Friday, November 22, 1963

[No Elephants]

November 22, 2013
Friday, November 22, 1963
Posted by Hendrik Hertzberg

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2013/11/friday-november-22-1963-harvard-kennedy.html


President Obama is older now than JFK was when he died, this day, fifty years ago.

RIP, Mr. President and RIP Camelot.

[Enthusiast]

1. That was good.

On a related note, on my recommendation my wife just finished reading Stephen King's 11 22 63. She liked it even more than I did. King's book doesn't involve any conspiracy theory stuff, just FYI. It is a "time travel" story. But that doesn't do it justice either.

Yes, RIP, Mr. President and RIP Camelot.

[No Elephants]

2. I remember learning in history class that the North Koreans were able to brainwash our troops rather

easily because of the way that truth about the darker sides of American history had been hidden from them growing up. Supposedly (according to this one history teacher, my only source for this info), some of them did not even know about slavery. So, when these things were proven to them, they became easy to brainwash against the US. The point was that it was better for us and for America that we should know the truth about American history.

Sounded good to me at the time. Except in very rare cases when denial is essential for survival, truth is always, IMO, better than not truth.

The Korean War was in the 1950s. The Kennedy assassination was in the 1960s. I wonder if that was the first time that a lot of Americans did not believe what government told them?

Part of me says probably. But another part of me says probably not. Neither government nor people have changed that much since our Constitution was written by people who protected the slave trade and thought no one but people who could afford a poll tax should be able to vote. Etc.