PrintApril 18, 2012
The Handbasket Express
Often one hears the refrain that today's generation is significantly worse than the previous generation -- that the country is going to hell in a handbasket. And the fact that each generation receives a similar criticism does not mean that the criticism is incorrect. Perhaps we really are getting worse and are simply noticing different points in our own decline. As the decades unfold, a higher degree of intellectual laziness and historical ignorance, coupled with an unchecked desire for instant gratification, does seem to be present in America's young.
Consider a personal experience I had several years ago:
It's September 2005, and I am sitting in a classroom at a university in Center City Philadelphia. The class (titled "Modern American History") is attended by forty students between the ages of 18 and 20. It's the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which prompts our teacher to stand before us and ask,...(Read Full Article)
