Month of New Subjects - The First Day

The thing about a biography is that it tells a story. Stories are hopefully engaging, rather easy to follow, and if it is a true story, hopefully provides you with facts--leaving you with more information than you started with. Thus, at the end of day one (yesterday), Andy knew a little more about George Washington than he did at the beginning of the day.

My day one involved reading the following essays/excerpts:
"The American Pattern"
"The Ten Commandments"
"The Sermon on the Mount"
"The Code of Hammurabi"
Selections from The Koran
"On Government" by Confucius
"On Co-operation" by Lao Tse
"Philosophers as Kings and Kings as Philosophers" by Plato
"On Property" by Aristotle

Which will, I'm sure, explain why there was no post last night--my poor overloaded brain needed a break involving a glass of wine and some knitting--probably in that order.

What I am left with after my first day of sociology is not answers, but questions and maybe a few observations:

* Americans comparatively little social identity, very few customs, very little mythology of our own, and very few holidays of our own. Sure, we have Thanksgiving which we have linked to overeating, watching football, and kicking off the Christmas shopping season. We also have the Fourth of July, which in Boise has come to mean "stay home and hose down your house because we live in a desert and at least one idiotic neighbor has acquired a small arsenal of illegal fireworks which he deems his patriotic duty to shoot off in all directions until the wee hours of the morning, or until he catches someone else's house on fire." Just brings a tear to one's eye.

* Not only are we light-years away from Plato's Philosopher King ideal, if our current president has even heard of Philosopher Kings, he probably believes them to be characters in a Harry Potter book.

* I thought Aristotle made one of the most realistic arguments for private property that I've ever heard: people quarrel less when they own separate property than when it is communal property. That's probably quite true.

* Americans place little to no value on learning for the sake of learning--it is a means to an end. Look at our current mania about teaching math & science--it's for the sake of higher paying jobs. Maybe if we emphasized history and economics we might not be having the financial troubles that we are having. George Santayana told us, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

I found this a rather interesting passage. Remember, this book was published in 1937, so presumably was written in 1935-1937, so very much during the Great Depression:

In economics and politics on the other hand, [Americans] have evolved nothing--at least nothing of any consequence. We are still, in those realms, a shapeless, haphazard nation....The party which promises "a chicken in every pot" is the party that wins...If the party before didn't produce the chicken, the other party might--in that way America, however crudely and stumblingly and wrong-headedly, gives life to logic. Politically and economically speaking it has no other logic.

If our economy is bad, we vote for the opposite party. If the economy is good, we keep the current party in power. Now, as much as I dislike Georgie Junior--and believe me, I have felt little but contempt and disgust for him since he was "elected"--did he in any way cause Americans to achieve a negative 0.5% savings rate by 2005? Did he ever say, "Darn, the American public is just too good at saving that 10-20% down payment for a house--let's make up some really stupid loan programs that I'm sure the American people will really want?" Did he ever say, "Live within your means? Bah! Sissy stuff! No matter what those economists say, nobody needs 6-12 months of living expenses set aside 'just in case!' Speculate in real estate with money you can't afford to lose! Max out those credit cards! That's what we need in this country!" I do believe people should be furious with "President" George for many, many issues, but I don't believe this one is technically his doing.

Tonight I move on to St. Augustine, Vico, and Machiavelli. Good lord, I'm going to be fun at our next dinner party!