Reinventing The Bushman

Friday, April 18th, 2008

Fred Reed notes that we’re reinventing the bushman:

I imagine taking a bushman from some hitherto undiscovered Pacific isle and setting him down in front of a television in, say, Washington. The fellow would be astounded. He might say, “Whoa, boss! Heap magic! Spirits inside, talk talk. Bad juju.” He would have no idea how the babbling box worked, or of the civilization that produced it — where it came from, why it was as it was, what its literature might be, what its thoughts had been.

What would distinguish him from the graduate of today’s high schools or, latterly, the universities? Only that the bushman would have sense enough to be astonished. I do not see why being complacently ignorant is preferable to being honestly amazed.

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