In Praise of the Look Back Bores
Nov 14th, 2008 by Donagh
The would-be repair men are already at work, hoping to restore it, plaster over the cracks, give it a fresh coat of paint, all ready to commit yet another offence against society. The wiseacres who now pretend to be disgusted with the reckless results of liberalism are the very ones who provided all the incentives – budgetary, regulatory, fiscal and ideological – for the ensuing spending spree. They should feel disqualified, but they know an army of politicians and journalists are eager to do a whitewash job.
So says Serge Halimi, in Le Monde Diplomatique, which is a far better introduction than I could have mustered to this:
Which I thought provided some vital information.
But then, I couldn’t forget this recent This American Life podcast that fairly blew my mind, especially the excerpts from Studs Terkel’s radio show where he talks to people about their experiences of the Great Depression. It illustrates brilliantly why it’s important to keep oral histories.
