Classical music was considered passe during the 1970’s. As a result, I never really learned about Aaron Copland in school. I heard his music in bits and pieces without context. Simple Gifts from Appalachian Spring opened for CBS News special reports and Hoe-Down from Rodeo was used for beef commercials. These rural themes are remarkable compositions as Copland was raised in Brooklyn and educated in Paris. Copland’s most famous composition was Fanfare for the Common Man. This composition took an odd twist in the 1970’s as ELP performed a version often used as a sports theme while the original was played as a prelude to Rolling Stones concerts. As the title suggests, Copland intended the piece for something quite different than to extol celebrity.
Copland derived the title from then VP Henry Wallace’s Century of the Common Man speech in 1942. Wallace thought of World War II as a global version of the American Civil War. That is, a global struggle to eliminate slavery under fascism and free the common man. Interwoven into that was the common man draftee armed services fighting the war both in Europe and the Pacific. Wallace identified literacy as a key foe of totalitarianism and that the population must be well fed and housed to be well-educated.
The term common man can be a source of derision. In 1945, Wilhelm Reich wrote the 130 page essay, Listen, Little Man, pillorying the common man for allowing to be grifted in support of fascism. A few decades later, under less dire circumstances, hockey coach Herb Brooks would tell his players that “common men go nowhere.” I suppose this is arguing semantics, but I think everyone is a common man in some aspect of their lives. To continue the hockey analogy, Bobby Orr once commented that his greatness on the ice was contained in a bubble, it did not transfer to life outside the rink.
Even if a career path is found that vaults one to greatness, outside that world, you’re going to be a common man with all the potential pratfalls. It’s why Ben Carson can be a distinguished neurosurgeon and believe the biblical Joseph built the pyramids to store grain. It is also why Carson is woefully unqualified to lead HUD. Much worse, it’s why Hans Asperger and Werner Von Braun, two accomplished scientists, collaborated with the Nazi regime to accelerate their careers. As educators, we have to think of student success in broader terms than just career advancement.
There is the proverbial three-legged stool. That is, providing an education not only in subject content and physical education, but ethical training as well. This may have provided a braking mechanism in say, the mortgage bubble. When I worked in the mortgage industry during this era, I saw some managers, when confronted with the high risk of mortgages beginning around 2003 retort, “Bleep you, we’re making money.” – without the courtesy of the bleep. However, I suspect something more than ethics is required.
In academia, we’re used to fact-based debates. Typically, the argument with the best model to explain the facts wins. Beyond academia, that’s really not how things work. More often than not, arguments are based on social positioning. People tend to align with positions that maintain their status within their social group. It’s not a trivial concern. The ability to earn a living is usually dependent upon one’s social network. This is especially true in regions that are economically stagnant. It can be a powerful motivator for ill-advised actions.
Infrastructure, physical and social, not only move goods, but can transmit ideas. Good and bad, unfortunately. Studies have shown that civic associations were a key component in spreading Nazism. Embracing Nazi politics was a means of maintaining social status within various sub-cultures. Given that Germany was in the throes of the Great Depression, social status meant being employable. Add to that pogroms had been ongoing in Eastern Europe for a century normalizing violence against the Jewish population. While Hitler amplified that greatly, that ongoing ethical/moral lapse had already left the door ajar for Nazism.
Is there any way education could prevent such social rot from spreading? I won’t pretend to have a definitive answer for that, but below are a few ideas as food for thought.
A rigorous study of ethics should be completed before high school graduation. This alone is not sufficient. Students should be trained to stand against the crowd. Intellectual achievement alone does not provide this skill. During World War I, Bertrand Russell demonstrated this trait by holding firm against nationalism that prompted the catastrophic events from 1914-18:
“I knew it was my business to protest, however futile that protest might be. I felt that for the honour of human nature those who were not swept off their feet should show that they stood firm.”
Henry Moseley, who had organized the periodic table by atomic number, did not. He would die at Gallipoli in 1915, cutting short a brilliant scientific career. Moseley’s disdain for foreigners imbued him with a nationalistic enthusiasm for a useless war.
We also have to emphasize to know what we don’t know. I never went to trade school so I do not dispense advice on how to fix plumbing. That’s innocent enough, but as already mentioned, many a fine mind has ventured outside their lanes. This is how John Maynard Keynes, who gave us an understanding of the Great Depression and how to end it, also made the dreadful decision to embrace eugenics. We have to impress upon our students it is the argument, not the person, that wins academic debates. I’ve seen to many people root for their side like sports fans and not analyzing the arguments itself. That approach can take you down the wrong path like whales following the leader to beach themselves.
Learning subject content is a key component of education, but that alone does not make a well-rounded student. An ability to discern between good and poor reasoning has to be developed. In addition, diversity of experience and community is a crucial factor of education.
It’s easy to look back at the era when Henry Wallace made his Century of the Common Man speech and think of the negatives. Top of this list would be Jim Crow segregation, but there were positive aspects to draw upon. Buffalo, where I grew up, had steel mills but also the Philharmonic with the groundbreaking Lukas Foss. Next to pro sports was the Albright-Knox and it’s famous 1965 Festival of the Arts. Another example is Columbus, IN. During the 1940’s, the CEO of Cummins, Inc, a diesel engine manufacturer, commissioned architects such as I.M. Pei, Eero Saarinen, and Cesar Pelli, making this town of 45,000 a pioneer in modern architecture. Today, far too often, I see community interests listing too heavily towards sports or guns. We need to be better than that.
I hear a lot of arguments which is more important, trade school vs universities vs community college. It’s a dumb argument. You need all that for a functional society. True, we eventually specialize to make a living, but it’s no reason not to have an appreciation of what other occupations bring to the table. Instilling respect for honest work is important. I have far more respect for the honest work of often disparaged burger flippers than say, private equity managers who have pushed for unneeded dental work on children. Beyond respect for other occupations, we need to build respect for people in other communities.
It’s constructive to take city students out to the country and vise-versa to see how people live and work in those regions. International travel is helpful, but not always available due to lack of resources. But certainly, webcasts between two classes across the globe can be set up. Stereotypes arise most easily when people have never met each other. One reason why some of the powers that be favor segregation.
Education needs to build connections between people, disciplines, and cultures. This infrastructure of knowledge and ideas has to be guided by a sense of ethics. Ideally, the internet can help build these social connections, but it can also break down these connections. Educational institutions need to act as vanguard against that breakdown. If we don’t succeed in that, we are in danger of going from the Century of the Common Man to the Century of the Grifter.