Posted on 05/20/2013 10:54:37 AM PDT by jazusamo
This time of year, as college students return home for the summer, many parents may notice how many politically correct ideas they have acquired on campus. Some of those parents may wonder how they can undo some of the brainwashing that has become so common in what are supposed to be institutions of higher learning.
The strategy used by General Douglas MacArthur so successfully in the Pacific during World War II can be useful in this very different kind of battle. General MacArthur won his victories while minimizing his casualties — something that is also desirable in clashes of ideas within the family.
Instead of fighting the Japanese for every island stronghold as the Americans advanced toward Japan, MacArthur sent his troops into battle for only those islands that were strategically crucial. In the same spirit, parents who want to bring their brainwashed offspring back to reality need not try to combat every crazy idea they picked up from their politically correct professors. Just demolishing a few crucial beliefs, and exposing what nonsense they are, can deal a blow to the general credibility of the professorial pied pipers.
For example, if the student has been led to join the crusade for more gun control, and thinks that the reason the British have lower murder rates than Americans have is because the Brits have tighter gun control laws, just give him or her a copy of the book "Guns and Violence" by Joyce Lee Malcolm.
As the facts in that book demolish the gun control propaganda fed to students by their professors, that can create a healthy skepticism about other professorial propaganda.
There are other books that can likewise demolish other politically correct beliefs that prevail on campuses. My own recent book, "Intellectuals and Race," has innumerable documented facts that expose...
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
This has been going on for some time.
My childhood friend spent ONE semester at UMass Amhearst in 1970. She came home a dedicated marxist, a member of the SDS(forerunner of the Weathermen) and chose to leave her parents home to live in a hippie pad on Beacon Hill with two other girls and a drug dealer.
I seriously doubt the value of a College education.
Maybe parents should just stop feeding the beast.
Sowell hasn’t overtly stated his faith,
but no one without a firm biblical foundation
and the requisite indwelling of the holy spirit
could have such a firm grasp on what is true and what is not.
So, I believe when we no longer hear from Tom,
he’ll have GRADUATED!
Very sad...I remember the SDS and that era well. We had two toddlers and were trying to get ahead, the college students and hippies (dopers) were raising h*** from coast to coast. Many of those turkeys were and still are teaching in colleges, they’re a huge reason for the current problems.
I also. Logical,smart, and experienced. O wait he’s black.
Completely missing the information.
I would welcome him to my home and would just shut my mouth and take notes.
“Not the sports page. Not a magazine but a book...”
Assuming that failing educational institutions have taught them to read, then putting into their hands easy-to-read, pithy books and statements just might penetrate their minds and cause them to question what their government tells them.
While they may not perceive it at the present time, their choice now is between individual freedom and slavery to government--a tyrannical form of slavery.
The formula structured by the Constitution of the United States and laid out in its philosophical foundations--as asserted in the 1776 Declaration of Independence from an overly-powerful government administered by King George III--were explained by America's Founders.
Their writings and speeches, as well as the wisdom writings from previous defenders of liberty, are available online.
THE FEDERALIST, that collection of 85 essays explaining the Constitution's provisions and protections, now can be read in every home and school as a means of enlightening a public which has become too willing to yield their Creator-endowed liberty to a collection of would-be tyrants who call themselves "progressives," but are, in fact, taking American citizens back to the bondage from which their ancestors fled in other parts of the world.
Several years ago, a business man by the name of James R. Evans, in his book, "America's Choice: Twilight's Last Gleaming or Dawn's Early Light," suggested 7 simple principles which every citizen could benefit from considering as they watch the so-called "progressives" attempt to enslave them through legislation and Executive Orders.
"1. Does this legislation or idea increase, or decrease, individual freedom and creativity?"2. Does this legislation or idea increase, or decrease, the power of some citizens over other citizens?
"3. Does this legislation or idea recognize that the persons who will exercise the power are themselves imperfect human beings?
"4. Does this legislation or idea recognize that government is incapable of creating wealth?
"5. Does this legislation or idea authorize taking from some what belongs to them, and giving it to others to whom it does not belong?
If 'thou shalt not steal' is a valid commandment, can we assume that it is meant to apply only to individuals and not to government (which is made up of individuals), even if those persons in power pass laws which sanction such redistribution of the wealth of others?'"6. Does this legislation or idea encourage, or discourage, the very highest level of morality and responsibility from the individual?
. . .when government makes actions 'legal' by some citizens at the expense of other citizens, the result may be behavior which would not be considered possible by individuals acting alone."7. Does this legislation or idea propose that the 'government' do something which the individual cannot do without committing a crime?"**
**7 principles drawn from James R. Evans book, "America's Choice," and reprinted in a Stedman Corporation (Asheboro, NC) booklet entitled "I'm Only One, What Can I Do?"
The simplicity of these questions and of the core message of the following words by some of America's Founders might jar some citizens into a recognition of what "progressives" and this Administration are doing to the future of liberty for their posterity:
"...nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people. When the people give way, their deceivers, betrayers, and destroyers press upon them so fast, that there is no resisting afterwards. The nature of the encroachment upon the American constitution is such, as to grow every day more and more encroaching. Like a cancer, it eats faster and faster every hour. The revenue creates pensioners, and the pensioners urge for more revenue. The people grow less steady, spirited, and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependents and expectants, until virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity, and frugality, become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity, luxury, foppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality swallow up the whole society." - John Adams"This was a favorable moment to shut and bar the door against paper money." [This statement referred to a proposed provision in Article I, Section 8, that would have read 'and emit bills of credit (paper money) of the United States,' which the Founders rejected by an overwhelming vote.] - James Madison- Notes of the Federal Convention 1787
"...there have always been those who wish to enlarge the powers of the General Government. There is but one safe rule...confine (it) within the sphere of its appropriate duties. It has no power to raise a revenue or impose taxes except for the purposes enumerated in the Constitution....Every attempt to exercise power beyond these limits should be promptly and firmly opposed." - Andrew Jackson's Valedictory
"...experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government), those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate...the minds of the people...to give them knowledge of those facts, which history exhibiteth. History, by apprizing them of the past, will enable them to judge of the future...it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views...." - Jefferson's Bill for the more general diffusion of knowledge for Virginia
"Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant--they have been cheated; asleep--they have been surprised; divided--the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson?...the people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it....It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free." - James Madison
"These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and the blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety." - Thomas Jefferson-First Inaugural Statement of Principles of Good Government
Have your kids ask “What jobs did you work at before becoming a professor?” If the reply is in the negative, tell ‘em don’t believe anything they say as they have never lived in the real world.
I took a Poly Sci class with a professor, who among other jobs, worked as a deckhand in the Merchant Marine. Knew his stuff and had the class in the palm of his hand.
My father, God rest his soul, required a book report on The Naked Communist before he allowed me to go see Doctor Zhivago back in the 1960s. I wasn't always as conservative as I am now, but that simple exercise largely prevented me from being brainwashed by any college professors
BUMP...Good post!
Indeed.
Even convicted terrorists like William Ayers and Bernadine Dorhn hold exalted positions in academia as we speak!
It is indeed a national tragedy that this man couldn’t have been the first African-American President.
Good and timely post. Thanks.
And aren't we living this situation right now...
That's a great list of suggested reading for anyone who has children about to graduate high school or in college.
Thanks again, Dr. Sowell, and you too, Jaz!
P.S. I love the link, “Creatots Syndicate” Sounds like a toy manufacturer employing toddlers.
Hey, it could work! [giggles]
The New Leviathan: Or Man, Society, Civilization and Barbarism by R. G. Collingwood and David Boucher
The New Leviathan: The State Versus the Individual in the 21st Century by Roger Kimball
The New Leviathan: How the Left-Wing Money-Machine Shapes American Politics and Threatens America's Future by David Horowitz and Jacob Laksin
Any one know which one the good Doctor meant?
I will be too. There are few to take his place.
Ben Carson might be Sowell’s heir-apparent in a sense.
The New Leviathan: The State Versus the Individual in the 21st Century by Roger Kimball
LOL! I didn’t even notice it. As you can tell typing is not my thing, my hunt and peck method often fails me. ;-)
My 16-year-old has to read “Basic Economics” and “Applied Economics” this summer. That will teach him more about Econ than 90% of the population. All the kids are gun-nuts already, but I wish something would persuade them that they want to get jobs!
You’re a good sport, dear. [smiles]
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