What do we mean when we say “the media”? Media we dislike? That is a question toward the top of my Impromptus today. I have plenty of politics — followed by music, sports, and other things. That column is here.
Last week, I did a podcast with Robby George and Cornel West, which I wrote about here. One of our topics was teaching. I recounted a story from young friends of mine — 15-year-old twins. There is a teacher, in Cleveland, whose students are sometimes curious about his politics. “What is your opinion? How will you vote?” He answers, “I’ll tell you after you graduate.”
A reader writes,
This weekend, my son and his family are visiting. He teaches tenth-grade English. His students asked him for whom he is voting. He told them there is a very fine line between sharing his opinion and pushing them to agree with his opinion, so he declined to say.
In a column last week, I discussed the Cultural Revolution, one of the ghastliest events of the second half of the 20th century (an “event,” to be sure, that lasted a decade). A notorious Red Guard, Song Binbin, died last month.
A distinguished historian writes me to recommend a documentary, made by Carma Hinton in 2003: Morning Sun. It is about the Cultural Revolution and includes an interview with Song Binbin. The film is here.
The Red Guards damned, and punished, what they called “the Four Olds”: “old ideas,” “old culture,” “old customs,” and “old habits.” (I suppose I am guilty on all counts.)
A reader writes to recommend a book by Ian Johnson: Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and Their Battle for the Future. An interview with the author can be found here.
Another reader recommends a memoir: Red Scarf Girl, by Ji-li Jiang.
I will recommend, once more, Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Guard, by Fan Shen. I reviewed it in 2004, and have cited it since. A stunning volume, about matters personal, national, and historic.