Dr. Robert Schadler, Victims of Communism Foundation, Washington
Political education by the real world – from the
Wall to the collapse of the World Trade Center
The title of Dr. Schadler’s speech is “political
education by the real world – from the fall of the Wall
to the collapse of the World Trade Center”. He wants
to show the challenges and possibilities for political
education that can be taken from these dramatic
events. First of all, he assesses “history and
recollection. lessons of the past”. He shows that many
juveniles do not know too much about their own
countries’ history. Then he goes into three historic
periods, starting out with the first period of cold war,
which leads to the period “end of history”. But this
period also ended after roughly ten years and the
world still finds itself in a phase of a so-called “war”, where the enemy cannot be precisely
defined. All we know is that the democratic system has been attacked. The questions that can
be posed are to what extent this affects the political education and what conclusions can be
drawn from this. In answering these questions, he refers to the significance of a nation as
such, its laws and constitutions and the separation of State and religion. Afterwards he
discusses the relation between democracy and tolerance and goes into the difficulties that
occur with the introduction of a new democratic system. In conclusion, he emphasizes once
again that the constitutional countries face a new challenge caused by immigration and the
fight against terrorism. In this context history has to be included and serious topics have to be
addressed reasonably. It is established that history has not come to a halt and that political
education will not become boring in the near future. One has to make the best of it.