Yglesias beat me to this, and comments "Oy!", but I say spare me the hand-wringing. Indeed, I'll do the those kids one better. Not only is it okay that plenty of young people don't know who Osama bin Laden was, but I'll also predict that those same kids aren't really improved for now knowing. Knowing about Osama bin Laden = politics. Most people = don't know and don't care about politics. This is not the big, and certainly not the new problem people suppose it to be. It really is okay. Put me down for this same conclusion about the mass of people you're not hearing about who know perfectly well who Osama was and yet aren't feeling the joy, catharsis, or anything else that t.v. and the internets are telling us we're feeling. For lots and lots of people, it was mostly just Monday, and it's bad history to act like this wasn't so.
Nothing really to add, except that I'll be watching the Yglesias comments thread on this one for the usual declensionist narratives of how we all used to know everything and now we don't know anything and any day now the
2 comments:
I find it really ridiculous that so many young people don't know who "Osama bin Laden". If he is a 6 year old, good, he is still a child who doesn't know anything from the world.. but I do expect that at least a "15-year-old teenager" to know such an important personality! This topic is a serious one... and it is not only important for the politicans... To have seen that my generation is that under educated.. it's embarrassing!
ossama was a person who is legend
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