I have never watched any of Ken Burns's documentaries, even though he is my age and from NH and a young friend of mine used to deliver artisanal bread (outdoor oven) to his office regularly. I did think I might like the one about baseball, but have never gotten around to it.
Listen to Tyler Cowan interview Ken, I really liked learning that Burns has a little neon sign in his studio in Walpole that says "It's complicated." He went on to explain that it's important to listen to many voices in history, and a documentarian has the responsibility to present these to the viewer. Just the right attitude, I say. He even had a little jab at those new college students who don't think that all points of view should be heard.
He does make strong declarations though about some things he believes are obvious about which there should be brave voices with no compromise. And every single one of those things are bog-standard elitist liberal without so much as 1% deviation.
But it's good to be open minded.
He is doing a documentary on George Washington next, and said that what most schoolchildren know about him is that he never told a lie, and chopped down a cherry tree, and threw a dollar across the Potomac, all of which aren't true. At which point I had to wonder "what century is this man from?" Does he really think that schoolchildren now think those myths? Who would be teaching these to them? Already when I was in eighth grade we were being told they weren't true and Bob Newhart was doing comedy routines about it. Maybe in my mother's generation people believed those? But I'm not sure even of that.
It's great that people like Ken Burns are protecting us from these myths, though. We have to be ever-vigilant against misinformation because conservatives might take over the teaching of history and keep on teaching this stuff, and I'm sure there are still districts where they are quietly still teaching that George told his father "I cannot tell a lie."
My hot take is that he is and will be forever making compensation for featuring Shelby Foote in his Civil War documentary.
ReplyDeleteAh, sort of like Tom Friedman saying "Well, we had to hit somebody!" after 9/11, having to keep reproving his liberal bonafides for the next five years?
ReplyDeleteAVI, exactly.
ReplyDeleteWe started the series on baseball. I found it kind of slow going; narration while slowly panning over still photos. I don't recall where we left off.
ReplyDeleteIt is even called the Ken Burns Effect, he uses it so much. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Burns_effect His father was an amateur photographer and doing history does involve a lot of still photographs, so I suppose you have to do something.
ReplyDeleteHis Civil War series was excellent, and his extensive use of Shelby Foote was inspired. Foote is one of the greatest Civil War historians, the woke temper tantrums not withstanding.
ReplyDeleteHowever, his method did not work for his other topics, and he has succumbed to mindless parroting of woke nonsense. His baseball series was tedious and tendentious, bordering on fable. I have, nor will I, watch his other works. His failures are a disappointment, and an example of the dangers of PC lies.
That's the problem with liberals. They think that their narrow, stereotyped views are universal truths which no one in their right mind could ever disagree with. As Chesterton said, "It's not that they're ignorant; it's that they know so much that isn't true." Arrogance is their fundamental flaw.
ReplyDeleteSomeone - maybe me - said "they understand everything but themselves." I will have to say that this increasingly applies to conservatives, though, and the liberal defectors, such as Substack Liberals, do pretty well these days. There is a sea-change, but I can't predict where it will land.
ReplyDeleteSykes, you are not the first I have heard praise the Civil War series, though I have heard complaints as well
Anyone, including conservatives, can be arrogant and tell lies. But lying is basic to the progressivist worldview in a way that it is not for others. This is because progressivism is a flight from reality. And the arrogance is necessary to protect the lies.
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