Posted on 01/27/2003 5:24:17 AM PST by SJackson
The advanced human brain is just about the only means that we have to secure our collective well-being. Humans are neither the strongest nor the fastest species, but we are the smartest. Therefore, it makes sense to educate ourselves. Without education, we would probably still have a life span of nine years and would spend our evenings sacrificing each other to the sun god. That’s why education is good. It does, however, have its bad points. For one, a college education costs about as much as a three story Victorian home. What is worse, higher education today usually requires students to sacrifice their brains— not all of their brains, just the part that allows them to use logic. So, today’s college grads have to pay back loans every month until retirement and they also have to forfeit the most important part of their brains— that’s a pretty high price for a college degree.
Perhaps I’m wrong. Maybe college isn’t to blame for the political silliness of so many students. Stupid political decisions— like voting for Ralph Nader— could be attributed to outside factors, such as immaturity or malnutrition. Or it could be that the liberalized boys and girls who are being turned out of the Marxist assembly line known as academia have been liberal their whole lives. Maybe their parents named them “Moonbeam” in 1975 and are still anti-establishment hippies who suck down marijuana cigarettes with their kids every weekend. I have had friends who come from similar circumstances. Another reason that kids come out of college dazed and confused could be alcohol and hallucinogens. Nothing kills a strong study habit like a hit from a three foot glass bong. Nothing, of course, except a fat, old professor who convinces you to chain yourself to the front gate of a power plant.
Are colleges and universities turning young people into spineless leftists who are afraid to use logic? Perhaps even as you read this you are thinking of a friend or family member who used to make sense and receive commonly appreciated ideas with a rational thought process, but now, upon liberating himself in academia, has accepted the notion that possessing a strong opinion is bad, and standing up for what you believe is not right, if it’s possible that somebody might take offense. Do you know somebody like this? Does it frustrate you? Do you try to drag them back with conventional wisdom only to watch them recoil like disease recoils from cure? Do they respond to your logical statements by accusing you of being too rigid and aggressive? Is there still hope?
I know somebody who fits this description to a tee— my brother— I‘ll call him Jack. My little brother, I love him. He can whip a six-string guitar like Bruce Coburn, write phat lyrics like Busta Rhymes, and furnish his entire wardrobe by shopping at the Salvation Army. At twenty-four, he’s visited monasteries in France and temples in India, just for the hell of it; just to see what they’re like. He’s driven all over America; he’s hiked all around California and Oregon— all without ever asking for any doe from mom and dad, without even asking for a ride to the airport. My father has never gotten a phone call like “We’re broken down in Wyoming. Can you come and change a flat?” My brother is a very accomplished guy. He earned a bachelors degree in philosophy from a prestigious college, and he now works as a teacher for autistic children. He’s basically been on his own since he went off to college, where, of course, he completely lost his mind.
Before he departed for college, he was a typical conservative Christian who enjoyed going on youth group trips and playing his guitar. He also liked to listen to music such as the Grateful Dead and The Beatles. He enjoyed hanging out with his friends, reading books and doing normal things. But then he went to college and came under the influence of a radical professor who is a former student of the intellectual fraud and unrepentant leftist, Cornel West. This professor became Jack's mentor, inviting him to her house for dinner and even arranging for him to join her in a protest of the World Trade Organization that took place in Boston’s financial district. As time went on, and Jack got closer to graduation, I noticed that the little comments he would make were more and more left-wing. Now, my youth-group loving little brother has been transformed into a young man who gets his jollies by studying the likes of Noam Chomsky and Richard Rorty.
Recently I caught up with him and convinced him to do an interview for this magazine. When I told Jack that I wanted to write a column about his liberal convictions for this cutting edge conservative publication, he immediately cried foul, citing his belief that he is not a liberal at all— he simply doesn’t know what he thinks. When he informed me of this, I was disappointed. I had already agreed to write the article, but now my interview with Jack was not getting off on the right foot. I was quickly reassured that the article would be written, however, when Jack realized that the floor was his and I would not be challenging any of his ideas. That, of course, would be an insensitive thing for me to do.
He began his statements by informing me that “I think Mitt Romney [the MA Republican Governor-elect] and George Bush are both clowns.” Now, he doesn’t exactly know why; they just “seem” like clowns. My thought: “you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.” His thought: “Well, if either of those two guys are on the cover of a book then I ain’t buying that book.” Touché.
Still unconfident in his political knowledge, he told me that if I really want to interview a liberal then there are plenty of guys in his commune who fit the bill. (I suppose it isn’t really a commune, but he has about a million roommates and none of them own beds). He also told me that he often listens to the socialist radio station, National Public Radio (NPR), but he doesn’t think of it as left-wing, he just considers it normal. Moreover, he thinks that conservative programs are just out there bashing anyone who doesn’t agree with their way of thinking. He’s heard the Boston area conservative radio host Jay Severin do this, and he has never listened to Rush Limbaugh, but he has “heard of him.” According to Jack, everyone in the world should just meet in the middle and avoid extremes— the middle apparently being the political line of NPR.
Jack says that he is all for finding alternative forms of energy, and that drilling for oil in the pristine Alaska wilderness “doesn’t make sense” to him. This desire to find alternative forms of energy is popular among those on the left. But, like most rank and file leftists, Jack doesn’t have any suggestions as to what “alternative forms of energy” might mean. Perhaps we should all rely on our own fat. The U.S. is, after all, the fattest nation on earth. The average American is twenty pounds overweight. That is caloric energy stored as blubber. I’m sure that we could figure out a way to harness this energy and avoid disturbing the sacred Alaskan caribou. Maybe if liberals took science classes instead of studying about “oppression,” and “women” they would have figured this one out already.
Unlike most lefties, my brother takes a firm stand against abortion. This is a brave position to take considering that just about anyone in the country can be pro-abortion without ever having to worry about defending that position. Teddy Kennedy, the chubby, alcoholic Senator from Massachusetts, for example, counts himself as pro-abortion as well as Catholic. How does this work? Who knows? Even though it is logically impossible for someone to be both a Catholic and pro-abortion, Kennedy gets away with it because he’s not expected to be logical— he is, after all, a liberal Democrat.
During our conversation, Jack briefly mentioned that he does not think that nuclear weapons are good. That’s his stand on the nuclear weapons issue.
Jack then began complaining, and rightfully so, that the state program that he works for is holding out part of his check for some kind of retirement fund. He is only twenty-four and is clearly not going to be working in the same job until retirement. He thinks that this withholding is “stupid” and “unfair.” Conversely, he thinks that there should be more state funding for social services. He obviously hasn’t figured out that part of that money will be coming from his paycheck. Maybe someday he’ll make this connection.
One of the social services that he firmly believes the federal government should provide for American citizens is health insurance. I’m not quite sure, but I think that this belief might be derivative of his own lack of health insurance— just a hunch.
How about this for an irrational, baseless fear? Jack mentioned in passing that he has a terrible fear of “large corporations.” I have heard of this fear before. Some experts actually consider it to be a clinical problem— like claustrophobia, or arachnophobia. It is typically referred to as “corporatephobia.” Many a college student has been known to come down with this illness. Currently, Jack is only in the beginning stages of the disease, suffering from such symptoms as a strong desire to read anything by Noam Chomsky and an unexplainable pull toward masculine women who badmouth capitalism. In its later stages, this illness usually culminates in a trip to Seattle, where the afflicted person breaks storefront windows and flips the bird to anyone wearing a suit.
Throughout the interview, Jack was dead set against me attaching a political moniker to him. I think perhaps many folks who are politically astute would call him a “liberal” or a “leftist.” But Jack reflexively pulls away from such titles. Like many brainwashed college grads, he displays ignorance and weakness as a sign of intelligence and sophistication. The rationale is, “Hey, I’m so confident and secure in my intelligence and inner strength, I don’t have to make sense or know the answers, or have the testicular muscle to take a stand. But just don’t ever call me a conservative.” Of course, most campus leftists wear their political label as a badge of honor. But some, like my brother, are too afraid, for whatever reason, to admit that they are further left than Karl Marx.
Go figure.
Is he all they have? What's up with the Noam fetish? (My theory is that it's the name)
. . . and encourage him to visit 'frontpagemazazine.com'.
. . .of course, David's 'Radical Son' (and any of his other books would be helpful too) should be required reading for any student heading off to a Liberal Indoctrination Center as well. . .
All major cities have hundreds of philosophy majors, most of them driving cabs.
the state program that he works for
Figures. All the cab companies must have been full up.
There's still reason to be optimistic, just that realization alone has led to many liberal to conservative converts.
I have my oldest daughter (one of our five children), ho is a mother of one and expecting number two, who is also taking some part time classes here at BSU (Boise State University - but perhaps more appropriately named BS -U when you hear what they are teaching) while her husband goes full time there completing a Computer Science degree.
Anyhow, she is finishing some general ed requirements towards a marketing degree and is enrolled in a "social problems" class. She is being taught exactly the same garbage dexcribed in this article ... that abject marxists/leftists are somehow God's gift to mankind, that Fidel Castro is the savior and hero of cuba and welcomed by the vast majority of cubans and only the "capitalist" rich exploiters have fled that country. (Luis, pipe in here)
She is working on an assignment now where the given and the basis of the discussion starts from the perspective that "the liberal media" is a myth and the assignment is to prove that the liberal bias does not exist. They have been given a pamphlet/book and a web site (www.fair.com) to use to prove this thesis, indicating that somehow, because rich people own the media, that they are necessarily pure capitolists and therefore can have no "liberal" bias. My indication is that the bias is "Unamerican" because they embrace the socialist, marxist ideals leading this nation and its economy away from the principles and true free markety principles the nation was founded upon.
This is true whether they seek to bring the American populace economically down by foisting abjectly socialist/marxist programs upon us through useful idots of all sorts (rabid environmentalists, PETA, socialists, marxists, etc), or if they seek to do so by establishing a bastardized world market economy that destroys the self-reliant, independent, soveriegn nature of America's free market ... exporting and exploiting that system for their own global interests. Both efforts are part and parcel of the same program ... to bring down this great Republic IMHO and try and confuse Americans in the process.
Being my daughter, and being raised as she has been, she is determining to prove just the opposite and willing to risk her grade in the process while she proclaims the truth. I am proud of her, but digusted at the wholly blatant efforts (which I have known of for many years because it also extends down into primary and secondary education where we have fought it) to undermine and castagate the principles that made this nation what it is.
I am going to flag my daughter (and many others) to this thread (who is herself a new FReeper) and hope she gets some good dialogue with patriotic/conservative/liberty loving Americans (besides her dad) who know the truth and will give her advise and direction in her efforts. ... Kate, there is likely to be all sorts of good advise coming your way, perhaps sprinkled with some things you may not agree with. That's fine, filter and sift through it all in the thought process to defend and stand up for what you KNOW it right.
SJackson, thanks for posting this ... it is an issue and problem we all need to be aware of. The attempt continues in great force to destroy any vestage of faith, American ideals and foundational principles in our youth ... but those raised properly will ultimately rise above it as the teachings of their youth perculate to the fore as a result of real life experiences which so many of these supposed "great thinkers" and tyrant wannabe's or collaborators are totally devoid of.
Maybe he could get through all five volumes and help fund my next book which I will call "The Stand at Klamath Falls - How rural western farmers stood up against entrenched environmentalism and the Federal Government and won.".
Actually, many of these professors profess to be libertarians and believe that current conditions are as bad as Clinton. This one guy even had the audacity to call Clinton a "conservative".
I believe there are many disconcerting and worriesome issues with current conditions. It is a VERY dangerous time. That is why I am writing the Draogn's Fury Series books.
My advise to my daughter has been to just skip over the "labels" of conservative, liberal, etc. and focus wholly on whether the principles being pushed by these various groups support those principles that underly the constitutional republic we have based on faith, morality, self-reliance, independence, soveriegnty and the unalienable rights of the individual. If the principles being espoused do not, then from whatever direction they come they are "Un-American" and destructive to those values and principles that made eour Republic and way of life what it is (or at least what it should be).
Best
Agreed, cricket. It is a great and, at times, deeply moving and poignant book (as for instance, when he writes about his father, an unreconstructed Communist). Horowitz was somehow able to recover from the madness of his radical Yippie years. So it is reassuring to note that the disease of cultural Marxism is something one can recover from. Horowitz certainly did!
"Humans are neither the strongest nor the fastest species, but we are the smartest. Therefore, it makes sense to educate ourselves. Without education, we would probably still have a life span of nine years and would spend our evenings sacrificing each other to the sun god. That’s why education is good. It does, however, have its bad points. For one, a college education costs about as much as a three story Victorian home. What is worse, higher education today usually requires students to sacrifice their brains— not all of their brains, just the part that allows them to use logic. So, today’s college grads have to pay back loans every month until retirement and they also have to forfeit the most important part of their brains— that’s a pretty high price for a college degree."
The RadicalRaightWingWhacko PARENTS who pay their children's tuition can END PROFESSOR TENURE, by aggressively lobbying the UniversityEFFETEELITE who allow this anti-American, PRO-Communism Brainwashing to occur!!
It's up to US to stop allowing our children to be handicapped by IgnorantDOLTLib'ralProfessors' skewed interpretations of reality!!
FReegards...MUD
Thanks for the ping JH. I'm going to have to come back and be more thorough later.
MERELY the distorted headlines show the bias. Instead of, "Iraq guilty of violating UN Resolutions," it is, "Bush challenged to show Iraq guilty . . ." I could go on and on.
The problems with the media are INSTITUTIONAL and METHODOLOGICAL---the commitment to a relativistic notion that there is no truth, and can BE no truth which means that "every issue has two sides." In other words, "A" says the earth is round," well there MUST be "another side," even if it is demonstrably proven that the "earth is round." Moreover, the notion that just because the Dems say it, we must print it is manifestly biased. Notice that they do not print everything the National Right to Life committee puts out, or the Libertarian Party, or even the Green Party. I am working on a book on this, about half finished. Feel free to contact me for further info.
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