One passage, written after the journalist had returned from covering a battle in Syria that left thousands of innocents dead, injured or homeless, struck me as particularly timely given that, in the wake of the ongoing Gaza conflict, thousands of American college students are demonstrating their support for Hamas. The students are demanding that America stop funding weapons for Israel and that their universities divest themselves of investments in Israeli companies. At some schools, demonstrators have even prevented Jewish students from entering classrooms or walking across campus.
The journalist put into words something any rational person with a basic grasp of history and the ability to connect the dots knows, but, apparently, lots of students at some of America’s most elite universities, don’t.
Describing zombie-like refugees streaming out of destroyed cities, he wrote, “For me it was a stark illustration that there will always be evil in the world, waiting patiently to rear up again and that there must always be someone there ready to keep it down. Wars do not end, they just wane and fire up again somewhere else, consuming new generations, destroying new lives.”
Many if not most Americans are horrified seeing students clad in Hamas garb demonstrating hatred for Israel and Jews in general. It’s reminiscent of how Jews were treated in Germany in the late 1930s which, after millions were murdered by the Nazis during the war, led directly led to the founding of Israel a decade later. Americans are simultaneously horrified that innocent civilians, particularly women and children, are being killed in Gaza as Israel’s IDF fires back at Hamas which has killed and/or kidnapped its citizens and is refusing to return victims being held as ransom.
There are reasons to sympathize with both sides, but as I see it, common sense and a knowledge of history is called for if one feels compelled to virtue-signal his or her support for one side over the other, as the students are doing. Since some of them, when interviewed, can't articulate why they are protesting or what, exactly, they are supporting, here are two tips the protestors might want to consider:
1. When it comes to wars, history has generally looked back with more favor on the side that was attacked rather than on the side that initiated the aggression.
2. It is important to have a complete understanding of what the side your peers are supporting represents. One way to do that is to find out for yourself, “How does that side treat people like me? Would they allow me to live the lifestyle that represents my values, or would they oppress, jail or, perhaps, even kill me?” The answer to these questions will do much to help you choose sides. If the aggressor represents your values, perhaps your support is justifiable. If the side that was attacked first better represents your views, consider supporting that side.
Those, of course, are lessons that could and should be taught in history classes, if colleges still required students to complete a series of history classes as a requisite for graduation.
Unfortunately, history education, which grounds students in the ways of the world, has at some colleges, and even some high schools, been discarded to allow many of them to pursue useless courses of study that do nothing to advance society.
That leaves students with little understanding of the complicated world in which they hope to function and of the wars that have been waged since time began and will fire up again as they “consume new generations and destroy new lives.” Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.
I get pissed at friends my age who, Archie Bunker-like, bemoan the "good old days" when kids could drink out of hoses and didn't have to wear helmets when riding their bikes. All things considered, the world today is a better and safer place than the world we grew up in.
But I have to agree with my fellow oldsters when they say America's current educational system has failed our children and grandkids. Because it has.
