The Good Old Days

Donald Kagan has an interesting piece in the Saturday September 27 issue of The Wall Street Journal which by chance landed on my doorstep instead of The New York Times .  It is always good to read Professor Kagan who is an ancient historian underneath the layers of positions he takes on current events. The point of view he expresses here is well known:  The United States in these perilous times must defend against its enemies; the invasion of Iraq was simple justice; those who try to analyze any possible reason for the hostility exposed on 9/11 are traitors to their country (he singles out the academics).  He argues that the founding fathers believed in an education that taught patriotism, love of country, as well as reading, writing, and arithmetic.  Contemporary universities are filled with professional nay sayers, professors who are quick to find fault with the system.  He talks of the philosophers Plato and Aristotle and their support for city-state democracy as opposed to the philosophers of the Enlightenment who privileged the rights of the individual as their reaction to the repressions of crown and church.  It's just not so simple as Kagan imagines.  Plato and Aristotle were scarcely household names, the general citizenry would have been unlikely to know their ideas; Pericles, who Kagan, advances as the great leader of the Athenian democracy, nonetheless presided over a society in which slavery was commonplace, and women were chattel, and foreigners were excluded.  A multi-ethnic society like ours would have been unthinkable.  But I hear a nostalgia in Kagan's words which I share.  I grew up in a small town in Iowa, of which we were all so proud.  We shopped at small stores on Main Street and were friends with all the owners, the bank president knew the people whom he passed on the street, my father, the surgeon, was not above going out to a farm and operating in an emergency on a body lying anesthetized on the kitchen table, afterwards saying to the family assembled "Pay me what you can."  Now we go out to shop at the mall, we have impersonal box stores (try to find a helpful clerk among the wage slaves listlessly moving product around) with rickety products made in China on their shelves, nothing repaired everything thrown away, it is so cheap.  Our automobile manufacture lies about their faulty products, our priests molest the choir boys, our banks are enormous remote entities, protected by the federal government in crisis who help them reap profits from people who have been foreclosed mercilessly without any protection from a government.  State and federal legislatures are entirely purchased for the profit motives of special interests.  Ah, the contemporary American profit motive! Plato and Pericles would not have understood the reckless pursuit of the bottom line, no, not for a moment!  We have just read in the newspapers of a doctor brought in unbeknownst to an anesthetized patient who was then sent a special bill of over $100,000. Kagan talks of the need for an education that will explore the themes of American democracy, but how can the average young person consider anything other than the barest bones "practical" education at the prices higher education is charging for their services?  I grew up loving this country in a very different time, but I can well understand the present day alienation.  Our media from left and right are mercilessly critical of our federal government, our daily news channels wallow in stories of babies left to die in closed cars or lunatics setting off guns or chopping off heads.  Seems like every figure in the legislature is for sale.  But, hey, guys, compare us with Athens.  There is no legal slavery here (even if Walmart tells its employees to get food stamps to supplement their meagre pay check), women have the vote and can own property and manage their affairs, and who knows how many of our fellow citizens were born elsewhere?.  At least Professor Kagan would have to agree that we have finally come to our senses and recognized as the ancient Athenians did that males lying on a couch in loving embrace is a fine expression of a truly democratic society.  Male love was considered the cornerstone of a strong military presence. Take that, Tea Party!