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Re: Book Hoarding
Kevin,
Interesting reflections in your post. But I'm not sure about the part where you say that Millennials' rejection of the past is "not necessarily a good or a bad thing." Come on my friend, you are too kind--don't be afraid to be a little judgmental here! Of course it's a bad thing!
Mr. Veech,
While your points about the Founders being slave-holding, leisured aristocrats are well-taken, you have to remember that most of them were also workaholics--even by today's standards. Jefferson was a Virginia delegate at the same time that he was managing his private estate--and simultaneously pursuing every topic under the sun. Adams was a lawyer and farmer, Madison was always busy with something, and, of course, Franklin's pathological addiction to work is well-documented, etc. etc.
My point being that there is almost always time to read if it is important enough to a person. Similarly, I recall Lord Chesterfield reminding his son in their correspondence not to neglect the time spent on the toilet every morning, and to utilize those precious moments for reading the reflections of some great man!
At any rate, even for someone with "no time to spare", there are still countless books on tape that can be checked out at the library for free. So that's at least an hour a day for the average person's commute to work. Which is more than sufficient time to acquire a reasonably good education over a span of years.
What's more, I wonder how many hours even the most rabid corporate climber in this country spends anesthetized in front of the TV? I can't find the video on YouTube, but there's one where Noam Chomsky talks about how 80 or so years ago (long before Netflix!), the British working class attained an impressively high degree of culture and education, and was thoroughly conversant with the Great Books. I'll post the video if I can dig it up, but I thought that was rather interesting.
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