Just Above Sunset
August 15, 2004 - Eschew nuance, and odd words. Notes on what really matters...
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I cite the Guardian in the UK too much. Consider this - When the BBC quizzed Britons on the greatest battles in the nation's history, to accompany its Battlefield Britain series, it got some curious responses, particularly from the nation's youth. Less than half of 16-24 year olds knew that Sir Francis Drake defeated the Spanish Armada, with a fifth crediting Christopher Columbus, 13 percent C.S. Forester's fictional navy hero Horatio Hornblower, and 6 percent Gandalf, the wizard in J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" for the achievement. Some say that the findings are not surprising given that too little history is taught in schools, the BBC has scaled back its educational programming in favor of entertainment, and that the universities accept too many students, dumbing down exams accordingly. Others suggest that British intellectualism has always been overhyped. As Cambridge historian John Adamson told the Christian Science Monitor "in the broader culture, we have a certain disdain for clever-cleverness." Ah well, same on this side
of the pond. Thus Bush is preferred to Kerry, the overly clever one. Keep it simple. Eschew nuance, and odd words. … the more someone thought about Sept. 11 or their own mortality, the more prone they were
to support President Bush. "The strength (of the responses) was ridiculous," said Landau, who plans to vote for John Kerry.
"These effects were found regardless of a person's political orientation." This will be a “primal”
campaign, or so it would seem. Voters make practical decisions in times of trouble by voting for the charismatic bobble-head in much the same way that a non-swimmer who is drowning, on spotting his rescuer approaching across the water, makes the practical decision to climb on top of him; often as not in such cases, they both die. And people will believe what they need to believe. I guess we need myths. |
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Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 - Alan M. Pavlik
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This issue updated and published on...
Tuesday February 14, 2006 07:11AM Paris readers add nine hours....
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