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Re: [Phys-l] An exception to the usual Bush appointee.



BC - I'm afraid that you have a fundamental misunderstanding of
conservative philosophy. Most conservatives would relish a return to the
"Great Books" approach to education as well as a serious immersion of
students into a study of Western culture. The purpose of amassing wealth
is to allow one's children to do all the things Dana glorifies in his
statements.

Bob at PC
(a libertarian tending to conservatism)

-----Original Message-----
From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu [mailto:phys-l-
bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf Of Bernard Cleyet
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 11:23 PM
To: PHYS-L Maillist; Sharing resources for high school physics
Subject: [Phys-l] An exception to the usual Bush appointee.


THE DISAPPEARING ARTS IN AMERICAN CULTURE

[Gioa (sic; Sam has transliterated the Sicilian *) is chair of the
National Endowment for the Arts]

DANA GIOA, STANFORD UNIVERSITY COMMENCEMENT - At heart I'm still a
working-class kid - half Italian, half Mexican - from L.A., or more
precisely from Hawthorne, a city that most of this audience knows only
as the setting of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown -
two films that capture the ineffable charm of my hometown. . .

My dad had a fairly hard life. He never spoke English until he went to
school. He barely survived a plane crash in World War II. He worked
hard, but never had much success, except with his family. . .

I know that there was a bit of controversy when my name was announced
as
the graduation speaker. A few students were especially concerned that
I
lacked celebrity status. It seemed I wasn't famous enough. . .

There is an experiment I'd love to conduct. I'd like to survey a
cross-section of Americans and ask them how many active NBA players,
Major League Baseball players, and American Idol finalists they can
name.

Then I'd ask them how many living American poets, playwrights,
painters,
sculptors, architects, classical musicians, conductors, and composers
they can name.

I'd even like to ask how many living American scientists or social
thinkers they can name.

Fifty years ago, I suspect that along with Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays,
and Sandy Koufax, most Americans could have named, at the very least,
Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Arthur Miller, Thornton Wilder, Georgia
O'Keeffe, Leonard Bernstein, Leontyne Price, and Frank Lloyd Wright.
Not
to mention scientists and thinkers like Linus Pauling, Jonas Salk,
Rachel Carson, Margaret Mead, and especially Dr. Alfred Kinsey.

I don't think that Americans were smarter then, but American culture
was. Even the mass media placed a greater emphasis on presenting a
broad
range of human achievement.

I grew up mostly among immigrants, many of whom never learned to speak
English. But at night watching TV variety programs like the Ed
Sullivan
Show or the Perry Como Music Hall, I saw - along with comedians,
popular
singers, and movie stars - classical musicians like Jascha Heifetz and
Arthur Rubinstein, opera singers like Robert Merrill and Anna Moffo,
and
jazz greats like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong captivate an
audience of millions with their art.

The same was even true of literature. I first encountered Robert
Frost,
John Steinbeck, Lillian Hellman, and James Baldwin on general interest
TV shows. All of these people were famous to the average American -
because the culture considered them important.

Today no working-class or immigrant kid would encounter that range of
arts and ideas in the popular culture. Almost everything in our
national
culture, even the news, has been reduced to entertainment, or
altogether
eliminated.

The loss of recognition for artists, thinkers, and scientists has
impoverished our culture in innumerable ways, but let me mention one.
When virtually all of a culture's celebrated figures are in sports or
entertainment, how few possible role models we offer the young. . .

I have a reccurring nightmare. I am in Rome visiting the Sistine
Chapel.
I look up at Michelangelo's incomparable fresco of the "Creation of
Man." I see God stretching out his arm to touch the reclining Adam's
finger. And then I notice in the other hand Adam is holding a Diet
Pepsi. . .

Entertainment promises us a predictable pleasure - humor, thrills,
emotional titillation, or even the odd delight of being vicariously
terrified. It exploits and manipulates who we are rather than
challenges
us with a vision of who we might become. A child who spends a month
mastering Halo or NBA Live on Xbox has not been awakened and
transformed
the way that child would be spending the time rehearsing a play or
learning to draw.

If you don't believe me, you should read the statistical studies that
are now coming out about American civic participation. Our country is
dividing into two distinct behavioral groups. One group spends most of
its free time sitting at home as passive consumers of electronic
entertainment. Even family communication is breaking down as members
increasingly spend their time alone, staring at their individual
screens.

The other group also uses and enjoys the new technology, but these
individuals balance it with a broader range of activities. They go out
-
to exercise, play sports, volunteer and do charity work at about three
times the level of the first group. By every measure they are vastly
more active and socially engaged than the first group.

What is the defining difference between passive and active citizens?
Curiously, it isn't income, geography, or even education. It depends
on
whether or not they read for pleasure and participate in the arts.
These
cultural activities seem to awaken a heightened sense of individual
awareness and social responsibility.


http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/june20/gradtrans-062007.html

bc thanks Sam Smith.

"There are so many other ways to lead a successful and meaningful life
that are not denominated by money or fame. Adult life begins in a
child's imagination, and we've relinquished that imagination to the
marketplace." [3]

<http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/june20/gradtrans-062007.html



* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Gioia


A Republican?

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