Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The Kobayashi Maru Test In Simi Valley

Writing at NixoNARA about a public radio documentary on presidential libraries, Maarja Krusten wonders about the appropriateness of an exhibit at the Reagan library that invites students to pretend they're participating in policy-making but blows a raspberry when they diverge from greatness:

[T]roubling on the audio clip is the Reagan library’s blaring, buzzing answer of WRONG!!! when a role-playing student decides in the "Oval Office" not to use large forces against Grenada and to abort the mission after news reports of an imminent invasion surface. The U.S. public largely supported the invasion and even some Democrats who initially opposed it later changed their minds. Yet the lesson at the Reagan presidential library should not be that deviating from the choice Reagan made was wrong. Instead, it should be a more neutral, "you chose this, here’s what Reagan chose under the same circumstances."

2 comments:

MK said...

Ha, bonus points, big time, for the Star Trek reference! Well done!

Fr. John said...

I knew you'd like that!