Posted on 11/23/2013 6:04:44 AM PST by Sherman Logan
While facts, figures and numbers can be taught by other means, only stories can make a person want to change his behavior.
And for 5 decades we have allowed the stories told in our society to be produced almost exclusively by those who hate the traditional values of America. That it has taken so long for them to have their effect just shows how powerful those values were, and probably how easily they could have been defended had a sustained effort to do so been mounted.
I was certainly influenced by the “juvenile” novels of science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein.
That’s a great essay.
Not to mention the stories “told on TV” and at the movies 24/7 — tales of depravity, violence, etc.
bkmk
‘It takes an idiot to raze a village.’
Barack Husain Obama Hmmm Hmmmm Hmmmm
I wish the author had added a Top Ten list. I hope readers of this thread would add their favorites.
Those were the stories to which I was primarily referring.
Which brings up an interesting point...is children's literature even relevant for the vast majority of kids today? How many children read novels for pleasure these days?
10%? Less?
When children read books, they can understand things and learn complex concepts. Morality and virtue would be good example. But, if children only watch TV, they seem to mostly grasp the concept that "the bad guy dresses in black, has a scary soundtrack, and is mean to the pretty lady". Recognizing such simple hallmarks does not well prepare children for a world in which the bad guys hide their badness.
Liberals who live their lives based on knee-jerk emotional responses seem to be the products of TV.
Conservatives who appreciate the importance and basis for morality seem to be the products of reading.
And as the world reads less, we seem to have an increasing supply of Liberals.
When I went to the American consulate to regularize my passports, I was capable of expecting the American consulate to be American...The officials I interviewed were very American, especially in being very polite; for whatever may have been the mood or meaning of Martin Chuzzlewit, I have always found Americans by far the politest people in the world. They put in my hands a form to be filled up, to all appearances like other forms I had filled up in other passport offices. But in reality it was very different from any form I had ever filled up in my life. At least it was a little like a freer form of the game called "Confessions" which my friends and I invented in our youth...
One of the questions on the paper was, "Are you an anarchist?" To which a detached philosopher would naturally feel inclined to answer, "What the devil has that to do with you? Are you an atheist" along with some playful efforts to cross-examine the official about what constitutes atheist. Then there was the question, "Are you in favor of subverting the government of the United States by force?" Against this I should write, "I prefer to answer that question at the end of my tour and not the beginning." The inquisitor, in his more than morbid curiosity, had then written down, "Are you a polygamist?" The answer to this is, "No such luck" or "Not such a fool," according to our experience of the other sex. But perhaps a better answer would be that given to W. T. Stead when he circulated the rhetorical question, "Shall I slay my brother Boer"--the answer that ran, "Never interfere in family matters." But among many things that amused me almost to the point of treating the form thus disrespectfully, the most amusing was the thought of the ruthless outlaw who should feel compelled to treat it respectfully. I like to think of the foreign desperado, seeking to slip into America with official papers under official protection, and sitting down to write with a beautiful gravity, "I am an anarchist. I hate you all and wish to destroy you." Or, "I intend to subvert by force the government of the United States as soon as possible, sticking the long sheath-knife in my left trouser-pocket into your President at the earliest opportunity." Or again, "Yes, I am a polygamist all right, and my forty-seven wives are accompanying me on the voyage disguised as secretaries." There seems to be a certain simplicity of mind about these answers; and it is reassuring to know that anarchists and polygamists are so pure and good that the police have only to ask them questions and they are certain to tell no lies."
The layers of social constructs, bad influences, personal prejudice, and just plain stubbornness make it difficult to teach general concepts like honor, duty, loyalty, piety etc. in a bald factual way. Lewis thought of all those frustrating influences as dragons by the wayside.
"Fairy stories" or fantasy or adventure stories of the best kind (I'm thinking "Treasure Island") smuggle those concepts "past the watchful dragons."
Of course Lewis' Narnia books and (for older kids) "The Great Divorce" and "Til We Have Faces" and the Space Trilogy. George MacDonald's wonderful fairy stories. Robert Lewis Stevenson's adventure stories ("Kidnapped" and "David Balfour" are two more - the latter has a great deal to say about maintaining ones honor in the face of evil politics). And I'll put in a plug for the mildly off-center (but always beautiful) worlds of Lafcadio Hearn and Donn Byrne.
Thanks for posting.
Similar to the people who want loyalty oaths and compulsory pledges of allegiance.
No true enemy of the US would scruple to take either, so what is the point of enforcing them? All they can do is entrap those with genuine conscientious objections, the vast majority of whom are no threat to the rest of us.
The relevant stories of today are those on TV and in the movies.
And they are for the most part teaching exactly the wrong things.
Songs and music also tell stories in this sense, BTW.
I forgot Howard Pyle - great books, especially “Otto of the Silver Hand”, his “Robin Hood” and “Pepper and Salt”.
My personal vote goes for Tolkien. No overt preaching like Lewis, but IMO much more effective for that very reason.
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