Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
When facing trouble and uncertainty, some people turn to leaders who offer certainties. Through charisma, self-praise, manipulation of the media, and patience for idolatry, the demagogue stirs up people’s fears, and promises himself as the force that can return order to the community.
It’s difficult not to think of Donald Trump when reading these words. A Sacramento Bee editorial from this past Friday, titled “Donald Trump is a demagogue and a danger to democracy,” explores these concerns, opining that “Trump is an accomplished demagogue and a clear and present danger to American democracy.”
The Bee argues that “We underestimate Trump at our peril. He is a master of 21st-century media, yet he must be seen through the prism of American history. He is the latest in a long line of thuggish public figures who incited hatred and sowed division.”
I appreciated that the Bee provided historical context for men like Trump, reminding us that during “the Great Depression, there was Father Charles Coughlin, the first to use the power of radio to promote bigotry. During the Cold War, there was Sen. Joe McCarthy, who recklessly smeared loyal Americans as Communists. During the 1960s civil rights movement, a racist Gov. George Wallace stood as a symbol of segregation.”
All of these American knaves needed perceived outsiders to blame for the uncertainty and threats facing the nation. After the recent senseless slaughter in San Bernardino—a couple killing many of the people who had hosted their baby shower earlier this year—the political rhetoric has become more intense and strident, and the focus of national political discussions has shifted. As many shaken Americans look to Muslims and people from the Middle East with greater distrust and fear, the standing of certain presidential candidates becomes solidified (Trump and Clinton), while others with less experience or braggadocio regarding foreign affairs (such as Carson and Sanders) are seeming to fade. The political discussions provide starkly differing opinions on what makes America exceptional.
Meanwhile, we all have much to learn about the participants in our multicultural society, whether you call America a melting pot (a term made popular by a 1909 play of the same name), or a patchwork quilt, as Jesse Jackson famously put it in a 1988 speech. My dad’s former workplace in Washington DC, TV station WUSA, recently shared footage of an angry man telling people at a community meeting in a Virginia mosque that “Every one of you are terrorists.” How does one respond to such an accusation? He added, “You can smile at me, you can say whatever you want, but every Muslim is a terrorist.”
This past Friday I attended some talks that explored what might be called the other end of the spectrum of political understanding and engagement. Assuming that we will confront terrorism, alienation, and isolating religious extremism with something other than merely sorties in Syria, we might wonder what approach we should take instead. One that focuses on education, suggests Keith David Watenpaugh, Director of Human Rights Studies at UC Davis. In his keynote address at a UC Davis conference titled “Syria’s Lost Generation: A Human Rights Challenge to American Higher Education,” Watenpaugh posited that young Syrian refugees are eager to seek out higher education in neighboring countries, in Europe, and in the United States.
With Watenpaugh and other cognizant and conscientious faculty here, UC Davis is well situated to shoulder our part of what I see as a universal responsibility to offer refuge to those escaping war, terror, and oppressive regimes. Insofar as ISIS wishes to foment dissension, seclusion, and animosity among American Muslims, I feel we can best defeat ISIS by challenging prejudice and inhospitality. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Pit race against race, religion against religion, prejudice against prejudice. Divide and conquer! We must not let that happen here.”
Meanwhile, as has happened too often, today we are given reason to reflect on the curtailed lives cut short by the gun of a madman or a misdirected fanatic. In silence or out loud, we read the names in the newspaper, or on memorial stones. A shadow has darkened the holidays. Rather than being swayed by demagoguery during this challenging time, let such occasions remind us of our shared values and fill us with resolve to be what Abraham Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.”
Tonight’s pub quiz will feature a number of questions on geography, a perennial gap in the educations of Americans. In fact, Mark Twain once said, “God created war so that Americans would learn geography.” Expect also questions on sports teams named after animals, pollution, popular clubs from the late 1980s, faraway flags, Greek adhesives, speeches given by the newly-announced California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia, international courts, countries even less populous than Ireland, Horace Greeley, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, race relations, California cities, gold stars, countries that are not Hungary, misfit stranglers, music genres, Star Wars, high-value Scrabble letters, posthumous votes, visible light, color barriers, inspiration provided by The Police, Mexico, Netflix, welcome assessments, popular oils, presidential elections, and Shakespeare.
My first book of trivia will be published in 2016. If you have enjoyed the Pub Quiz and would like to say something nice about the questions I ask, or the Pub Quiz experience at de Vere’s Irish Pub, please drop me an email filled with quotable acclaim at yourquizmaster@gmail.com. I will be including some blurbs from local notables inside and even on the back cover of the new book, and perhaps I can include you. Thanks, and see you tonight!
Your Quizmaster
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I hope you enjoyed all the Will Ferrell questions last week. Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
- Mottos and Slogans. Starting with the letter A, what company calls itself “The Company for Women”?
- Internet Culture. The Raspberry Pi foundation has just released the latest in its series of credit card–sized single-board computers, the Raspberry Pi Zero. How much does it cost? $500, $50, or $5?
- California Colleges and Universities. According to Google maps, the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California is a Jesuit university that is just over 100 miles from Davis if one takes 80 west and then 680 south. Name the university.