Mr. Mann's History

Seracs near Mt. Shishapangma, Tibet - photo by JoAnn Sturman

Scott Sturman
fliesinyoureyes.com

After watching the video, If I Wanted America to Fail, I thought of one of my former teachers.  Mr. Mann taught high school level American history until his retirement in the 1960s. During the two years I attended his classes, he was nearing the end of his career, but I cannot remember a day when he did not wear a suit and tie.  The term “American exceptionalism” was not in vogue, but Mr. Mann believed America claimed this unnamed right.  Like many of his generation, his values were forged by the Great Depression and World War II, but by today’s standards, he would be considered a dunderhead.

Revisionist history played no part in core curriculum, so students were not led to believe primitive cultures in Africa and Polynesia were equivalent to those of Renaissance Europe or China.  Neither was there the illusion that there was any such thing as high German culture during the Roman Empire.  While my ancestors ran around naked in the forests foraging for berries and massacring each other, the Romans ruled the Western world, constructed ambitious public work projects, wrote poetry, and explored advanced mathematics - so much for assuaging delicate egos. 

Historical emphasis was primarily Euro-American centric, for while much of the world was governed repressively, intellectually stagnant, and mired in perpetual poverty, the American experience was decidedly different.  The United States, the culmination of nearly 2500 years of Western culture, was not without faults, but it was one of the few countries willing to go to extraordinary means to solve them.  

Mr. Mann actually taught his students that abundant natural resources, inexpensive energy, efficient transportation systems, and a skilled labor force under the umbrella of a constitutional republic are the building blocks necessary to sustain a powerful and prosperous nation.  How silly is that?  As a corollary, wealthy countries with skilled labor forces typically do not export raw materials overseas to be manufactured into products which will be resold to them at a marginally higher price.  Preposterous! 

If inexpensive energy fuels vibrant economies, and the United States contains vast quantities of natural gas and coal, why does it not exploit these resources rather than spend billions of dollars to import hydrocarbons from unfriendly countries whose world view is inimical to our own?  Despite promising small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear technology, the use of nuclear power is not seriously discussed, as scientific argument is once again overwhelmed by naysayers who exploit emotion and ignorance.

Public education, once the marvel of world, is losing the battle against foreign competition.  Review the comparative test scores, if there is any question of the descent.  Perhaps math, science, and reading better prepare students for the 21st century workforce than self esteem and social living classes. 

The balance between expenditures on infrastructure and transportation systems versus social programs has been lost.  Despite five decades of effort and six trillion dollars, the hardcore poor remain mired in a vicious cycle of poverty and hopelessness.  The reason is obvious:  They vote and enjoy broad based support from academia and the media.  Bridges, roads, and dams do not.

Since politicians are fallible and self serving, the Constitution provides a framework of checks and balances to control the temptation to exercise unbridled power and irresponsible profligacy.  Judging from the explosion of the national debt, this surly lot found a way to confound the Founding Fathers. 
    
No country can prevail if it does not exploit its inherent advantages.  Mr. Mann could have taught the scholars at the Brookings Institute a thing or two.