of the earth future.
KimDenisR4 ; Don't get old. Agility isn't everything. Loss of it does not make one dead. What about those who are physically handicapped? Stephen William Hawking, the English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author who, at the time of his death, was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge was brilliant, accomplished and respected around the world. Generalities are not helpful.
I’m not doubting that your generation tried to make things better, but much like right now, forces with evil intentions are working to undo that progress.
Derek...I know that you weren't taking a hit on we boomers. You comment gave me the chance to express a frustration I have about being blamed en masse about the state of the world. So it was more me wanted to share with others that we did try hard. And to pass you my late in life head slapping realization that so much depends on municipal politics, yet we only get about 35% of voters out for city elections. It is an opportunity for you to build a corp of millennials across the country who set common desired outcomes for city living and work towards achieving those goals...maybe chose the UN global goals on health, environment, access to clean water because the indictors have been worked out by international teams.
Few of us have been successful in making this a better world than what we entered, but you have done more than most. The three Presidents born around you were fair, to middling, to the worst ever. Bill Clinton was the best President of the lot. BUT, he also ushered in a bad system of cheating the neediest among us of a chance for a decent life (the only good thing to come from the welfare act of 1996 was the welfare to work, during the very short time it lasted - 1998 to 2001). I was working for a County Department of Social Services, as an Eligibility Worker, then Employment and Training Counselor. It did bloody little to help the neediest - those who were of the lowest intellectual ability. the chemically dependent, and the mentally ill. Too many of my coworkers in Employment and Training were poorly educated and trained themselves and thought they were successful if they got their clients working in fast food for 16 hours a week (Yeah that was a great idea, with 1 to 4 children to feed). Bill also favored corporations too much. George W, while a decent human being was about as intelligent as an average 16 year old, he reminded me of Charlie McCarthy (although he closely resembled Alfred E. Newman, Mad's "what me worry"), only with Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld, pulling the strings. Of the trumpster, he is the most evil person to ever hold Government office. So I'd say, Dr Reich, you have "done your parents proud"
Your essay really strikes a chord with me and once again its most appreciated.
How all these paths intertwine. I have to add my father and his family were from a farm family in Scranton and he ended up attending Princeton University on the GI Bill. Later my father would be one of the "mad men" working on Madison Avenue in NYC and raising his family in Greenwich Connecticut. My understanding was It was an economic high point in the 60s and 70s and the over riding sense was anything was possible and that "natural resources" were limitless (as long as you didnt listen to hippies and take the talk about a possible gas shortage seriously). At this point in my life (60) its clear this attitude regarding nature and the idea of nature as a resource has done a good deal of damage to the USA and the western world. What I keep coming back to in my work and life - the philosopher Martin Heidigger wrote at the close of WW2 - ""the reduction of the the natural world to resources for production and consumption is THE CRISIS of modernity. Its consequences include a loss of the sacred, the violation of nature, and the destructioin of our home". Ultimately it is whats been called "the dream of the western world" which many of us live by - that success is measured in money and property and materialistic wealth.
America has its problems and the Democrats have their problems just read where it all started with An Indigenous History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz - this was our starting point (and none of it was taught in US schools to my generation). We are still coming to terms as a nation with these issues.
We are a generation living through a tragedy (both politically and culturaly and environmentally) unlike anything our parents or grandparents experienced. In my opinion its a kind of reckoning, a kind of lesson, to the way we have treated eachother and the way we have treated the earth. Ultimately
I predict we will succeed politically and culturaly and environmentally though it will be at a massive cost (as Charles Eisenstein writes) "when we realize the importance of those things we'd related to a low priority: the mangrove swamps, the deep aquifers, the sacred sites, the biodiversity hotspots, the virgin forests, the elephants and the whales...all the beings that in mysterious ways ,invisible to our numbers, maintain the balance of our living planet. Then will we realize that as we do to any part of nature, so inescapably, we do to ourselves." Hopefully we will all of us get through and learn (and dare I write transform) from all of the above and become better human beings for it.
Mr. Bedner, your comment is so appropriate. For as long as I can remember, (and longer than that to be sure) humans have taken from nature anything they could grab for the sake of personal use or to sell. All of this has cost the world dearly, and cost many their lives. I wonder why it is that restraint, sharing and coexistence is so difficult for most? Worse still, humans feel the same towards their own species as well. Anyone else "having" is viewed as a threat. I have taught my children respect for everything, merely because it exists. They have become minimalist, and have reverence for all around them. I believe that we could learn the most from indigenous Americans, and the indigenous people from other countries that "modern" humans have practically wiped out in their "quest for more". Those with respect and care for the earth and species other than their own. They are the ones who could show us a way out of the tragedy we are living through. If we only listen.
You would love the book, "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Kimmerer who is a professor ion botany at SUNY and an indigenous woman. She combines indigenous knowledge about nature and science. It is a magical read ..her wisdom is extraordinary. Best seller this summer at our local bookstore...by word of mouth...and it is about 5 years old!
Ms. Kowles, I agree with your thoughts about indigenous Americans and indigenous people from other countries - its proven that these peoples and cultures have been the best custodians of the natural world. Its also such a complex issue when colonialism and appropriation are considered. Tink Tinker on you tube discusses some of this. I wanted to add that in my opinion "its the dream of the modern world" for all of us that has to change. Media, the culture, the politics - this mad way of being - obsession with wealth in all of this - has to change to valuing nature and valuing eachother.
Mr. Bedner's comment and your response bring tears to my eyes. I am so worried about the future of not only our country, but the world itself. I feel such a profound sadness to what man has done to the earth and each other and for what. To destroy everything beautiful and wonderful and all that life can offer, it a tragedy beyond words. I have been at a loss to understand any of this and to see any clear way out. Maybe the US has to totally fall apart to see something new and better arise again. But this is a long long game and I’m afraid with climate change and the nature of man's current desire for always more will work against this hope. And I’m too old to really ever see the swing back, if it were to happen. I can only hope the younger generations can pull it off.
Mary, I don't think I'll live long enough to see a change that will make much of a difference, but I hold out hope for the future. There's a saying, "we plant the trees and the future generations get the shade". So I keep planting trees (I really do!). The least we can do is contribute what we can to help heal what has already been done. And hope. And VOTE!
Mary, you have expressed my sentiments precisely. Will we stop producing green house gasses soon enough? Will the money in the Inflation Recovery Act designated for jump starting the embryonic Carbon Capture & Storage industry be effective in HELPING to forestall total destruction of civilization Or will it, in the end, prove to be nothing more than another boondoggle? With kids & grandkids, I worry - a word I use seldom. Of all the commentators I've read thus far in this posting, you are the only one to use the term "Climate Change." Let us remind our fellow classmates that it is no longer contrary to norms, nor against the law, to discuss the subject. For, in truth, "The cat is out of the bag."
Its the same for me regarding being around long enough to see the change. Yes! Hope and Vote and Planting and if you can.... singing with other people (works for me)! There are really alot of places to find strength for all of this. Strength and energy are needed to go forward! There are loads of people that share these feelings!
Wow!! This is the most carefuly and empationed post I,ve seen in a VERY long time. Thanks so much for your reminder of our stewardship responsibilty for this world.
Well, of the four of you, you are the only one I admire at all.You are the one who apparently really thinks about the effect of your actions on the people whom you are serving. Thank you for continuing to give your care and ideas to the American people.
it's interesting to read a little about your personal history and the coincidence of your birth with those who have done so much to help or to harm the nation. thank you for sharing.
While you, Prof. Reich, were obtaining an Ivy-league education, I, who was born in 1947, was at U.C. Berkeley getting an essentially free but nonetheless extraordinary undergraduate education. Berkeley was different back then. Many of my friends never left Berkeley and still live up in the hills. A much younger Noam Chomsky was there for a year and spoke to huge anti-war crowds in Sproul Plaza. He also taught linguistics and engineering courses. I was on the plaza when a helicopter flew low to spray tear gas on student protestors. I saw Eldridge Cleaver say to a student crowd as big as Chomsky’s, “The only reason you’re against the war is that you don’t want to get your hides blown off,” which stung because it was more true than we cared to admit. The Berkeley campus humor magazine, the Pelican (which I assume is long defunct?) wasn’t quite up to the level of the Harvard Lampoon, which during the 60’s and 70’s was staffed by real geniuses, but sometimes it came pretty close. One 1967 Pelican editorial-type cartoon stuck with me. It was just a drawing of a U.C. Berkeley diploma. No caption. The diplomas are signed by the President of the entire U.C. system (or at least were back then) and the Governor of California. The President’s signature was that of the highly regarded Clark Kerr, who was near the end of his tenure, written in an elegant hand. The Governor’s signature was not cursive, rather it was printed in the shaky block letters of a second-grader: Ronald Reagan. This is what your diploma will be worth, it said, quite loudly, even without a caption.
I was born August 14, 1945, the day World War II ended. I’m an activist for democracy, one of many. I’m trying to do my share. I won’t claim I’m doing it brilliantly, of course.
But it’s very interesting that you, Robert, were born very, very close to the time three recent Presidents were born—Bush, Clinton and Trump. What a combination! I had no idea that you were all so close in age. I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around it.
Anyway, I’m very interested in what you have to say.
I was three years old. My father had put his dissertation aside and joined the fight against the Axis powers, where he was killed flying night recon missions over Germany. My mother had returned to college to do her Masters in Biology at Smith. My paternal grandmother, Smith '09, had come along to baby-sit. The world appeared promising, seen through the lens of the "Hundred Acre Wood" and the "Wind in the Willows." Then reality crept in on cat feet, and the cat was hungry.
So much opportunity after the war. But not the best years for many people of color. While serving their country should have been an equalizer, many returned to the same racism they left behind. Isabel Wilkerson tells those stories in “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” and “Caste” the system Black Americans left behind, helped fight in Europe and returned to after coming home. And still exists today.
I came across a black man in my travels, that stayed in Germany after the Vietnam war and never came home. He has never regretted a day of it. People treat people of any nationality and color like people there, and guns aren’t allowed. It’s always been a peaceful place for him to live. I wish I could say the same….
Thanks Robert, very enlightening.....I was born a few years later but further away in a Europe under reconstruction..... I think we as a prewar generation build up something very good and most of us benefitted greatly from it.......however, if i now see what we are leaving behind for our children and grand children, if feel far less proud.......I am now trying to figure out now where did we fail.......
Professor Reich, this is one of the most endearing texts I ever read.
Looking at those little kids, I think about my four year old and hope he grows up to become as brilliant as you are and, who knows?Perhaps even president one day.
We are immigrants, but he was born in this amazing country.
Thank you for being the keynote speaker in my graduation at Berkeley in 2015.
I will never forget that.
One of the gifts that I received from reading Robert Coles, a psychiatrist who volunteered to advise and counsel the family of Ruby Bridges at the challenging time she was integrating her public elementary school, is the idea that when we look back at these people (Clinton, Bush, Professor Reich) they--and all of us--start out as little children with the potential to do wonderful things.
Lovely
I is interesting to see the growth and ideas each of the 4 people mentioned took different paths. All but one had the idea of building America and helping with different routes for sure. One privileged person became a menace and cheat his whole live with only his own personal gain in mind. He has set loose on America a flood of beliefs which will be hard to turn back. We must use every effort to make sure the tide does turn or our democracy will fail.
Trump was spoiled and ruined as a child, literally a bassinette millionaire, thanks to dad and his tax-evading mentality. In a way, he was an abused child, never learning valid social skills, never becoming a worthwhile citizen. Instead, he became a white-collar criminal, a dangerous man if ever given power.
Yes James. As I see it also. A tragedy for him and all.
Yep
Both Bush and Trump started on third base and think they hit a triple.
I hope that Tchump is not completely typical of his socioeconomic class == that is, I hope that his total egoism is not typical of his class == but it seems to me that his unquestioning belief in his own superiority is in fact typical of his class. Why should I expect people of such privilege to be aware of it?
Trump is not typical of any class except the class of sociopaths/psychopaths. Anyone who has any doubt about this should pick up either of Mary Trump's books and start reading anywhere. It shouldn't take long to be convinced.
Is there a chapter on dirtbags?
She has a PhD so she uses terms like psychopath. I did a minor in psychology, so I speak the language. You will have to do your own translation. It won't be too hard.
Trump is in a class of his own--totally declasse.
It's cld. dirty pool
It's believed to have originated with Ann Richards, commenting on George W.
And Gov Richards probably got it from Molly Ivins [r.i.p.]
He is a danger to USA and society at large!
And no worth!
I’m not so jaded or shortsighted as to blame your entire generation for everything we face now (even Trump) seems to me every generation has its hero’s and villains.
It’s now up to my generation (millennial) and those born after me to make sure the ideals of American Democracy survive.
The whole GOP Trump debacle seems to me to be caused by a lack of the ability to think critically. The first thing I thought when Trump was mentioned as a candidate was what an opportunist that fool is. For all the press about him and the real issues people had with him I would have thought others would want to avoid him. His speeches ran from nonsensical to damn near and maybe right into hate speech. My father, born in 1930, said Trump frightened him as he could remember Hitler's speeches they sounded so similar in tone and intent. So, for all the foibles and the imperfect nature of democracy can we trace the downfall of the GOP, as a viable politcal party representative of democratic values, and assent of someone like Trump to cuts in public education dating back into the 1970s? I, personally, think the cuts to education were started to decrease opposition to the wars like Vietnam that would come in the future and continued because who wants to pay taxes anyway, especially the particular way education is funded in the US. I'd love to read what others think.
"caused by a lack of the ability to think critically." Is that the human condition? Have there always been people who are easily conned? Who vote against their better interests because of blatant lies? And if so, has that ability to think critically, logically with factual background in mind...has that minimal ability been degraded by social media and/or something else?
Or is it in the water? My mind is boggled by the millions who swallow hateful nonsense. I am beginning to think that the presence of micro plastics and PFAs (forever chemicals) may be dulling the brains of the masses. I have no facts. No science to back this up. Just speculating that we may be like the Romans who drank from vessels containing lead.
Bill, that's an interesting thought, perhaps much like the problem with leaded gas, but I have no idea whether it's correct. Still, very interesting. However, I don't want to take the pressure off of governments to increase education standards and fair distribution of resources for education. There are or were several countries, perhaps Finland and Sweden (?), that did not allow private schools. That caused the wealthy to want to spend on education to ensure that their children got a great education and this ensured that all children had that same opportunity. That should be the model everywhere, in my very humble opinion.
Couldn't agree more. We are so far from "equal" education as to be laughable. We fund schools by zip code which keeps the upper class comfy and holds down the rest. I would fund K-12 at least on the state level. College or trade school as well. Germany funds their kids from K to employment. They prepare them for life.
Bill & John,
I enjoyed reading your dialogue. I wonder what your perspective is on the current "well-educated" politicians from Ivy League Institutions that RR wrote about in a former script. What part do parental values and societal norms play? Thanks!
"What part do parental values and societal norms play?" A parent forms a huge percentage of person's world view. Some of us are lucky. I was. My folks always judged people as individuals - regardless of their background. They had their opinions about religion and politics. But their very dearest friends belonged to a church they found to be despicable. They would have taken a bullet for them and their right to believe they way they wanted to.
I don't know what "societal norms" are any more. At one time I would have suggested that the core tenets of most religions were similar - "love they brother...golden rule", etc. Such is not the case now. And it would be "normal" to accept the results of elections. No more.
This suggests a collapse of society - not just a country - but a whole bunch of people who don't care about basic standards of behavior. Chaos and anarchy are on the way if this isn't suppressed.
I read Bill's response and yours to his before responding. I'm not a religious guy, so my thought about people is that is all that we have. We have each other and should treat each other we'd like to be treated. As for well educated people in the GOP, well I can't explain that. I can't say how any of them were raised or what they learned from their peer groups but it would seem to me that they are out for no one but themselves. There may be a few trying to resurrect the old GOP, pre-Reagan, but it seems most are simply terrible people. At this point, I think those even claiming they are trying to fix the party should just move on.
4 Boomers. IMHO the three presidents are all a national embarrassment and I wouldn't take pride in being in their company. None of that group personally experienced war, unlike their parents. Robert and Clinton were exceptional students. The others were legacies.
The silent generation that preceded the boomers demographically support the characterization "caused by a lack of the ability to think critically." 52%-43% supported Trump according to 2020 Pew statistics. I am a member of that group.
Boomers were equally split. I don't think education or environmental factors have much to do with politics.
I know it sounds racist, but I still think the difference is Trump's superior ability as a demagogue to send the dog whistle to the racist collective subconscious of the core of his support.
I think it's a genetic predisposition enhanced by environmental factors such as other voices of the same propensity.
Nurture to a lesser extent.
IMHO socialization is the antidote to racism, and public education is a means to socialization.
Yes. I think so. It's something in the wiring that makes them susceptible to indoctrination. Most never get near the college level freshman course Intro to Logic or Critical Thinking 101.
Consider Hawley. Methodist at a Jesuit high school. Bet he was the fish out of water. To defend himself had to out rationalize the rationalists. Highly "educated" pedantically but sociologically perverted. Thus theocratic reading of the Construction and obedience to Trump.
I thought about the Roman/lead issue too! Yes...
Bill, I suspect it is social media, hate radio and Fox. The same commercial skills that once sold us soap now morphed into selling us lies and hate. Yes, there have always been men (and it is almost always men) who sold us vicious bile. But they did not have free access to our psyches 24/7.
I saw this coming with social media and refused to use it. Godwin's Law: "As an online discussion grows longer (regardless of topic or scope), the probability of a comparison to Nazis or Adolf Hitler approaches 1."
(Current company excepted, of course.)
I agree and I will add that the non-critical thinkers who devour streamed movies with hateful, vicious and anti-government propaganda are losing the ability to separate fact from fiction. Trump, the con man posing as an astute business tycoon on his TV show was bought hook line and sinker by many.
I so agree with you. Our education system has failed us because the would -be tyrant and his officers know that an uneducated populace is the key element of fascism.
Keeping superstitious non-sense of religion in privileged status is another mistake and un-American! Religion is following a fantasy without question. If people read all of their religious texts, they would never defend it! It makes a good gullible base.
Trump: "I love the poorly educated !"
You must love a lot of folks....
I was quoting Trump, not agreeing with him.
I figured it was sarcasm---
Explains why he loves himself so much.
We’ve allowed the zealots to invade our formerly good education system. Allowing religious intrusion to ANY public square is tragic! We need teacher who can help students with critical thinking skills. We must pay respectable teacher salaries but also insist on fully competent & knowledgeable teachers.
Teachers & students are at risk of gun violence. What kind of idiot society doesn’t change gun laws after so many slaughters! That is what is shameful.
A society far too infatuated with guns.
Round about 1990, a woman at a school department meeting in Massachusetts told me that critical thinking is code for challenging authority, and it was NOT what she wanted taught in her school system. According to Jonathan Haidt, hewing to authority is one of the primary conservative values, one that liberals hold, but lower on their list [fairness being highest]. Hmmmmm….So, yes, critical thinking is definitely something we need more of, but if it gets people challenging their “betters,” you’re going to see a lot of push back from the Right.
I was born in 1943, and I was born to challenge authority. I did repeatedly, often, at major cost to myself. And I still do.
Consequently, I suppose, I tend to look down upon those unwilling to challenge authority. My father was a "war hero," but I refused to bend to my family's desire to "honor" him or to imagine that WW II accomplished anything worthwhile other than to show the world that allowing the "authority" of Hitler was wrong.
One should resist. And I did in small and in great things (read the novel by Jodi Picoult and see MLK's original use of "small great things"). I refused to accept my appointment to the USAFA class of '66. I opposed the US campaign in Vietnam. I opposed the racism of George Wallace, et. al. I opposed all spiritual, academic and political kowtowing to authorities of whatever ilk. I taught at private secondary schools and universities for seven years and for 40 at Public schools and universities--always bucking against confining traditions or narrow philosophies.
Nevertheless, a major part (1/3rd) of my studies for my Ph.D. at Notre Dame were on Critical Theory. Professor Buttigieg was head of the department. It is NOT fair or balanced to refer to me or to the lady from Massachusetts as "liberals" or to anyone as "conservatives" or from the "Right." Those labels do not register. Their meanings are indefinite and too slippery to use as a definition of a person or his/ her stance toward anything.
Sounds like an interesting journey you’ve had.
But I’m gonna disagree with you on whether Left, Right, Liberal or Conservative have or don’t have any value in characterizing someone, at least peripherally. I find Left and Right losing their value, but they’re still helpful for me to understand the landscape in front of me and get an idea where people stand when I meet them. And the culture is attacking the idea of “liberal” [small l] by demonizing Liberal [capital L], so that is morphing and becoming less useful.
Mmmmm….The more I think about it, the more I think all these terms ARE becoming so attenuated that they’re too indistinct to mean anything.
You might be right.
At this point I'm seeing the major axes as good and evil-- depending upon the humanity, compassion, truth of the individual, regardless of left or right. While this is a bit tongue in cheek, I can't help being so judgmental.
I have thoughts on that woman and her draconian mindset, but in the interest of keeping this place clean I shall refrain from speaking them.
Yes, I was shocked! I had expected the ability to apply critical thinking to important issues would be a universally held virtue. Coulda knocked me over with a feather.
But at some point after everything he’s done, does that critical thinking not kick in? I see it as he gave the willfully ignorant and racist a megaphone and control of a major political party. Some of them are getting exactly what they want.
Guttural not cultural. Worship of Baal.
Derek Wessner ; Those of us who are older are still voting and we have something to say and do too. Yes, the younger generations born after you should "make sure the ideals of American Democracy survive". But you would have no idea what those ideals are without those who have come and gone before you.
I meant no disrespect with my comment, I apologize if it came off that way. Of course your generation still has a say and you did pave the way for future generations.
I simply meant we must all do our part to ensure that this country not only survives but thrives.
Derek Wessner ; You are right! Carry on!
Laurie, Spot on. Every citizen is responsible. There is not one great generation and there is not one loser generation. We are battling with a party that has been allowed to lie on national tv, to incite violence and entrench their racism. The majority of us do not want this. That should be obvious when we continue to win the popular vote! I.E., the voices of the people!
SeekingReason ; Yes!
The Boomer generation are the one that fought in Vietnam and fought to get us out of there. We were the ones who “didn’t trust anyone over thirty,” and wanted to change the trajectory of our country. We did some of it. We missed doing some of it. Some want to undo the stuff we DID do.
The generations following us will do some good and will have to struggle to hold back the negatives, as we did.
This world will always pass on to the next generation, and it will be theirs to keep or lose. My deepest hopes for a good and decent world are with those who come after me …
Having intelligence and the ability to think makes a real difference. Also is disappointing as you wonder why people get caught up in money vs. loosing freedom. The ability to think critically is essential.
Yes... we get back to that fact.
I don't think it's a question of generation success more of emancipation and progressivism even if I doubt that a graveyard generation on top of almost everything with more or less the whole Ownership of everything which is worth in the global world and already more dead than agile can be in interest of the earth future.
KimDenisR4 ; Don't get old. Agility isn't everything. Loss of it does not make one dead. What about those who are physically handicapped? Stephen William Hawking, the English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author who, at the time of his death, was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge was brilliant, accomplished and respected around the world. Generalities are not helpful.
I’m not doubting that your generation tried to make things better, but much like right now, forces with evil intentions are working to undo that progress.
Derek...I know that you weren't taking a hit on we boomers. You comment gave me the chance to express a frustration I have about being blamed en masse about the state of the world. So it was more me wanted to share with others that we did try hard. And to pass you my late in life head slapping realization that so much depends on municipal politics, yet we only get about 35% of voters out for city elections. It is an opportunity for you to build a corp of millennials across the country who set common desired outcomes for city living and work towards achieving those goals...maybe chose the UN global goals on health, environment, access to clean water because the indictors have been worked out by international teams.
Few of us have been successful in making this a better world than what we entered, but you have done more than most. The three Presidents born around you were fair, to middling, to the worst ever. Bill Clinton was the best President of the lot. BUT, he also ushered in a bad system of cheating the neediest among us of a chance for a decent life (the only good thing to come from the welfare act of 1996 was the welfare to work, during the very short time it lasted - 1998 to 2001). I was working for a County Department of Social Services, as an Eligibility Worker, then Employment and Training Counselor. It did bloody little to help the neediest - those who were of the lowest intellectual ability. the chemically dependent, and the mentally ill. Too many of my coworkers in Employment and Training were poorly educated and trained themselves and thought they were successful if they got their clients working in fast food for 16 hours a week (Yeah that was a great idea, with 1 to 4 children to feed). Bill also favored corporations too much. George W, while a decent human being was about as intelligent as an average 16 year old, he reminded me of Charlie McCarthy (although he closely resembled Alfred E. Newman, Mad's "what me worry"), only with Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld, pulling the strings. Of the trumpster, he is the most evil person to ever hold Government office. So I'd say, Dr Reich, you have "done your parents proud"
You just summed it up perfectly.
And thank you Professor Reich for your unequivocal contributions to American society.
You were also the cutest baby.
Dear Mr. Reich,
Your essay really strikes a chord with me and once again its most appreciated.
How all these paths intertwine. I have to add my father and his family were from a farm family in Scranton and he ended up attending Princeton University on the GI Bill. Later my father would be one of the "mad men" working on Madison Avenue in NYC and raising his family in Greenwich Connecticut. My understanding was It was an economic high point in the 60s and 70s and the over riding sense was anything was possible and that "natural resources" were limitless (as long as you didnt listen to hippies and take the talk about a possible gas shortage seriously). At this point in my life (60) its clear this attitude regarding nature and the idea of nature as a resource has done a good deal of damage to the USA and the western world. What I keep coming back to in my work and life - the philosopher Martin Heidigger wrote at the close of WW2 - ""the reduction of the the natural world to resources for production and consumption is THE CRISIS of modernity. Its consequences include a loss of the sacred, the violation of nature, and the destructioin of our home". Ultimately it is whats been called "the dream of the western world" which many of us live by - that success is measured in money and property and materialistic wealth.
America has its problems and the Democrats have their problems just read where it all started with An Indigenous History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz - this was our starting point (and none of it was taught in US schools to my generation). We are still coming to terms as a nation with these issues.
We are a generation living through a tragedy (both politically and culturaly and environmentally) unlike anything our parents or grandparents experienced. In my opinion its a kind of reckoning, a kind of lesson, to the way we have treated eachother and the way we have treated the earth. Ultimately
I predict we will succeed politically and culturaly and environmentally though it will be at a massive cost (as Charles Eisenstein writes) "when we realize the importance of those things we'd related to a low priority: the mangrove swamps, the deep aquifers, the sacred sites, the biodiversity hotspots, the virgin forests, the elephants and the whales...all the beings that in mysterious ways ,invisible to our numbers, maintain the balance of our living planet. Then will we realize that as we do to any part of nature, so inescapably, we do to ourselves." Hopefully we will all of us get through and learn (and dare I write transform) from all of the above and become better human beings for it.
Mr. Bedner, your comment is so appropriate. For as long as I can remember, (and longer than that to be sure) humans have taken from nature anything they could grab for the sake of personal use or to sell. All of this has cost the world dearly, and cost many their lives. I wonder why it is that restraint, sharing and coexistence is so difficult for most? Worse still, humans feel the same towards their own species as well. Anyone else "having" is viewed as a threat. I have taught my children respect for everything, merely because it exists. They have become minimalist, and have reverence for all around them. I believe that we could learn the most from indigenous Americans, and the indigenous people from other countries that "modern" humans have practically wiped out in their "quest for more". Those with respect and care for the earth and species other than their own. They are the ones who could show us a way out of the tragedy we are living through. If we only listen.
You would love the book, "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Kimmerer who is a professor ion botany at SUNY and an indigenous woman. She combines indigenous knowledge about nature and science. It is a magical read ..her wisdom is extraordinary. Best seller this summer at our local bookstore...by word of mouth...and it is about 5 years old!
Ms. Kowles, I agree with your thoughts about indigenous Americans and indigenous people from other countries - its proven that these peoples and cultures have been the best custodians of the natural world. Its also such a complex issue when colonialism and appropriation are considered. Tink Tinker on you tube discusses some of this. I wanted to add that in my opinion "its the dream of the modern world" for all of us that has to change. Media, the culture, the politics - this mad way of being - obsession with wealth in all of this - has to change to valuing nature and valuing eachother.
Mr. Bedner's comment and your response bring tears to my eyes. I am so worried about the future of not only our country, but the world itself. I feel such a profound sadness to what man has done to the earth and each other and for what. To destroy everything beautiful and wonderful and all that life can offer, it a tragedy beyond words. I have been at a loss to understand any of this and to see any clear way out. Maybe the US has to totally fall apart to see something new and better arise again. But this is a long long game and I’m afraid with climate change and the nature of man's current desire for always more will work against this hope. And I’m too old to really ever see the swing back, if it were to happen. I can only hope the younger generations can pull it off.
Mary, I don't think I'll live long enough to see a change that will make much of a difference, but I hold out hope for the future. There's a saying, "we plant the trees and the future generations get the shade". So I keep planting trees (I really do!). The least we can do is contribute what we can to help heal what has already been done. And hope. And VOTE!
Mary, you have expressed my sentiments precisely. Will we stop producing green house gasses soon enough? Will the money in the Inflation Recovery Act designated for jump starting the embryonic Carbon Capture & Storage industry be effective in HELPING to forestall total destruction of civilization Or will it, in the end, prove to be nothing more than another boondoggle? With kids & grandkids, I worry - a word I use seldom. Of all the commentators I've read thus far in this posting, you are the only one to use the term "Climate Change." Let us remind our fellow classmates that it is no longer contrary to norms, nor against the law, to discuss the subject. For, in truth, "The cat is out of the bag."
Its the same for me regarding being around long enough to see the change. Yes! Hope and Vote and Planting and if you can.... singing with other people (works for me)! There are really alot of places to find strength for all of this. Strength and energy are needed to go forward! There are loads of people that share these feelings!
Wow!! This is the most carefuly and empationed post I,ve seen in a VERY long time. Thanks so much for your reminder of our stewardship responsibilty for this world.
Well done…I can only add how disconcerting the Trump anti-democracy policy is.
We The People need to rise up at the polls and take back our country!
Well, of the four of you, you are the only one I admire at all.You are the one who apparently really thinks about the effect of your actions on the people whom you are serving. Thank you for continuing to give your care and ideas to the American people.
We agree
it's interesting to read a little about your personal history and the coincidence of your birth with those who have done so much to help or to harm the nation. thank you for sharing.
While you, Prof. Reich, were obtaining an Ivy-league education, I, who was born in 1947, was at U.C. Berkeley getting an essentially free but nonetheless extraordinary undergraduate education. Berkeley was different back then. Many of my friends never left Berkeley and still live up in the hills. A much younger Noam Chomsky was there for a year and spoke to huge anti-war crowds in Sproul Plaza. He also taught linguistics and engineering courses. I was on the plaza when a helicopter flew low to spray tear gas on student protestors. I saw Eldridge Cleaver say to a student crowd as big as Chomsky’s, “The only reason you’re against the war is that you don’t want to get your hides blown off,” which stung because it was more true than we cared to admit. The Berkeley campus humor magazine, the Pelican (which I assume is long defunct?) wasn’t quite up to the level of the Harvard Lampoon, which during the 60’s and 70’s was staffed by real geniuses, but sometimes it came pretty close. One 1967 Pelican editorial-type cartoon stuck with me. It was just a drawing of a U.C. Berkeley diploma. No caption. The diplomas are signed by the President of the entire U.C. system (or at least were back then) and the Governor of California. The President’s signature was that of the highly regarded Clark Kerr, who was near the end of his tenure, written in an elegant hand. The Governor’s signature was not cursive, rather it was printed in the shaky block letters of a second-grader: Ronald Reagan. This is what your diploma will be worth, it said, quite loudly, even without a caption.
I just have to say that you, Bob Reich, are the cutest of the 4 toddlers. In fact I think that may be the cutest toddler photo I have ever seen.
We agree
I was born August 14, 1945, the day World War II ended. I’m an activist for democracy, one of many. I’m trying to do my share. I won’t claim I’m doing it brilliantly, of course.
But it’s very interesting that you, Robert, were born very, very close to the time three recent Presidents were born—Bush, Clinton and Trump. What a combination! I had no idea that you were all so close in age. I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around it.
Anyway, I’m very interested in what you have to say.
Little runt? You didn’t be o e President but did you grow in stature or Only in intellect. Keep on, and thanks for all you do.🤗
I was three years old. My father had put his dissertation aside and joined the fight against the Axis powers, where he was killed flying night recon missions over Germany. My mother had returned to college to do her Masters in Biology at Smith. My paternal grandmother, Smith '09, had come along to baby-sit. The world appeared promising, seen through the lens of the "Hundred Acre Wood" and the "Wind in the Willows." Then reality crept in on cat feet, and the cat was hungry.
So much opportunity after the war. But not the best years for many people of color. While serving their country should have been an equalizer, many returned to the same racism they left behind. Isabel Wilkerson tells those stories in “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” and “Caste” the system Black Americans left behind, helped fight in Europe and returned to after coming home. And still exists today.
I came across a black man in my travels, that stayed in Germany after the Vietnam war and never came home. He has never regretted a day of it. People treat people of any nationality and color like people there, and guns aren’t allowed. It’s always been a peaceful place for him to live. I wish I could say the same….
Thank you Minnie, Mildred & Ed! For the record, I’d be the first in line to vote Robert Reich for POTUS.
I can’t wait to hear more!
Thanks Robert, very enlightening.....I was born a few years later but further away in a Europe under reconstruction..... I think we as a prewar generation build up something very good and most of us benefitted greatly from it.......however, if i now see what we are leaving behind for our children and grand children, if feel far less proud.......I am now trying to figure out now where did we fail.......