Common Ground

A fundamental assumption I make when beginning any commentary or essay is that my reader and I share some common ground or interest that may unite us for the few minutes it takes to read my thoughts. 

 

The forum I use is the now commonly-used term ‘blog,’ though as I expressed in an earlier essay, I try to avoid the term finding it to be an ugly word, discordant to my ear. However, I do sometimes worry that the form, as I use it (being unadorned with nice pictures or arresting artwork), may work against me because it is admittedly not attractive and because of that my thoughts might be entirely dismissed even before the reading.

What I do not want to have happen is to have my reader dismiss it for some more substantive reason (other than cosmetics) such as considering it to be sheer bloviation.  (If nothing else comes from this rumination today is that a new word has been added to your vocabulary: ‘bloviation’ means speech or writing that is wordy, pompous, and generally empty of meaning.) 

An example of a nationally known figure of my grandfather’s time who was said to be a ‘bloviator’ was United States President Warren G. Harding.  His middle name being Gamaliel perhaps portended this inclination.  (Gamaliel was a doctor of the Mosaic Law, a Pharisee, in the time of Paul the apostle.) A campaign speech Mr. Harding gave in 1920 was reported to have this sentence in it:

            “America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality.” 

Though Harding expressed these thoughts in words and structure (alliteration) that I, personally, do not mind, and a viewpoint with which I can largely agree, I can see the problem.

  

What gives me some hope, though, that my thoughts however expressed may be useful to someone, is that I am assuming we have some common ground that can be built upon to mutual advantage. 

Now, after all the bloviating of the previous 336 words, I come to my thought: the advantage of always looking for some common ground in interactions we have with others.

Well, not so fast.

Alas, having just re-read the bloviating that just occurred I find that I must postpone my thoughts on ‘common ground’ until later lest I stand on ground that is, truly, ‘the road less traveled by’ (Robert Frost), i.e., less common,  simply because I have few, by this point, to stand or travel with me. 

Cultural Literacy

My recent mini-diatribe against the butchering of ‘the King’s English,’ has been fueled, most probably, by my recent reading of The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy.  As I have reviewed the breadth of knowledge recorded by the editors of this compendium I have found it remarkable and unfortunate that so many young people have so little familiarity with (or respect for) the English language and the wonderful culture and heritage it carries and makes possible.

  

Clear language—the words and concepts it expresses—is the vehicle for human progress.  It is what enables a person to be culturally literate—and cultural literacy provides some of the tools for being an educated and socially contributing person. 

 

In eating several lunches each week in a company cafeteria I cannot help but overhear the conversations occurring around me.  The content and expression of these impoverished conversations discloses a lamentable unfamiliarity with the breadth of our national culture and this, I suggest, is because of a limited vocabulary and familiarity with things past. 

 

A base of common knowledge or the development of a collective memory shared by literate people is the foundation of meaningful discourse. It allows us to understand the news we hear, the literature we read, the trends going on around us and to go beyond the scope of our peers’ common, and increasingly limited conversations. 

 

To gain a body of knowledge it takes familiarity with many diverse subjects, and that, I submit, primarily comes about by reading.  Successful advanced reading (and thinking and skill development) requires a knowledge of taken-for-granted (by literate people) background information that is not defined on every page. A basic axiom of learning is that the easiest way to learn something new is to associate it with something we already know or with which we are familiar.

A broad, shallow knowledge (cultural literacy) is the best route to deep knowledge and becoming a truly educated person.  This fundamental body of cultural knowledge, of givens, of awareness of context, is what makes progress happen.

  

Let me suggest the scope of gaining cultural literacy.

 

·        Learn the truths embedded in common cultural idioms. (e.g., ‘born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth’; ‘bite the bullet’; ‘behind the eight ball’; ‘clean bill of health’; ‘diamond in the rough’; ‘grain of salt’; ‘pulling strings’; ‘a vicious circle,’ etc.)

·        Become familiar with World Literature, Philosophy, and Religions. The Bible, especially, is essential for understanding many of the moral and spiritual values of our culture just as, for example, the Koran is to Muslim cultures.

·        Learn the conventions of written English.  This includes not just grammar, but standardization and richness of vocabulary.

·        Learn to appreciate the contributions of the Fine Arts: not just paintings and sculpture, but literature, poetry, drama, architecture, drama, classical music, dance.  They provide many of the symbols of our national existence.

·        Ancient and Modern history.  Appreciate the influence of ancient civilizations and modern, non-Western civilizations—their rise and fall. 

·        Know American History—to 1865, from 1865-1965, and current history

·        Know the basics of World Politics –ideologies and governments.

·        Understand basics of American Politics and Government and Law

·        World Geography--physical and cultural

·        Psychology and Sociology –not just ‘general,’ but personal and family applications

·        Business and Economics

·        Physical Sciences and Mathematics

·        Earth Sciences

·        Medicine and Health

·        Technology

·        Home Economics

Finally, I remind the reader that in-depth understanding or expertise of all or even many of the above components is not what I am suggesting is required to be a culturally literate person.  I suspect there are very few Renaissance men or women around.  But a goal to become more literate in general is within our grasp and is highly satisfying in the pursuit. 

Like

Over five years ago when I began this weblog I vowed I would not use the word ‘like’ in any inappropriate way.  I have not.  I renew the vow.

I only bring this up again because since then I believe the problem of sloppy, shallow English language usage has only gotten worse.  It is obvious to me that few people under the age of about forty read Old Schooler (formerly Omnium-Gatherum Millerum), or if they do are much-influenced or persuaded by it—at least by this early posting (June 25, 2010). 

 

The real problem for me is that I am amazed that young people who are educated in our schools are so inarticulate—that their vocabulary is so limited, imprecise, and unimaginative.  Language expression is important.  Clear language reflects clear thinking.  Exactness in language is like exactness in measurement or in calculations.  It does matter where a number or decimal point is placed.  It does matter the order or inclusion of letters in the correct spelling of a word.  It does matter what word is chosen if one hopes to be understood.  Otherwise, it is but a guess as to a speaker’s meaning. 

Our professional adult culture in journalism or broadcasting or public speaking or academics would not put up with such butchered, unpolished, impoverished expression as we hear from our younger generation.  (Some of our middle-aged generation in casual expression are even now becoming sloppy in the use of ‘like’; perhaps it is because of a desire to appear young and chic—‘whatever.’) 

It is ‘like,’ ‘you know,’ “Ignorance of one’s own ignorance is the malady of the ignorant.” (Montaigne) 

No, I’m afraid they do not know.  Explain it to me.

Alas, they can’t.