Charley Reese Examines "Dangers of War" and Lack of Education

Here is a quotation from Reich Marshal Hermann Goering. It's a statement he made during the Nuremberg trials:

"The people can always be brought to the bidding of leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

Eric Margolis, an excellent journalist, quoted this in a recent column. While I can't verify the quote, I have no reason to doubt it. After all, it is one of those truths that are immediately recognized as an accurate statement about the human condition. Different people have expressed the thought through the centuries.

We have just seen the ploy used by the Bush administration, and no, I'm not suggesting any moral equivalency between the Bushies and the Nazis. But they did use the same tactic. The Bushies told us we were in imminent danger of an attack by Saddam Hussein. People who questioned that were attacked as unpatriotic and accused of risking the safety of the country. Thus we were led to wage an unprovoked war. The question all of us should ponder is how we, a free people blessed with self-government, can avoid being manipulated by political leaders. The obvious answer is education. I saw a reference to a study recently that showed 69 percent of the Americans polled couldn't find Iraq on a map that was unmarked. That shows gross ignorance of geography. Add to that ignorance of world history, other people, other cultures and other religions, and you have a recipe for sheep that can easily be led by the nose.

Thomas Jefferson said it best when he observed that those who expect to be ignorant and free expect what never was nor ever will be. We, the American people, are not really free if we can't control our own government and its policies. And we will never do that if we remain ignorant.

The news media are partly to blame. I've often said that future historians charting the decline and fall of the United States will damn American journalism for abusing its freedom.

Public education is also to blame. Let's face it — it's a failure. The American taxpayers spend more on education than anybody else in the world and get less for it. It's not the fault of teachers. God knows most of them are frustrated beyond belief. The entrenched and politicized bureaucracy gives teachers and students the least of its attention.

Teachers teach, but only students can learn, and if the students have no desire to learn, there is nothing the best teachers in the world can do about it. Becoming educated is something individuals must do by themselves. And it's hard work.

The worst thing politicians do is mandate that teachers must produce uniform results on standardized tests. The problem with that crazy idea is that students are not uniform. The elephant at the education tea party everybody ignores is IQ. Students with high IQs will do better on standardized tests than students with low IQs. No amount of teaching will erase that gap.

But there are other ways in which students are not uniform, too. Some are healthy. Some are not. Some come from homes with supportive parents. Some come from dysfunctional homes. There is no point in expecting political demagogues who are willing to abuse both teachers and students to understand the complexity of education. Hence, the solution is to abolish public education altogether and start over.

In the meantime, it's never too late to educate oneself. The public library offers the equivalent of a free graduate education to anybody interested in pursuing it. And always be wary of demagogues quick to brand dissenters as unpatriotic.

Teachers teach, but only students can learn, and if the students have no desire to learn, there is nothing the best teachers in the world can do about it.

Now, this is the cultural gospel of 2003, Charley!

Here is the context of the quote:

'The following is an excerpt from a conversation Gilbert had with Goering in his cell on the evening of April 18, 1946.

Goering: "Why, of course, the people don’t want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don’t want war, neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."

Gilbert : "There is one difference. In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

Goering: "Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."'

I saw a reference to a study recently that showed 69 percent of the Americans polled couldn't find Iraq on a map that was unmarked. That shows gross ignorance of geography. Add to that ignorance of world history, other people, other cultures and other religions, and you have a recipe for sheep that can easily be led by the nose.

Too many people don't want to think for themselves. They would rather just do whatever the gubmint tells them to do. Bushbots just blindly follow Gee Dubya off any cliff, just as the Clintonistas follow Bill and Hillary off other cliffs. Either way it kinda hurts when you hit bottom.

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