Bill Moyers on Political Rhetoric Gone Wild
In the last post on Palin’s interview with Gibson, Bob Nunz pointed us to this episode of Bill Moyers’ Journal. I was originally just going to respond in the comments, but I thought the piece was worthy of its own post. Here’s the video:
Moyers reminded me that in these charged political times, it is important to make sure our rhetoric remains civil. Especially in the impersonality of cyberspace, it can often be easy to get carried away and wind up belittling and even dehumanizing those who disagree with us. (I know I am guilty of it at times.) I found the “fable” with which Moyers closed the segment particularly poignent. It is often easy to assume that those who listen to hate rhetoric and act upon it with violence are crazy, but Moyers reminds us that there are two wolves in all of us, the good and the bad, and the one who wins is the one who gets fed.
This piece also reminded me of the documentary Jesus Camp, which shows how a certain version of Christianity is being used as a vehicle for a certain kind of political indoctrination. The results are equally scary in that it breeds a similar us-versus-them mentality that is so corrosive to our civil discourse. Yet, I also felt similarly sympathetic toward those in the movie, as there is a power in being handed such a black and white view of the world.
Thanks to Bob for pointing out the Moyers piece, and I’d love to hear thoughts on it as well as reactions from anyone who’s seen Jesus Camp.
Eric–These are excellent pieces to post as suggested by Bob Nunz. We have a two party system and without it we would end up with a dictatorship. It’s really up to society to nurture that system and respect it. Those in power media positions forget the extreme influence they have in talking to the public. Words have great meaning and the misuse of them is what brings on violence and wars. Bringing this to our attention is also an encouragement to betterment through education and especially our public education system whech teaches us to refine our words enough to make them “public”!
I still cannot figure out Glen Beck on this one. He seems reasonalbe otherwise. So I am confused. The other people like, Hannity, O’reilly, Limbaugh are the among the grossest people who saw the money and elected savagery..Savage seems to border on criminal behavior. Sad. So sad.
Denise – The reference to specifically “public” education is apt. The Jesus Camp movie shows that many of the children brought up in these extremely conservative evangelical communities are either homeschooled or attend private sectarian schools. Thus, they are not being challenged by plurality and are not being socialized to make their arguments in a properly public forum. It’s such a tragedy!
Eric, how is Jesus Camp different from Tom Monaghan’s Ave Maria experimental community?
Are kids challenged by plurality in Catholic schools and socialized to make their arguments in a properly public forum?
We admittedly had an abysmal experience with my son’s Catholic school, which existed largely to support the ethnic enclave that founded it back in the 1950s. But I don’t want to make an across-the-board indictment based on that fiasco.
To what extent do Catholic schools equip their children with a good moral compass that helps them function productively in secular society? To what extent do Catholic schools simply perpetuate notions that secular society–and those raised in it–are essentially sinful and to be avoided?
No doubt, political rhetoric has gone wild.
Jean – I also hesitate to make any across-the-board judgments. Clearly, one can have parochial schools that are open to pluralistic dialogue and actually take as their mission the simultaneous development of faith-identity in conversation with the larger civil discourse. When this happens I think students can get the best of both worlds. Of course, it all depends on the the ethos of the school. In Jesus Camp, it is clear that the intentions of the parents who homeschool their children are to protect them from the bad secular world and equip them with weapons to fight in that world. It is a very confrontational understanding of the stance of faith in the world, and as a matter of fact, the whole theological worldview described in the film is extremely militaristic. While the documentary focuses on evangelical protestantism, Catholicism is certianly not immune from the same “fear of the other” that can drive any religious group toward insularity in the education of their children. For this reason, I would be wary of any attempts to create communities that are overly homogeneous (i.e. the Ave Maria community). For instance, many Catholic schools admit non-Catholic students. These schools often stress that religious faith forms the context for learning not the specific content of what is learned. In the best parochial schools, students benefit from joining a tradition of learning that encourages a richer and more open engagement with the world around them rather than a retreat from that world. I think it has a lot to do with the intellectual confidence (see Cathy Kaveny’s comment on the first Palin/Gibson post) and spiritual confidence (which I think follows the same dynamic Cathy described in relation to intellect) of those running the school.
All that said, I am a product of public grade school and a secular university and feel that being exposed to a plurality of views helped my faith intellectually and spiritually. So, whether one chooses to (and can afford to) send their child to a parochial school or to homeschool, it should be in the spirit of commeraderie with public education and not in the spirit of competition. With 90% of children in first through twelfth grade attending public schools (http://factfinder.census.gov/jsp/saff/SAFFInfo.jsp?_pageId=tp5_education), our public education system is truly the training ground for our civil discourse and democratic ideals, and for that reason, it should be valued and not denegrated by those who seek alternative forms of education. Thus, even those who opt out of the system should work for its improvement.
Eric, I appreciate your thoughts.
Catholic schools–like the public ones–are a mixed bag. The ones in the nearest big city have a great reputation for service and community outreach. The student populations are diverse–and up to 50 percent of the students are not Catholic. They also do projects with some of the local public schoolers.
It’s hard for kids in that environment not to develop tolerance and to learn charity and service in a safe environment.
It strikes me that a Catholic school could be a place that fights political rhetoric gone wild, and that that would be a useful thing for Catholic schools to examine, promote within their schools, and to use in recruitment (some do, actually).
Jean, agree with your comments. If you have kids who have experienced Jesuit run high schools, then you usually see the stress put on diversity (25% or more minorities and non-Catholic), the requirement for a broad community involvement inherent in both service projects and class papers, the english and debate requirements that broaden and require students to learn how to express ideas and arguments that are not merely parochial, local, or even Catholic. In fact, Jesuit universities and high school administrations often run into local bishop issues because they do not reflect the hierarchical myopia.
Jean and Bill – The schools you mention sound like the “blend of both worlds” that I was speaking of before. As you say, Jean, its always a mixed bag with any school system, private or public. In many ways I can see one strength of a theological education being its ability to transcend some of the liberal/conservative political divides, but that is if it is not coopted by one or another ideology. Of course transcending ideology, itself, is a bit of a myth, and public schools, depending on the region of the country, can be just as homogenious and biased. In the end, I think diversity in teaching and learning is key. If people can find it in private schools, and can afford to go, good on them. I do hope, however, that we don’t forget the other 90%, and, regardless of alma mater, work to bring the best financial and intellectual resources into our public schools. I know too many who send their children to private schools and then vote down school tax levies thinking, “Why should I support public education when I’m already paying for my child to go to the private school.” Now, I think I’m on to a separate issue, however. If the question is: Can Catholic schools prepare students to be good citizens in a pluralistic democracy? Absolutely. Can they fall pray to sectarianism and isolationism? Yes. On the whole, though, most Catholic schools are able to steer closer to the former than the latter.