@Josh’ -
So the “dumbing down” of America, as former Education Czar Bill Bennett called it, is a key component of the blueprint for socialism?
No, I no longer believe this is the case, although I did at one time. It certainly does seem that way – until one digs deeper. I think the reality is far more subtle and therefore far more difficult to expose. And I don’t subscribe to the notion that the schools became a “happy worker production mill” for the industrialists starting in the mid-19th Century either. IMHO that is an irrational proposition on its face. Unfortunately, a lot of home schoolers seem to subscribe to some variation of this notion, and quite honestly it comes off as rather crackpottish, which in turn provides media spin fodder for the narrative that nominally equates home schoolers with anti-government survivalists and militia types.
IMHO, the current failure rate in education is absolutely vital to this discussion, and I’d echo David Dennis’ comments (again – since it’s the thesis of my first post way up there) that the more ‘mundane’ aspect of this issue is ultimately far more important than the sensational scandal. A clever McCain campaign would use the latter to get people’s attention and then (further) illustrate Obama’s utter lack of credibility as a serious person, using the evidence in the former. BOTH of these speak to the personal integrity you’re never going to find in Obama’s empty suit, but the clearly stated goals of the Annenberg Challenge he chaired have significant portents for our nation’s future if we don’t wake up.
As noted above, an ignorant People are far too easily duped into mindlessly accepting despotic governance by supporting policies that “feel good” or “sound good” but which, once thought completely through, reveal themselves to be destructive on multiple levels. As a result we see support for things like the following:
- So-called “universal health care” – so-called because it’s actually nothing less than universally mandated comprehensive health care insurance, which is not, in and of itself, health care. Furthermore, this is a non-solution (an anti-solution, actually) to the problem of relentlessly skyrocketing health care costs, the root cause of which no one has ever seriously considered examining.
- So-called “windfall profits taxes” – so-called because when the State and federal governments receive up to ONE TRILLION DOLLARS for every $250B that is earned in profits by the oil companies collectively, it’s very clear WHO is receiving the windfall. Any thinking person would recognize immediately WHY the government is hesitant to kill this cash cow. No wonder we have seen exactly ZERO real effort on the part of our government to actively support replacement of the fossil fuels they claim are (suddenly) so “deadly” to the environment.
- So-called “cap-and-trade” scams – so-called because they neither cap overall emissions nor does the process involve actual trade. What these scams actually do is promote increased emissions insofar as it’s cost-effective to do so. In the bargain, it creates a gigantic, punitive slush fund that will be “managed” by – you guessed it – the government. Oh, and investment bankers, of course. All of this will naturally be funded by – you guessed it – the consumer, resulting in the loss of TRILLIONS in GDP by 2030.
The list goes on (and on, unfortunately), but the pattern is clear: increasingly onerous restrictions and punitive policies toward business and more and more individual, personal responsibility (and with it, personal freedom) handed over to the State. These are the fundamental underpinnings of socialism. But such a system is simply not mathematically viable over time. It’s just a Ponzi-choreographed fantasy/dance that goes endlessly on because, when it stops, someone will be forced to pay the piper.
Proof that America is well on its way in this evolution is the fact that our government must borrow the money needed to pay out the billion$ in entitlements we already have (SSI, SSDI, Medicare, etc.). Where does it borrow the money? In part it borrows – via T-Bills, their pension funds, savings (via banks), savings bonds – from the 30% of the overall population that is already paying almost 100% of all income taxes paid. Increasing the entitlements guaranteed by the government will ultimately overload that 30% of the population that is footing the bill for all 100% (plus). But long before that happens we’ll see a veritable police state, out of necessity. Thanks to liberal political policies and the race- and class-baiting tactics of the Democrat Party, the entitlement mindset is now most prevalent among minority communities – where crime, dysfunctional families, gang warfare, drugs, murder and the like are most prevalent. When that entitlement mindset becomes more the norm, don’t think for a minute that we won’t get all those other wonderful things that go along with it.
When Ayers admits that he shares “the belief that education is the motor-force of revolution” – La educacion es revolucion! – and exhorts the ed. community to recognize the “brilliance” of failed educators like Herbert Kohl – another whack-job more interested in “social justice” indoctrination than in actual, you know… education – it’s pretty clear why public education is in the state it’s in: Ayers’ and Kohl’s – and obviously Obama’s – sentiments are the rule in education today, not the exception. That, in a nutshell, is why academia is failing at all levels to produce literate, numerate, rationally competent, historically aware graduates.
So it’s not a blueprint, per se – the academic failure is a side effect. It’s pretty simple: one can’t teach math, symbolic logic, history and the vital classics if one is spending the entire semester forcing students to read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, write essays on every unsavory aspect of European and American History, out of balance with all the rest, and participate in collectivist group projects where 3 people do all the work and the other 7 smoke pot in the john.
p.s. – someone really ought to archive Ayers’ site, since with the media exposure he’s about to get, if there’s ANYTHING anywhere in there that connects him to Obama, it’ll likely disappear, if it hasn’t already.
