En préparation pour le State of the Union address, le site Real Clear Politics fournit quelques articles sur "l'état" de plusieurs questions aux États-Unis. Je ne pouvais ignorer ce "State of history", une réflexion qui ne s'applique certainement pas qu'à nos voisins du sud... Même Obama n'échappe pas au regard critique de l'auteur. "Over the Christmas holiday I took my family to Pearl Harbor, shortly after the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack that plunged the United States into World War II. I figured that my daughter, now 6 and in first grade, should be old enough to get an up-close and personal experience with this key chapter in world history.
But I was soon consumed by a horrifying event.
While waiting for the boat to take us across the channel to the USS Arizona Memorial, I overheard a group of college students discussing history. Unable to help myself, I lingered to eavesdrop. And this is the gist of what I heard: “The World War II [sic] started with a bunch of countries on one side and a bunch of countries on the other side,” a young man began, his companions listening with rapt attention as if it were a lecture, “and we didn’t know which side we wanted to be on and we had a hard time picking sides. But when the Japanese attacked us, that made it easy to go against their side.”
I didn’t know whether I should be enraged at or take pity on the young man’s ignorance. But what was most troubling was that he was the one dispensing “knowledge”! The others -- judging by the fact that no one disputed or challenged his account -- knew less than he did, even after apparently 12 years of compulsory education. "
L'article au complet: http://www.realclearhistory.com/articles/2012/01/22/the_state_of_history_in_2012_4.html
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