September 4, 2009
Exclusive: Obama Youth or the Wages of Charisma
Ask not what you can do for your country; ask what you can do for me.
When it was decided that the President would address the schoolchildren of the nation in a speech this coming Tuesday, the administration’s Department of Education obligingly prepared materials for teachers to help them guide classroom discussions of the speech. One suggestion, asking students to “Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the President,” caused something of a stir. The intention, the White House hastened to explain while changing the offending phraseology, was meant to stimulate children to think about how they could help the President reduce the dropout rate. Oh. But a certain nagging question remains: Why should the President be addressing the nation’s children at all? They’re not participants in the political life of the nation – yet.
All over the country Americans are slowly but surely waking up to the reality of what it was they voted for last November. Those who are old enough to have lived through and remember much of the 20th century are experiencing déjà vu. They are remembering – and recognizing – many things that seem to be beginning, as they began back then, gradually. Gradually, the government insinuates itself into various aspects of national life. It takes over businesses, increasingly regulating the economy, as it moves into health care and housing, expanding the role of government – dare we say of The State – in the way individuals live their lives. It floats the suggestion of universal paramilitary service in exchange for debt-free higher education. It asks artists for their support. (Remember the Social Realism of the Soviet artist?) It already has the uncritical support of newspapers and broadcast networks. And now it makes what is the most breathtaking move of all. It tests the waters on organizing the nation’s children – not in support of the country but in support of its charismatic leader. The cult of personality that delivered entire generations to the totalitarian rulers of the Axis countries – can it happen here?
America was founded and until now has existed as a country devoted to the liberty of all its citizens. Its shortcomings in that regard have long since been corrected, have in fact been more than compensated for. It stands today as the freest nation in the world, where men and women can claim responsibility for their own destinies, can choose their line of work and their religion or lack of one, and where the family has been sacrosanct. Families can close their doors on the outside world and raise their children and educate them as they see fit as long as they don’t abuse them or fail to provide them with the minimum requirements of schooling. Parents have the last word on bringing up their own children….
What happens when the state, having taken hold of the lives of its citizens outside their homes, moves in to influence and eventually control the family through its children? Well, it starts with Our Great Leader appealing directly to the children, asking for their help and their support. This is very flattering to the young, made to feel important – more important, maybe, than their parents and teachers. They are taught to feel their allegiance is no longer to father and mother and priest or rabbi or schoolteacher, but to The One who is the giver of purpose, of importance, and yes, of uniforms and songs….
Like so much else, it began gradually in times of crisis and transition on the European continent. Boys and girls just liked to join, to team up, to play. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and other similar organizations. But little by little the government took over these clubs and teams and formed one greater organization in the name of The Leader. Lots of marching and singing and being taught what mattered, who to admire and who to hate. And what to do about it. And somehow, sport had turned into something else and all that marching was put to use. And when the war was over those who were still left alive were found to be nearly illiterate. The government’s interest in their education had been, one might say, limited to certain skills.
Once they were called Hitler Jugend It’s ridiculous to imagine Obama Youth, isn’t it? Here?
Once, in the beginning, it seemed ridiculous there too.
It might be a good idea to keep the kids at home Tuesday.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Rita Kramer is an author and freelance writer. She has written for the New York Times Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Partisan Review, Commentary, City Journal and numerous other publications in the U.S. and abroad. Her books include Maria Montessori: A Biography, In Defense of the Family: Raising Children in America Today, At ATender Age: Violent Youth and Juvenile Justice, and Ed School Follies:The Miseducation of America's Teachers.