In a nutshell, it’s because history nothing
to do with them, at least, in the way it’s currently written. If you believe history should only be scientific
and legal, then I believe it’s a waste of time to read current history and that’s what
millions of American students believe. It’s really a boycott or non-compliance or
even a passive resistance to required education courses. What keeps the terrible history teachers on
the job is a puzzle. Perhaps it’s
convention and tradition locked in tandem in the closed society of
academia. Money from unsuspecting
parents just keeps pouring in. It’s no
wonder they feel cornered; “That’s just the way it is.” The kids feel the same way, but history as a
required subject is a losing proposition.
Who gets the last laugh on the tenured professors?
Consumers want histories that are
alive and relevant, not the histories of scientific materialism and legal
argument. They are tired of beans and
barrels of oil history with its legions of Marxist interpreters. People look for content and meaning because
life has its meaning in the lesser mentioned phenomena like motive, context,
passion, and spirit. It’s insufficient
to say those ingredients are the only considerations. Scholarship plays an important role, but the
professors who actually teach and write history should also have a due respect
for the other dimensions of humanity, especially, the spiritual side. History is not a science laboratory or court
room.
Properly taught history open’s the Christina’s World of the individual and
subjects him to what we used to call a liberal education – seeing all sides of
the story and confronting the individual with those who have gone on
before. That reality which Thomas
Carlyle says is the first reality means intrigue, murder, terror, conspiracy,
real people and their weaknesses, real motives, and blood and guts. It does not mean atomization where reason,
timeline, and motive are displaced with unrelated and incomprehensible events that
float around like dust in a wind storm.
Most people except cloistered
scholars, politicians, and media types are familiar with the human side of
life because they live it. They know
what office politics and intrigues are and it’s not a leap of faith for them to
eventually recon their observations and primal instincts with histories they
can understand and respect. It is
possible to know why wars are fought, why successional murders occurred, why
our country has deteriorated, and who or what is to blame. Those intellectual sappers who dominant the
institutions and airways do not fully understand that most people rely on the
old saying, “If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck.” If history is to be revived and not reviled,
it should be relevant, written with common sense, and above all, be personal.
