Just kidding, I am going to continue bitching until my eyes fall out. I don't expect that to actually happen until well after my death, so I'll get on with my point.
I went to London, England and Reykjavik, Iceland over the last week and a half. I was rather disappointed with the whole trip, since I went as part of a Law Enforcement class and we learned jack about law enforcement. Beside that little fact, I enjoyed the trip. London is full of interesting history, and I got to see a lot of it. I stood in the place where thousands of bloodthirsty Brits watched such men as William Wallace and Sir Walter Raleigh put to death. I saw the very place where Anne Bolyn prayed before her decapitation. I stood where Guy Fawkes placed the explosives that were meant to kill all of Parliament (It's a hotel now). I walked the streets where Jack the Ripper killed 5 prostitutes. I ate in Eric Claptons favorite London restaraunt (The Hard Rock Cafe).
My point is, I appreciated the history of the city. No one else on the trip did. These so called college students, the people who are supposed to be learning the most, didn't care. They spent more time getting drunk and trying to get laid than learning. I actually heard one of the girls on the trip complain that our tour of the Tower of London, the place where some of the most notorious leaders of England lived, was boring because "It happened a long time ago. Leave the past in the past."
This attitude is the reason Hitler lost WWII. Now, I will admit that that is probably for the best, but most of us aren't genocidal maniacs. History is the only way to learn who we are as a people. If we ignore the past, what is the point. We already have repeated the same mistakes over and over, but at some point we need to look and say, "Hey. They tried this before, and it didn't work. Let's try something new." The Israeli-Palestinian peace talks will continue to be futile until they realize that they need to try an entirly new approach. Knowing history lets us learn from the mistakes of others and know what will not work. Every invention comes from something else. If we didn't have records of people who tried something and failed, we would have to make the same failure again before trying something new. We learn from the mistakes of the past so that we can succeed where they failed.
I know it is a bit much to expect teenagaers able to drink legally for the first time to care about anything even remotely academic, but I am so sick of the lack of willingness to learn in this country. Even if you hate history, the least you can do is follow current events. Our legislature is about to confirm one of the worst nominees for Attourney General ever. Few people care. Few people even know what the Attourney General does. It was ignorance that elected G.W. Bush, and ignorance will continue to ruin our country until the few people left who are willing to learn anything step forward and say "no more." They will be promptly shot by the ravaging mobs, who will be searching for Limp Bizcuit and Nelly CDs, and then all society will crumble. Someone will start pushing the code buttons to our nuclear weapons, trying to find a new sound to sample, and we will all rave to the sounds of warning sirens as fire rains from the sky, and roaches will gnaw on our irradiated flesh. It will all be over.
OK, probably not, but it makes for a chilling view of the future, doesn't it?
In closing (sigh of relief from you, dear reader), try watching CNN and the Discovery channel for an hour or so. Learn something about the past, and the present. If you do, you will be able to make a difference. And if you wait a little longer to speak up, you will be the smartest person alive, and will rule a vast empire. Just don't invade Russia in the winter.
I'm Ken Feucht, and I am frightened for our future.