David McCullough: Well sad to say we are raising and have been raising for about 25 years one generation after another of young Americans who are by and large historically illiterate. Now it isn’t their faults we can’t blame young people in high school or college for not knowing what they haven't been taught. It’s the fault of their parents follow lot of us, teachers-parents and the culture. History is of the utmost importance, I think its probably more important than any other one single subject because its about the human experience, its about life and consequences of ones actions and its about the role of personality of character in events passed, and we can learn from it, we can learn infinite number of lessons from history and we can also take strength from it, we could be guided by in our own performance, in our own contributions, by the examples of those who went before us and the founders alas have been rather forgotten in part I think because they appear in no photographs. We have no photographs of them, we have no film clips of them, we have no recordings of their voices, we have no television out takes. All we had is what they wrote and some paintings and a last two the close they were make them seem like characters in the costume pageant which they want, and they were not they weren’t walking around seeing themselves as living in the past, that Jefferson Adams they didn’t say isn’t this fascinating looming the past, we picture asking her we had close they are living in the present and they had no more idea of how was going to turn out than we do, and they were extraordinary people, brilliant people and how it happened nobody could explain it completely, that a small population, we are only 2 million 500 thousand people. Philadelphia in 1776 the largest city in the country had only 30,000 people, now that would be a little town of no consequence to us, but out of that small population came these talented, brilliant, committed people who were willing as they said to put their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor on the line, if you signed the declaration of independence of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin you are putting your head in the nudes, because you are saying I am a traitor and if they have been caught, they would have been hanged, and they were doing it for the future of the country. They were not doing it for themselves to get richer and to be powerful. They were doing it because they believed to the marrow of their bones in what they call the glorious cause of the America and we cannot know enough about them, we cannot know enough about what happened and what cost and what suffering, we cannot know about the injustices that had to be cured in this scholar of life, that had to be eliminated if possible. The contradictions, the hypocrisies, all men are created equal written by a man who owned slaves, who held men, women and children in bondage. So it wasn’t just they where imperfect, but what they had created was imperfect and they knew it, what they were doing for us was to create a plan, an adjective a start and steer by that we must strive for each generation successively to live up to the idea and that’s our strength, it would all been handled to us in perfect order, perfect running machine, it doesn’t need any attention, it’s all oil run in perpetuity, sit back and enjoyed everybody we wouldn’t be there in the country we are where the country we are because each of us has to take the torch and try and carry us a little bit closer to the ideal.
Recorded on: 3/3/08
Discuss
Matthew Heusser on July 9, 2008, 5:30 AM
There's a race to the bottom common denominator going on in popular culture – just watch prime time NBC on a weeknight to experience it. The closest thing I can equate it to is the story in "Brave New World."
I don't think it is on purpose, it's just part of the human condition. It's easy and addicting – like High Fructose Corn Syrup. The Media giants are just doing what is easy to increase profits next quarter. The next effect, however, is scary.
Our response? We homeschool.
Matthew Heusser on July 9, 2008, 9:30 AM
There’s a race to the bottom common denominator going on in popular culture – just watch prime time NBC on a weeknight to experience it. The closest thing I can equate it to is the story in “Brave New World.”
I don’t think it is on purpose, it’s just part of the human condition. It’s easy and addicting – like High Fructose Corn Syrup. The Media giants are just doing what is easy to increase profits next quarter. The next effect, however, is scary.
Our response? We homeschool.
Rachele Antenucci on July 15, 2008, 1:17 PM
I live in Northern California where 9 months ago, the government rezoned properties for fake environmental reasons with no scientific research done. Then they outlawed anyone posting a for sale sign on their property. Now they want to commit eminent domain and name their own price which is 10% of the "fair market value." Then they turn around and sell the land to developers for much, much more than what they stole it for. They are doing this to mow down Victorian farmhouses in rural areas to build junky track homes and strip malls with absolutely no architectural merit. I do not believe our founding father's would have backed this type of grand theft, financial and child abuse (as families are left homeless with the balance of their mortgage and rent to pay elsewhere), government racketeering so a few filthy stinking rich spitting cobras can make millions on grand theft of private property. I beieve our founding fathers would tell them "Get away from me you workers of lawlessness!!!"
Rachele Antenucci on July 15, 2008, 5:17 PM
I live in Northern California where 9 months ago, the government rezoned properties for fake environmental reasons with no scientific research done. Then they outlawed anyone posting a for sale sign on their property. Now they want to commit eminent domain and name their own price which is 10% of the “fair market value.” Then they turn around and sell the land to developers for much, much more than what they stole it for. They are doing this to mow down Victorian farmhouses in rural areas to build junky track homes and strip malls with absolutely no architectural merit. I do not believe our founding father’s would have backed this type of grand theft, financial and child abuse (as families are left homeless with the balance of their mortgage and rent to pay elsewhere), government racketeering so a few filthy stinking rich spitting cobras can make millions on grand theft of private property. I beieve our founding fathers would tell them “Get away from me you workers of lawlessness!!!”
Rebecca Scully on July 27, 2008, 7:58 PM
The transcript of this video is appalling. Noose = nude
Alas the clothes they wore = "a last two the close they were"
Squalor = scholar
Big Think needs better spellers and someone whose first language is English.
Rebecca Scully on July 27, 2008, 11:58 PM
The transcript of this video is appalling. Noose = nude
Alas the clothes they wore = “a last two the close they were”
Squalor = scholar
Big Think needs better spellers and someone whose first language is English.
Frank Rush on September 14, 2008, 11:35 PM
I agree with the premise stated as to how important it is to understand the courage, initiative and intelligence of these guys, and how lucky we are that they laid down a well though out plan that was accepted as a guide for getting this country running.
I felt that it was so meaningful that I just finished figuring how to send the video by email to my grandson who is just starting American History in high school.
There is an extra dimension to a video like this that does not come across if we just read a copy of the text. The tone and attitude of the historian expressing these ideas comes across in addition to the text and adds to the message his conviction about how important the matter is without making one feel lectured to.
shawn disney on March 12, 2009, 11:26 PM
It’s fair to say they mostly don’t understand. Even the highly “educated” and diploma-ed, make the most absurd interpretations of our Founding Documents: the best example would be the Bill of Rights, especially the 2nd Amendment: for the last couple of generations, the take on that was about the same as that of Hitler, or George III would be. Even the Supreme Court, while they did reaffirm it, didn’t seem to really understand that the “militia” was identical to the “man in the street”; the common wisdom is that it’s like the National Guard ,
which is fundamentally wrong. disigny
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