First, I'm a Phi Theta Kappa advisor, and we have a series of seminars on this year's honors study topic: Power. The full title is "Gold, Gods, and Glory: the study of global power" or something like that. I'm too busy to look it up.
MY take on things is changing. I'm like someone who's risen from kryo and I'm just now starting to "get it." Somehow, in my artful course dodging and slacking in school, I've managed to not pay attention to some very important stuff. Seems like the more I pay attention now, the more shocked I am at my ignorance.
This weekend, for example, I toured a nice little museum at Fort Leavenworth, featuring a historical perspective of that fort in the westward expansion. Within the exhibit, a display was offered, titled "Beyond Lewis and Clark."
At virtually every station of every exhibit, I remarked to my brother, "Hmmm, I didn't know that!" Of course, if I don't write it down immediately, I tend to forget again, for my brain has not been wired for detail and history. I do recall some of the bigger surprises, however. I won't share most, for these revelations make me seem really, really stupid. Here's just one to give you a flavor of my lack of historical enlightenment: I thought Lewis and Clark just went on the road alone together. I did not realize they had 46 in their expedition, that they were armed, that it was a very diverse group, etc. *blushing at my ignorance*
In addition to everything else I'm supposedly working on for myself, I think I may need to investigate taking a history course every now and again, now that I'm a "grown up" and would care to learn the content.
The most important general insight I gained from the exhibit is again something many historically hip people already know: our fair country has always had greed as a motivator. Lately here in this blog and elsewhere, I've been fuming about consumerism, affluenza, media literacy, etc...but you know what? It's nothing new. In fact, if anything, it may be a bit less powerful than in 1804 when L & C (and many other soldier-explorers) were charged by GOD and country to head west and take it all in. At least current consumerism and empire building has less to do with god's divine drive; it's more honestly all about the Benjamins.
The second insight I'm coming away with: The United States of America has been one brash, ball-sy, and downright fortunate country. Things happened very fast from the signing of the declaration to the exploration and development of the landscape--especially if you think of all the limitations (no phones, no cars, no swimming pools) in transportation, navigation and so on. Wow, those people were very aggressive and working very hard in just that 25 or so years. Again, this epiphany, that the US was developing so fast, is not news to anyone but me. In history class, I always bumbled through dates, never realizing anything about how it interconnected. Now, I'm starting (just getting a glimpse) to see how things fit together. Also, when I was young, 25 years seemed like forever, I'm sure.
Ah, thanks for reading. I just needed a place to confess my ignorance and document my new perspective on what I've ranted about so much: greed.
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