By way of Rod Dreher’s blog, a thought-provoking extract of Alan Ehrenhalt’s book: "The Lost City: The Forgotten Virtues of Community in America" After describing the indignities heaped upon black Americans, homosexuals and aspiring women in the 1950’s, it continues:
but we have to be careful about generalizing from these anecdotes.
Most definitely. But as a claim that "there is another story to tell, and it isn't often heard" the anecdotes seem very reasonable. They just don't tell you anything about the extent of that "other story".
Memories are not to be trusted.
Indeed. But happiness survey show equal happiness back in the 1950's. So someone had to be having a great time while all the victims of the times were being miserable.
A lot more people report participation in civil rights marches in surveys than actually did historically. Surveys also report a far larger number of people saying they voted for a president now considered popular than the ballot results would lead one to think. Memories are not to be trusted.
This sort of anecdote is why people do random-sample surveys: "If you visit middle-class American suburbs today, and talk to the elderly women who have lived out their adult years in these places, they do not tell you how constricted and demeaning their lives in the 1950s were. They tell you those were the best years they can remember."
First off, when people go to do interviews they will often find what they are looking for. Sample surveys are hard to do, but people do them to avoid this sort of bias.
Second, there's a selection bias: the people who "lived out their adult years in these places" might be more likely to like these places since they stayed there. I'm not saying that this book shouldn't be written (or read), but we have to be careful about generalizing from these anecdotes.
And a disproportionate number of losers-now-winners have 1) a chip on their shoulder (often rightly), 2) have a better story to tell. The civil rights movement is a dominant portion of a child's k-12 education. Other good ideas that didn't have this kind of struggle are relatively diminished, such as many virtues related to classical liberalism that aren't as sexy.
but we have to be careful about generalizing from these anecdotes.
Most definitely. But as a claim that "there is another story to tell, and it isn't often heard" the anecdotes seem very reasonable. They just don't tell you anything about the extent of that "other story".
Memories are not to be trusted.
Indeed. But happiness survey show equal happiness back in the 1950's. So someone had to be having a great time while all the victims of the times were being miserable.
Andrew, great comment.
A lot more people report participation in civil rights marches in surveys than actually did historically. Surveys also report a far larger number of people saying they voted for a president now considered popular than the ballot results would lead one to think. Memories are not to be trusted.
This sort of anecdote is why people do random-sample surveys: "If you visit middle-class American suburbs today, and talk to the elderly women who have lived out their adult years in these places, they do not tell you how constricted and demeaning their lives in the 1950s were. They tell you those were the best years they can remember."
First off, when people go to do interviews they will often find what they are looking for. Sample surveys are hard to do, but people do them to avoid this sort of bias.
Second, there's a selection bias: the people who "lived out their adult years in these places" might be more likely to like these places since they stayed there. I'm not saying that this book shouldn't be written (or read), but we have to be careful about generalizing from these anecdotes.
And a disproportionate number of losers-now-winners have 1) a chip on their shoulder (often rightly), 2) have a better story to tell. The civil rights movement is a dominant portion of a child's k-12 education. Other good ideas that didn't have this kind of struggle are relatively diminished, such as many virtues related to classical liberalism that aren't as sexy.
More precisely, history is written by today's winners, who were often yesterday's losers.