J)O ll...I S LESS INC
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Doris Lessing:
I didn ' t say any of th at.
Laurie Dickstein:
Di d yo u rea ll y t hink th at t he 13 ea tl es and th e R o llin g
Stones we re good mu sic'
Doris Lessing:
T hat mu sic was Illu ch less vio lent and lo ud than w hat
we have now and I di d n' t min d it. I quite like roc k and ro ll ac tu all y.
About the grandc hildre n be in g mo re stupid th an me, I d idn ' t say th at. I
actuall y sa id that we're all ge ttin g, in m y view, mo re stupid.
William Phillips:
I was shocked befo re. I' m still in a state of shoc k. It's
an obv io us fact that th e cul ture is in a state of de clin e. I do n' t kn ow why
yo u wa nt to deny it. I thin k o ur children are less edu ca ted th an we were.
Th ere are excep ti o ns. SOlll e are we ll educa ted , but w hen yo u talk abo ut the
mass of th e coun try, there's been a dec lin e in educa ti o n . Wh at does all th e
talk abo ut educa ti o n mean o th erw ise? Why are so many peopl e co nce rn ed
about th e low state of educa ti o n , th e low state of learnin g' Is it all invent–
ed by a few po li tica l nu ts'
Morris Dickstein:
I think th at kids today kn ow mo re about a vas t va ri –
ety of topi cs, and have an abili ty to handl e techno logy, n exibili ty o f
validi ty, th at we didn' t have. It 's just a d iffe rent curri culum o ut th ere, and
to be prej udi cial aga in st th at curri culum , if yo u w ill , o r medi a, I find as
startlin g as yo u find thi s shock in g. I find it very shocking fo r somebody to
say, as a g ive n, that cul ture has decl in ed . 13ecause they ge t th at info rmati o n
in a di ffe rent way, th e re are thin gs th at th ey know no thing abo ut. In o ther
wo rds, th ere are two thin gs that th ey 're very wea k o n, time and space. Th e
reason that they don' t know w here Mex ico is is that, as fa r as th ey kn ow,
Mex ico is o n telev isio n, and the reason th at th ey do n't kn ow any hi sto ry
is beca use th ey're used to ge ttin g eve rythin g th at happens in th e wo rld
simultaneously o n telev isio n .
Speaker:
I do n' t think th ere was a go lden time w hen th ey kn ew w here
Mexico was .
Morris Dickstein:
Th ere was a tilll e w hen peopl e go t what was th en a
very conve nti o nal and w hat we all conside red a very d ull curri culum , in
whi ch we did lea rn wh ere Mex ico was and we did lea rn th e names o f th e
kin gs o f France and we did lea rn th e names o f th e kings o f En gland and
so on.
William Phillips:
We also read se ri o us books.
