I was overjoyed to see this article as it’s something that’s been on my mind as of late and I couldn’t seem to find any kind of meaningful discussion on the subject. It’s a shame, because it’s possibly the most important issue facing the future of America.
By that, I mean: the hijack of our young minds by the left and the bang-up job they are doing in brainwashing them with values which are almost the polar opposite of the values which America was founded upon.
The result is an inconsistency in the mindset of today’s youth, the exposure of which will serve to guide us toward the solution.
The inconsistency is this:
Teenagers and young adults have a natural urge to assert their individualism. It’s something they feel very strongly about and which can be summed up by the phrase “I am a name, not a number.” When I was a teenager we’d express anger that the state wanted to compartmentalize us, to turn us into docile automatons programmed for the role of working in factories and buying mass produced crap. How important it is, we thought, that we say “no” to conformism and stay true to our individual selves.
However – and here’s the paradox – teenagers also have a great fear of being singled out as “different.” Peer pressure plays an enormous role in their lives and the need to run with a crowd more often than not overrides their claim to individualism. Furthermore, it’s apparent that teens and young adults are quite easily indoctrinated by the collectivist ideas of socialism. This is most definitely because they don’t understand the full implications of such an ideology.
The reason why they don’t understand – and why we have a situation in which kids who profess to be individuals nonetheless align themselves quickly to collectivist ideology – is because socialists have perfected the art of ensnaring young minds. They know how to sell socialism to young minds and in what terms to couch it.
Socialism is sold as “fairness” and “justice.” Such ideas are attractive to kids who identify with the “unfairness” and “injustice” bestowed upon them by their oppressive parents. Having spent their teen years stomping their feet and saying “it’s not fair,” now they see an ideology which seems to understand their view of life. Fairness and equality are very important to the young. Socialism is thus sold on this ticket – and it’s antithesis, capitalism, is demonized as the ideology of mean, nasty, oppressive adults who want to tell them what to do.
Capitalism is derided as slavery. With capitalism, you’re a “slave to the machine.” You’re a “slave to consumerism.” You’re part of the “rat race.” Whereas socialism is sold as a means of “breaking free of the chains which enslave us.” It’s seen as a “return to a more natural way of living.” It’s “what was intended for us in life.”
Of course, such snake-oil is the polar opposite of reality. It is capitalism which represents individual freedom and the end of slavery; socialism (and all other forms of collectivism) are in reality no more than state slavery, or at the very least slavery to an ideology and a “common purpose.” Try telling kids that a “common purpose” means they are no longer individuals and they just blank you out.
Once socialists have captured the imagination of a youth mesmerized by “fairness,” they set to work tightening the screws. Other issues which inspire emotion within kids are used to attract them to the fold. The most emotive issue is “racism.” Thus socialism is seen as the solution to racism, wheras captialism is demonized as a package deal of meanness, greed, unfairness, inequality, racism and sexism.
This is why socialist groups attempt to seize control of any protest march which has to do with race or gender. Having lived for a good number of years in New York City I have noticed that every anti-racism or anti-police protest march I have witnessed seems to be “sponsored” by some local socialist or communist group or other. Their logos adorn protest signs and the connection is made: “End racist police brutality – embrace communism” is one such sign I witnessed not so long ago. Again, the intent lies in expressing the polar opposite of reality: socialist and communist regimes are in every case more oppressive and brutal than capitalist democracies.
So it seems clear that although young people have a very strong innate belief in the importance of individual freedom, their fear of being singled out makes them unlikely to express it fully. When everyone else around them thinks that capitalism is for mean, greedy people who “don’t care,” rare is the young person who speaks out against the tide. I can remember even as a young kid having a very strong feeling that I owned my own life and that nobody had the right to tell me how to live it. It just seemed like the most fundamental premise to me. Of course like most others, I quickly forgot about the importance of this when everyone around me was getting into left wing politics. It was only a few years later upon reading Ayn Rand’s “The Virtue of Selfishness” that I realized just how right my initial instincts were. For the first time, that strong innate feeling was described to me in rational, moral terms.
The left knows how to ensnare young minds – and the right doesn’t seem interested in doing anything about it. Leftism is seen as a rite of passage – “if you’re not a liberal at 20 you have no heart, if you’re not a conservative by 40 you have no brain,” goes the old saying. Leftism is a phase of life which is, in theory, quickly extinguished as soon as you venture into the real world, have a family, start your own business, understand human nature. Unfortunately, the dominance of leftist value in the mainstream media and in popular culture means that many *are* reaching the age of 40 without having seen sense. They’re just not getting exposed to the ideas of conservatism or libertarianism. They’re not hearing the arguments, they don’t know what is wrong with leftist ideology. They’re not encouraged to think about it beyond a shallow surface which claims “fairness, justice and equality.” They don’t know why socialism is none of those things. They aren’t exposed to the most basic premises of economic theory. They don’t know a thing about the origins of America or what it stands for. They aren’t taught that America is very much the torch-bearer of the Enlightenment, a philosophy which gave birth to the primacy of reason and the moral idea that man is an individual who belongs to nobody but himself. These ideas are the cornerstones of Western culture and are responsible for everything that is good in our lives. Kids aren’t being taught about the consequences of losing such a philosophy and why capitalism is its guardian. Instead, they’re being taught that Western culture is inherently wrong and that individualism, greed and selfishness are to blame. They’re taught that America is rotten to the core and that only the left can save it. It stinks and we must do something about it.
I agree, more should be done to promote conservative culture. By “conservative” I mean a libertarian ideology grounded in law and order, which after all is essential to freedom. Nobody is free if they’re at the mercy of criminals. I do not think that religion should be any part of such a promotion. Religion has a place in that the freedom to practice it without persecution should be protected. But if anyone here thinks that we’re going to win over young hearts and minds with God, they have another thing coming. Religion is a private matter and any attempt to ground conservatism in faith to the young is going to fail long term. We need to promote a rational ideology within which one can appeal to reason at all times.
But I think overall, we have to start doing everything we can to put straight the fallacies, lies and irrationalism being fed to kids. The internet is one of the best places to do this. I have a theory that internet forums and comment threads attract those in society who are the most opinionated and outspoken. These people are probably the most influential within their sphere. They’re beacons of opinion – doing more than anyone else to change the minds of their peers. They’re also likely to be the most adept in constructing the word flow needed to convince others. For this reason, I think that engaging young minds in internet forums is an excellent start. Find forums in which young people discuss politics or even general issues – and do everything you can to set them straight. Forum threads are a great idea to promote the arguments of such thinkers as Ayn Rand, Henry Hazlitt, Frederich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. Let’s face it, you’re never going to have much luck persuading kids to read “The Road to Serfdom” but you sure as hell can propogate his reasoning in simple, friendly terms to kids in internet forums.
I spend an hour or two every night defending individualism, capitalism and reason on various discussion mediums from Craigslist to YouTube. I get a lot of abuse and witness a lot of stupidity and ignorance, but it is very possible to change minds. I’ve lost count of the number of emails I’ve had from kids telling me that I’ve changed their mind about something or another and asking me for more information. I usually send them a list of books to read. The solution needs to take the form of persuading the minds of kids at a time when individualism is important to them and when they are open to new ideas. This is usually when the socialists capture them – and it’s here that I propose we take the fight. We may not be able to do anything about the dominance of leftism in the mainstream media and in popular culture. But we can give kids the intellectual tools to resist such indoctrination. It is then that we’ll start to see a shift in the cultural balance and not before. Youth is everything.
