The Great War

Ferro, Marc. The Great War, 1914-1918. (1987). Routledge & Kegan Paul.

The war had come as a revelation, a detonator that blew up one element of the old system of authority. Before the signature of peace treaties-which themselves contained the seeds of a new war-the Great War was already pregnant with the civil conflict which, to this day, divides society. (213)

Ferro explains why the war of 1914-1918 was unique in human history. He shows how a set of separate but connected conflicts-from the mud of Flanders to the empty plains of Russia, a war fought under the ocean in submarines, as well as in the steamy heat of East Africa-formed a new style of war. He shows a conflict which engulfed the whole world, directly or indirectly. Ferro reveals how statesmen unwittingly loosed uncontrollable social forces, like nationalism and religious hatred, onto the world in an effort to win.

I consider this the best short work on World War I. It is a great introduction to a great conflict. Ferro's thesis still holds true today. Many of the conflicts in this world can be traced back to the bullet that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Opening Day

Thomas Boswell was right, time begins on Opening Day. Opening Day should be a national holiday. When every baseball fan still can reasonably cherish the hope of going to the World Series. The day, at the end of which, half the teams are in first place, the other half are in last. What defines a successful season, beyond winning more games than you lost? I would posit the argument that it depends on which team you are discussing. The Yankees, the Phillies, and the Red Sox will not consider it a success unless they win the World Series. The Twins will consider it a success if they win the American League Central. The Royals and the Pirates would consider 82 wins a successful season. Where do the Texas Rangers stand in all this? I believe winning the Series would constitute exceptional success. If they win the American League West, that will be success. Now, the people who are paid money to discuss these things are saying the Rangers should win it all. They say this for a very cynical reason. The odds are the Rangers will not win it all, and the writers can then criticize the team to their heart's content. You should have kept Cliff Lee. Losing Chuck Greenberg was critical. Should have traded Michael Young. The general manager is inept, and so on. Sports reporters in the Dallas area think of themselves as critics and live to denigrate any professional effort. I believe this attitude developed in the 1960s, and it had to do with the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys from the late 60s to the early 80s were a team that defined success by winning the Super Bowl. There are few teams, college or professional, in any sport or any era that can say this realistically. I have already mentioned the teams in baseball. In football, it is probably New England, and, maybe Pittsburgh. The Lakers, Heat, and Celtics wear this distinction in basketball, as do the Red Wings in hockey. In college football, Alabama, Notre Dame, Florida, and Oklahoma. Others have different measures of success. Ohio State is content with winning the Big Ten. Maryland with going to a bowl game. Different expectations, different teams, different realities.

The College and the Republic

Unrestrained freedom is anarchy. Restrained only by force and arms, is despotism; self-restrained is Republicanism. Wherever there is wanting the intelligence and virtue requisite for the latter, Republicanism expires. The complicated machinery of free institutions must have an adequate regulator; and that is to be found in our enlightened public conscience. This our Educational institutions- teaching as well the laws of social morality as of physical science- are omnipotent in forming. -Edmund B. Fairfield. "The College and the Republic." Speech given July 4, 1853. Reprinted in Arnn. Liberty and Learning.

Another View on the Continuing Crisis

We should recognize that this habit of calling upon the state, to take charge of matters that were once the concern of individual initiative and private charity, is the surest sign that the inner liberty shown in responsible choice is disappearing from our society. Its disappearance is both the cause of liberal policies and the natural effect of them. People are less and less inclined to take responsibility for their lives. to commit themselves to others, or to social networks...what they can summon the state to solve instead....The state comes with an agenda: it is less interested in freeing people than in equalizing them. -Roger Scruton. Liberty and Civilization: The Western Heritage. (pp. 159-160) So-called "Social Conservatives" would do well to read this and consider its ramifications. Quite often they are just as guilty as progressives of the idea that all you need to correct a problem is to pass a law. But passing a law alone will not change peoples hearts and minds. If their is a "Values Revolution" it must occur in the heart before it can truly take effect.

The Northwest Ordinance

Article 3. Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians, their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and, in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress, but laws founded in justice and humanity shall from time to time be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them.

Must See Movie

See The Adjustment Bureau. It is by far the most thought provoking movie in years. One may not agree with all the theological aspects but it will make you think.

To Know Politics Study "Yes Prime Minister"

Does this sound like Libya today?

The standard Foreign Office response to any crisis:
Stage One
We say that nothing is going to happen.
Stage Two
We say that sometning may be going to happen, but we should do nothing about it.
Stage Three
We say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do.
Stage Four
We say that maybe there was something we could have done but it's too late now.

Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay. The Complete Yes Prime Minister. A Victory for Democracy (177)

There's a Sketch in This

I walked in to my neighborhood 7-11 this evening and the clerk on duty knows me so well, he has what I want before I get to the counter. I wonder what would happen if I just wanted to buy a lottery ticket. Anyway, he asked me to explain the meaning of collective bargaining which I did. All I can envision is me riding into the night, and someone saying "Who was that man?", and someone else replying, "That was the Lone History Teacher!" It would be something in the vein of Monty Python.

A Liberal Arts Education: Why Bother?

Liberal education is the kind that deals not so much with means as with ends, not so much with the how of things as the why. In one sense this is irrelevant to the everyday pressures of life and especially the hard job of making a living. The doctor must know the body and its workings: does he need to know its purposes? The accountant must know the ways of financial transactions and how to keep track of them; does he need to know the purpose of business, or the best uses of the profits that it generates? The general needs to know how to assemble supply, transport, and deploy his troops so as to defeat the enemy; does he need to know if the cause of his country is superior to the cause of the enemy? Are these people in fact experts in the ultimate questions that are inherent in their activities, and would they be better at these activities if they were?
The answer to this question...is yes. Every self-governing person-every mother and father, every manager of a task or of other people-will find himself involved during his life with important decisions that reach up to the ultimate. Each must account to his Maker. Each must raise his children and answer these questions. Each must choose his field of labor and decide how honestly, diligently, and fairly he will pursue it. Each will face occasions when his own immediate interest conflicts with that of another, and each must decide then how to pursue it or when to surrender that interest. The ability to do so is the product of a liberal, as opposed to simply technical education.
-Larry P. Arnn. Liberty and Learning: The Evolution of American Education. (22-23)

Irony, Definition of

People who hover for a close in parking spot at the gym.

I Wish I Had Written That!

Credit means credibility or believability, as measured by that most accurate of gauges, people's willingness to entrust their money to the hands of others. In the early days of the Revolution, when patriotic enthusiasm was sufficient to sustain the cause, Congress had had credit in abundance. But the supply of public credit based on goodwill was soon exhausted: ordinary Americans and their duly elected representatives, it turned out, loved liberty so dearly that they were willing to pay for it with anybody's dollars but their own.--Forrest McDonald. Alexander Hamilton. (p. 143)

Texas Independence Day

Today is Texas Independence Day. Surprised? It has gone by with hardly a mention. This is the 175th anniversary of that event. Twenty-five years ago, the sesquicentennial was so pervasive, Texaco gave away glasses commemorating the event. And, of course, at the centennial seventy-five years ago, it was a major party with national and international recognition. Will it be any different twenty-five years from now? Not if one judges by recent anniversaries. The bicentennial of Lincoln's birth saw hardly a mention. Same for the Reagan centennial last month. I believe the turning point came some time between 1987 and 1992, when the country went from the schmaltzy Constitution bicentennial to the semi millennium day of mourning over Columbus. Fear not!, O anniversary deprived, I am sure Charleston, South Carolina has something cooked up for April 12th.

Liberal Arts

In educational matters, as any old hand at curricular debate can attest, the best is frequently made an enemy of the good. And, all too often, it is an ideal and theoretical "best" held up to expose the shabbiness and shortcomings of a known and practical "good." Today as we struggle with the gritty and intractable realities of our own era, we are once again bludgeoned by fashionable memories of an idealized and romanticized past. Let us be sure it is not a past that never truly was. Let us be sure, too, that what is being measured against it is a present that really is.
-Francis Oakley. Community of Learning: The American College and the Liberal Arts Tradition. (72)