Patriotism in the Age of the Phony

[babylonsister]

Patriotism in the Age of the Phony
Heather Michon


It is so hard not to be a cynic.

How could it be otherwise? We live in the Age of the Phony.

What once used to be confined mostly to the entertainment industry has infested our national consciousness -- including, most dangerously, our political discourse.

Campaigns are little more sophisticated marketing campaigns. Our political parties feed us poll-tested candidates with poll-tested ideas. Our media focuses on drama and process rather than issues and results. The loudest and most radical voices on both sides of the political spectrum dominate the discussion without actually adding anything to it.

The rancorous voices are so loud that they are distracting us from the very real dangers that we face. There is a growing sense that we are at the end of the American Empire. As I've said before, I think rumors of our demise are a bit premature, but the signs of stress are everywhere.

Our failure, if it comes, isn't going to be because of geopolitical shifts. We've weathered those before. Our fate rests a lot closer to home. Somewhere along the road, we stopped thinking about ourselves as members of a grand democratic experiment, and so our democracy is dying.

"Everyone in the world knows that America is a miracle....except Americans, because we don't teach it," actor and activist Richard Dreyfuss said in a forum at the Miller Center for Public Affairs in Charlottesville, Virginia yesterday.

Over the last several years, Dreyfuss has become a leading voice for the teaching of civics in America, and has recently launched the non-profit Dreyfuss Initiative to promote and support a new civics curriculum for our nation's schools.

"We are a nation bound only by ideas," he says. There is no "American" gene that transmits these ideas through the generations. It's something that "has to be taught and taught and taught" or it can easily be lost. And since, for the most part, we don't teach it anymore "we are seeing now the crop we have sown."

more...

http://open.salon.com/blog/heather_michon/2009/11/17/patriotism_in_the_age_of_the_phony

[tularetom]

1. Good article - guess I'll have to change my opinion of Richard Dreyfuss

[daleanime]

2. Education...

is always the long term answer, but what can be done short term?

[havocmom]

3. Try to get more voices discussing basic civics in media

One of the best things KO has done is inject a bit of discussion on the Constitution by having guests who are well versed in that essential instrument.

We need more of that. Lots more.

[morgan2]

4. yawn

"The loudest and most radical voices on both sides of the political spectrum dominate the discussion without actually adding anything to it."

really? What radical left voices have any part of any political discussion? What even semi leftist positions are part of a discussion? The discussions are dominated by Corporate interests, and hate radio.

[architect359]

5. Kick and recommend, of course.

Good article - there is a dearth of civic knowledge that is rather frightening from my own point of view in my community - perhaps as others have indictated, in our society in general. Perhaps we take things for granted - thinking that the philosophies of our country is somehow imbued into our phyche when that is not the case.

Perhaps the short term answer is for everyone of us to engage directly with our immediate community (in however manner is appropriate) on the subject.

I agree that the long term (maybe it's more an intermediate) goal is education. We have to advoacte to our school boards / district supervisors / council people that civics is a fundemental element of the school program.

Well, that's what I plan to do anyway.