Forever, the standard history course in college was called Western Civilization. At Stanford as a freshman I wondered why they were ignoring the history of Asia. A recent analysis was conducted by higher education critic Stanley Kurtz. While most most universities actually began to right this wrong in the early 60's, what actually developed was a hodgepodge of spotty courses taught by younger faculty, leading to a decline in the humanities. 
Kurtz's investigation begins at Stanford University in 1987, which made an attempt to save the humanities. Read that effort, but it itself is laced with maybe insufferable pedantic language. The concluding paragraph, by author Robert Paquette of Hamilton College:
In losing the history of Western civilization, the powers that be ended up disarming themselves. To attract students, they no longer sell academic rigor, but a warm, mothering environment in which you will find individual happiness by developing your own course of study. The Socratic injunction to know thyself, however, easily slides into self-absorption in a universe of nescience and a world that has lost the history of Western civilization.
My sense is that the above seemed to almost want a return to the "rigor" of Western Civ. Another attempt at explanation came from David Randall, Director of Research at the National Association of Scholars:
- Title: The Lost History of Western Civilization.
- In 1964 Western Civ was a requirement in virtually every American university.
- Western Civ was essentially a wartime propaganda effort invented during World War I, which supposedly was proved nonsense by Stanley Kurtz.
- But the reason was similar, that Western Civ was glorified so that our gallant doughboys would willingly sail to France to fight the Boce.
- Jesse Jackson and activists chanted in 1987 something like: Hey, hey, ho, ho...Western Culture's got to go. In other words Western Civ went because of civil rights. What?
- Stanford got rid of the course in 1988, and Western Civ almost vanished by 2010.
- There is, nevertheless the continuing lament of how functioning Americans can think if they are not taught the link from Athens and Plato to what we have today. Note the consistent egocentric value of Europe over the Orient. But Randall is from the Heartland Institute, a libertarian think tank.
- To quote from Randall:
The destruction of the Western Civ course was not trivial. It was the erasure of a body of knowledge that constituted the American identity. To remove Western Civ was a body-blow against America’s civilizational memory — brain damage deliberately inflicted. It would be easier to subject America to revolutionary transformation if Americans forgot who they were.
He says a return to Western Civ is beginning in various states like Arizona and Wyoming...but in high school.
Okay, enough editorializing for me today. On to what's happening in the Orient:
- Bong Bong wins Philippine presidency. Fernando Marcos Junior was yesterday elected to replace Rodrigo Duterte. Remember him? The United Nations wanted him out because he made a promise to rid the country of illegal drugs, and proceeded to be responsible for killing 6,229 drug personalities. Something went right, for his daughter Sara Duterte is now the new vice president of the Ferdinand 2 regime. There is a long and terrible history here, but let's see how goes their future. Incidentally, boxing great Manny Pacquiao, who is really a Senator in the country, came in third.
- Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa (left in the photo) yesterday resigned, amid the country's worst economic crisis in decades. His brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa (right) remains as president. Much more turmoil is expected in the coming days.
Today, South Korea's new president Yoon Suk-yeol was inaugurated.- He won by a margin of less than 1%.
- President Joe Biden will be visiting South Korea on May 21.
- Unfortunately, Yoon's rival Lee Jae-myung will on June 1 probably be elected to the National Assembly, where the odds are high that his party will have the majority. This will probably be a difficult term.
Yoon is 61 and a graduate of Seoul National University. He played a key role in convicting former presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak for abuse of power. Former president Moon Jae-in (on left, Lee to the right) is in the same opposition party as Lee, but, against past history, Yoon, too weak to do much, will probably not bother to send Moon to jail. The U.S. had a democracy crisis in 2020. South Korea usually indicts their past presidents.
I'll end with a human interest story. I have not found any photos.
- Twin girls were born in Seoul in 1974, but got separated two years later.
- One got lost in a supermarket and later ended up being adopted by American parents.
- The sisters were reunited in 2018 on their 36th birthday.
- Researchers noted that their personality scores were almost identical.
- However, the sibling raised in South Korea had an IQ 16 points higher than the American sister.
- Does South Korea have a better education system?
- Maybe, but the U.S. twin had a disrupted home environment marred by conflict, while the Korean girl who grew up in a loving environment with her biological family.
Interestingly enough, a year ago there was another article saying almost the same thing, with photos:
- Identical twins Molly Sinert and Emily Bushnell were separated at birth in South Korea and adopted by different Jewish families in the U.S., unaware of the other's existence in Florida and Pennsylvania.
- DNA tests brought them together at the age of 36 (same as the above). Emily's 11-year old daughter triggered the search.
- Nothing about IQ difference.
I suspect the stories are the same, but why does one say biological family and other adopted? I'll keep checking into this.
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