A friend just told me she heard Richard Dreyfus was into civics.
“The Richard Dreyfus?” I shouted. My fingers flew to Google.
Yup, the Richard Dreyfus. About ten years ago he stepped away from his acting career to study civics at Oxford, spend time promoting K-12 civics education through his Dreyfus Institute, and last year published a book, which I just wolfed down in one afternoon.
It’s a book that doesn’t pull any punches. Dreyfus is mad as hell and makes no effort to hide it, and I love that. He made lots of great points; here are just a few…
“Dismissing America because of its crimes overlooks so much that is uniquely good. In the age of its founding, no other nation strove to improve the chance of rising from poverty to anything better, to stop treating the majority of humanity as anything but cattle. Not in the entire history of human civilization.”
“America is a work in progress. Each group has had to ‘take a number and get in line’ until they could command the proper attention. For some groups that line gets longer, and they have to wait longer than justice should permit, but we are as imperfect as the process we created.”
“The absence of Civics education is behind all the rage that accompanies our uncontrollable partisanship, which doesn’t allow for the legitimacy of any views contrary to one’s own. That in itself opposes the idea of America.”
“Is it acceptable to Americans now that so many will give credence to only one political party? Is it really sensible to think that all opinions that differ from yours are subversive? Do we really think that all good Americans must agree with one another, and if you don’t you’re an enemy of all that is good?”
“In the absence of a civil society, all you can ultimately see and hear is the loudest bully in the bar. Currently, without examples of civility, Americans tend to treat opposing views as the positions of enemies. Instead of regarding the exchange of opposing views as normal, Americans hate one another.”
“Civics training enables people with opposing views to learn methods of controlled communication, such as civil discourse in debate, clarity of thought and expression, and the agility one needs to put values and issues in context.”
Richard Dreyfus, my new hero!
4 Responses
Wow, I had no idea at all that Richard did this. What book did he publish that you wolfed down??
Hey, Sheryl,
It’s called One Thought Scares Me.
More of an inspirational/wake people up sort of text rather than lots of civics info.
C
Wow! Thanks for bringing clarity, Catherine, with sharing the writings of Richard Dreyfus(! )and your own. I realize how woefully undereducated I am on Civics and related topics but this is truly a better late than never situation. May your thoughts (light) reach all the nooks and crannies of this still great nation. Preach on!
Ha! Thanks, Cory. It’s always better late than never!