The Things They Don't Tell You!

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New World Notes News

Volume 2, Number 16 -- April 28, 2009

This week in New World Notes, #61 -- April 28 & May 1:

As a school subject, American History is unique in one respect. The more you've studied it, the dumber you are--that is, the less about the subject you know correctly. So states James W. Loewen, a professor of sociology at UVM, citing a pile of published research studies. Even odder, UVM stands for University of VerMont (some say). The state university here in Connecticut tried something similar once, UCNIC--University of ConNectICut--but it didn't catch on. The NIC sounded too Soviet (cf. Sputnik, peacenik).

Some claim that the M in UVM stands for at Montpelier. As Daffy Duck used to say, this is a canard. Some (see first Comment to this blog entry) go so far as to claim UVM stands for
Universitas Viridis Montis. If my Latin serves, this means either "The most virile Mountie in the Universe"--obviously a Canadian TV contest-show for beefcake fans--or else "University of the Green Mountains." Take your pick. IMHO, one makes as much sense as the other.

But I digress.

Top: James W. Loewen. (All photos: click to enlarge.)
Bottom: Note contents of bucket.

A new edition of James Loewen's study of school American History courses and textbooks is out--Lies My Teacher Told Me--and in a radio interview Loewen tells funny, interesting, and occasionally depressing stories of what he discovered in researching the book.

American History courses present every character as a spotless hero (save possibly Lee Harvey Oswald); show Progress as always in action; say nothing negative about any public figure; take care not to offend any potential purchaser; won't touch sex, religion, or social class with a 10-foot pole; and seem more interested in turning students into flag-waving patriots than into well-informed, critical-thinking adults.

Think of the textbooks you once used. Which subject had textbooks with a grandiose title? Let's see. . . . There was Principles of Chemistry. Algebra I. Introduction to English Literature. Basic Spanish. And--with the red, white, & blue cover depicting the waving flag--Triumph of the American People. That would be the History textbook, right?

Loewen notes that no Chemistry textbook is named Triumph of the Molecule.

Michael Parenti (top), George Carlin (bottom)

Loewen's indictment of how we teach history is terrific. But he stops short of considering seriously why the books and courses are the way they are. In Michael Parenti’s useful terms, Loewen constructs a liberal complaint, not a radical analysis. So the installment supplements Loewen’s talk with a few recorded words by Parenti and by George Carlin. Each of this pair argues that mediocre, flag-waving public education serves the economic and political interests of certain powerful elites.

History Counts

The Loewen interview is snipped from a recent installment of a very interesting radio program, History Counts. It’s produced in Connecticut by Ken MacDermotRoe and broadcast twice a month by community alternative radio station WPKN, in Bridgeport. You can catch WPKN’s broadcasts on the Internet (http://www.wpkn.org/). Even more conveniently, you can listen to History Counts at any time online or download a free copy in .mp3 format. The blog you're now reading has a link to History Counts's Web page near the top of the gray sidebar.

Too sexually explicit for textbooks? Sex, religion, and
social class are the three taboo topics in American History
texts. (Photo: "V-J Day" by Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1945)

Song played: Chumbawamba, Her Majesty

Coming soon:

• May 5 (Tuesday): Kent State Remembered
• May 12: Energy Disaster Anniversaries: Three-Mile Island (1979), Exxon Valdez (1989)

NB: Lego photos by Balakov. More of them--plus the original photographs--here: http://www.yatzer.com/1083_classic_photographs_re-created_with_lego_bricks

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern) . . .

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT) & http://wwuh.org/
  
• Fridays, 7:30 to 8:00 AM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs, CT) & http://www.whus.org/


• Saturdays, 7:00-7:30 PM, KRFP-FM 92.5, Radio Free Moscow (Moscow, ID) & http://www.radiofreemoscow.com/


• Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New+World+Notes

JFK, Parenti, & the National Security State

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New World Notes News
Volume 1, Number 20 -- November 25, 2008
http://newworldnotes.blogspot.com/

This week in New World Notes, #41 -- November 25 & 28:
A pair of NWN installments commemorates John F. Kennedy, who was murdered 45 years ago, on November 22. Last week's program--JFK, Parenti, and "Lone Gunmen" Galore!--discussed the many "lone gunmen, acting alone" that blue-ribbon investigative commissions tend to find responsible for each political assassination in the United States. The program focused on Lee Harvey Oswald, the sole assassin of JFK, according to the Warren Commission Report and the corporate-controlled media.

This week's program is titled, JFK, Parenti, and the National Security State. Michael Parenti's rousing but funny speech continues, now focusing on the institutional structures behind Kennedy's murder. Chief among these is "the National Security State"--persons and entities given the power to invade, assassinate, torture, start wars, and cause other mayhem worldwide, in the name of national security. JFK had thwarted their goals of war with Russia and escalation in Vietmam. By 1963 they had had enough.

Besides Parenti's speech and my commentary, the show offers another jaundiced view of the National Security State--at least a large part of it--by playwright, essayist, and novelist Gore Vidal. Vidal recreates a chat he had with Kennedy in 1961. Here JFK, between puffs of a cigar "liberated from Castro's Cuba," wishes aloud that he had more control over the Pentagon and then explains to Vidal why he is unlikely to attain any.

Attached graphics:

(1) Tarpley's Believe it or Not! shows the interlocking institutions and personnel behind the Kennedy assassination. Or is it the 9-11 disaster? Gulf War I? Hard to tell . . . .

(2) JFK giving Inaugural speech, January 1961. "Ask not what your country can do for you . . . ." As with MLK's "I have a dream . . .," this speech was not Kennedy's best, only the one the Establishment most liked to quote to hoi polloi. Each man gave his greatest speech not long before his assassination. Each, in this speech, denounced war, denounced the Military-Industrial Complex, and called for disarmament. Lockheed shareholders were not amused.

(3) Posthumous poster. Note selected quotation on the poster (then again see #2, above).

JFK, Parenti, & "Lone Gunmen" Galore!

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New World Notes News
Volume 1, Number 19 -- November 15, 2008

An archive of this newsletter is now available on the World Wide Web. At the same site you'll also find links for downloading audio files of past shows, a few interesting links elsewhere on the Web, a Search function, and the opportunity to comment on any newsletter issue. I plan to add a collection of graphics and additional interesting links in the near future. Pay us a visit at http://newworldnotes.blogspot.com/

This week in New World Notes, #40 -- November 18 & 21:

I've learned a lot of American history since the show began last February. This knowledge has been a bit of a comfort. Decisions made by our rulers now seem less bizarre, more rational, more predictable. I'm not saying more justifiable. I'm not saying less obscene. But less inexplicable. It's probably been done before, and the real reasons this time are likely the same as the last time.

You begin to see patterns. For instance, you see the same plot-lines used in one official story and then the next and the one after that. The same stock characters. The same outcome. Even the same rave reviews from the critics: "This report [or presentation to the UN General Assembly] should put to rest any lingering doubts."

Here are just a few well-worn plot elements. An important figure is murdered or a preventable calamity occurs. A blue-ribbon commission is appointed to investigate. The commission issues a weighty report that pins all the blame on one human misfit, who acted alone and without informing others. I use the generic term "lone gunman," but the category includes also lone ship's captains (Exxon Valdez), lone cult leaders (David Koresh), and lone Mad Scientists ("Anthrax Bruce" Ivins). How the culprit is reported to have done the deed strikes many people as theoretically possible but highly unlikely.

Unfortunately for most of us, lone gunmen tend to die before they can testify in court.

Oswald, ca. 1958

Early on, political scientist Michael Parenti scoffed at the government's Official Fairy Tale [OFT] of JFK's assassination (45 years ago this week). In a fiery, funny, and persuasive speech from 1993, Parenti demolishes the OFT and the intellectuals who defend it.

In this installment and the next, New World Notes replays most of this wonderful speech--condensed and somewhat reorganized by yours, truly. This week, Parenti hilariously debunks the official story of Lone Gunman Lee Harvey Oswald. I supplement this with the similar and equally unlikely story of Oswald's latest incarnation, Mad Germ-bomber Bruce Ivins.

Next week's installment (#41) focuses on the large role in Kennedy's murder of "the National Security State"--of which Oswald had been a small part. Parenti and I are joined by novelist, essayist, and historian Gore Vidal.

Catch New World Notes . . .
Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford) & wwuh.org
Fridays, 7:30 to 8:00 AM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs) & http://www.whus.org/
Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project:

http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New%20World%20Notes

Gratuitous photographs attached, pro bono:

(1) Lee Harvey Oswald in Marine Corps uniform, ca. 1958. Did the Marine Corps give many other "misfit loners" high security clearance, then assign them to a top-secret reconnaissance-mission air base in Japan? Did the Corps let many other misfit loners keep their high security clearance after they suddenly began praising Communism and addressing fellow Marines as "Comrade"? No wonder the Commies won the Cold War!

(2) Oswald, now looking the "misfit loner" part, on Life Magazine cover.

(3) Dr. Bruce Ivins: ABC News background graphic. The graphic clearly reveals the scoundrel's guilt. He looks gay, too. Oh, wait . . . that conflicts with our "Kappa-Kappa-Gamma fetish" narrative. Forget the gay part. . . . Unfortunately, he died before he could testify in court. Lee Oswald had the same misfortune. And James Earl Ray (MLK murder). And. . . . Lone Gunmen ought to take better care of their health!