In teaching public high school literature there are very often ideas writers share and connect that are allusions to other literary works. More often than not those literary allusions come from three main places: Shakespeare, Mythology and the Bible.
Every year more and more of my students know less and less about biblical stories: i.e. Adam and Eve, Noah, David and Goliath, etc. These stories used to be ubiquitous in the American culture. Now I notice more and more blank faces when I ask if anyone knows what the author is referencing. I have come to realize that these stories are disappearing from our youth.
Many of us wonder and are confounded that Socialistic ideas (like those of Bernie Sanders) can have so much public appeal, or that colleges where universal ideas were once welcomed because of their challenging and stimulating notions have become so scary that people now need safe spaces to hide from them. I do not think it much a mystery. Watch the video, I think it explains a lot.
