We Are in Need of Renaissance People

On 10/7, J.J. Sefton put this piece by Victor Davis Hanson above the fold in his Morning Report.

The songwriter, actor, country/western singer, musician, U.S. Army veteran, helicopter pilot, accomplished rugby player and boxer, Rhodes scholar, Pomona College and University of Oxford degreed, and summa cum laude literature graduate, Kris Kristofferson, recently died at 88.

Americans may have known him best for writing smash hits like “Me and Bobby McGee” and “For the Good Times,” his wide-ranging, star-acting roles in A Star is Born and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, his numerous solo albums, especially with then-spouse and singer Rita Coolidge, and the country group super-quartet he formed with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson.

In other words, Kristofferson was a rare Renaissance man who could do it all in an age of increasingly narrow specialization and expertise.

At certain times throughout history at particular locales, we have seen such singular people from all walks of life.

Multi-talented individuals have certainly had a profound impact through the ages, and have been crucial to the formation of our country.

The American Revolution was a similar embryo of Renaissance men. Thomas Jefferson was perhaps the most famous example of unchecked abstract and pragmatic genius displayed in almost every facet of late 18th– and early 19th-century life—main author of the Declaration of Independence, third U.S. President, founder of the University of Virginia, inventor, agronomist, architect, and diplomat.

But Benjamin Franklin may best approximate the model of the Florentine Renaissance holistic brilliance—journalist, publisher, printer, author, politician, diplomat, inventor, scientist, and philosopher. . .

The history of our own contemporary Renaissance people often suggests that they are not fully appreciated until after their deaths—especially in the post-World War II era.

Why?

We have created a sophisticated modern society that is so compartmentalized by “professionals” and the credentialed that those who excel simultaneously in several disciplines are often castigated for “amateurism,” “spreading themselves too thinly,” “not staying in their lanes,” or not being degreed with the proper prerequisite letters—BA, BS, MA, PhD, MD, JD, or MBA—in the various fields that they master.

But specialization is the enemy of genius, as is the tyranny of credentialism.

I had an eighth or ninth grade history teacher who advocated for amateur specialization as a way to be of service to the community - - developing a hobby such as local geology in which one could become an expert, for example. But I think that is something entirely different from the "tyranny of credentialism". The credentialed would likely reject the expertise of such a local expert.

Do we do enough to value such expertise through local connections today? This may be a way to counter some of the power of the overclass.

Elon Musk

Renaissance people often live controversial lives and receive 360-degree incoming criticism, not surprising given the many fields in which they upstage specialists and question experts—and the sometimes overweening nature of their personalities that feel no reason to place boundaries and lanes on their geniuses and behavior or to temper their exuberances.

The best American example of the current age is the controversial Elon Musk, a truly Renaissance figure who has revolutionized at least half a dozen entire fields.

When summarized as VDH does here, the breadth of Musk's accomplishments are amazing.

Overspecialization

Overspecialization has helped make vulnerable and sometimes doomed complex top-down societies from the Mycenaeans to the Aztecs to the Soviets. A tiny credentialed and often incestuous elite manages the lives of a vast underclass whose daily lives are scripted by top-down master planners—as an autonomous and skeptical middle class disappears.

America is increasingly becoming a bifurcated, two-tiered society of a specialized government-corporate-media-political-credentialed class of degreed overseers and managers who attempt to micromanage an increasingly less well-educated, dependent underclass.

I am wondering right now if Kamala Harris is being micromanaged by degreed overseers and managers. Odd thought?

Renaissance people provide a link to the proverbial people, as they master almost anything they attempt while keeping themselves attuned to the practical effect of their achievement among the people.

The entire piece by VDH is well worth reading and pondering.

Almost Renaissance People?

Victor Davis Hanson?

What other academic commutes from a center of the Power of the Overclass like Stanford to a community where the underclass is so evident, like Selma, California?

Who teaches not only classics and ancient languages but also the history of war? How many academics know how to pick fruit and fix a tractor?

How many professors dare write a book describing the ways Trump has pointed out where our culture and politics have gone wrong?

Dennis Prager?

I first became acquainted with Dennis Prager when he had a weekday local talk show which was broadcast in Southern California, plus a Sunday night program called "Religion on the Line". Prager is someone who started with a firm ethical base and then expanded his knowledge in a variety of ways.

His motto for the weekday program was that he would talk about "anything but" and I think the list was architecture, poetry and gardening. Then he changed his mind on gardening when someone brought him some tree-ripened apricots.

This was a time before talk radio became politically charged. I was often stunned by the intelligence of the conversations Dennis had with guests. I preferred his radio commentary to his writing, actually. Though he advocated writing as a way to clarify thinking.

Anyway, he had some good ideas about how people could increase the breadth of interests and knowledge in their lives. When he was young, he decided not to waste his life on the then-equivalent of video games. He sluffed school a lot, but not to goof off. He taught himself foreign languages, interviewed as many interesting people as he could in New York City and taught himself to conduct a symphony orchestra (he later conducted at the Hollywood Bowl).

He has visited most of the countries in the world, smuggled Jewish scripture and documents to and from the USSR and developed an institute for Ethical Monotheism.

All this was before Prager went national (doing his part to save the country and Western Civilization) and started Prager U.

I wish I had access to some of his old programs to share with kids.

His articles and videos often provide a glimpse into the depth of his thinking, but his conversations with people seem to me to be even more valuable. I think he has helped me to address the "tyranny of credentialism" successfully in some personal interactions.

What do you think about the current state of credentialism and overspecialization in our society?

Can you think of any other living Renaissance people or Almost Renaissance People?

Music

Much more on Kris Kristofferson from Scott Johnson. Including Here Comes That Rainbow Again.

Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Last week's thread, October 5, What would Eric Hoffer, The Longshoreman Philosopher, be thinking about now?

There is a quote in there, from decades ago, in which Hoffer foresaw some of the effects of credentialism in our day, I think. Interesting that he was taken seriously back then by some in the overclass.

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