“Jack has got to find the Override before the rest of these reactors go critical! – 24
My math teacher used a lot of graph paper. I think she was plotting something.
The education of children has to be the imperative of a culture. Why? That education forms their perspective on the past. That perspective gives a view of what works, and what doesn’t work. It also must account for the stories of virtue and villainy.
Who are the bad guys of the culture? Who are the good guys from the culture? To a student, it matters. The myth of George Washington was important – here was a man who voluntarily let go of power – twice. And we all know why George’s dad didn’t punish him for chopping down the cherry tree: George had an ax.
This education comes from more than the schools. It also comes in the form of the messages that our children receive as they grow up. It’s embedded in the cartoons they watch. It’s in the television and videos they watch. Why do people say there is no American culture? They’re soaking in it.
A primary objective of every tyranny that has ever existed is to indoctrinate the youth. Back before television and radio, it took a lot of local effort. Unless the Church was on your side, it probably would be difficult to keep the message tight. Marxists fought this by eliminating the Church.
Ever hear of the ghost that got arrested for possession?
As a young Wilder, the culture I was exposed to was one of what I’d call “standard postwar liberalism.” No, Pa and Ma Wilder weren’t Leftists, at all. But between 1950 and 1990 or so, most people were liberal in one sense or another. I had to interview Pa Wilder for a school project, and asked his thoughts about marijuana legalization:
“Well, it’s awfully hard to criticize someone smoking marijuana with a bourbon in my hand.”
See, liberal, though I’d bet a month’s pay that Pa Wilder was never in the same room with a joint in his life. But since that was a school project when I was in fifth grade, maybe that was part of my indoctrination, as well. Hmmm.
I think Ma and Pa voted for Reagan, twice, but their philosophy was more of a conservative blend of libertarianism, which I think fit their time and place. In reality, there wasn’t much difference between George H.W. Bush and Mike Dukakis. Both were liberals, H.W. was just a liberal who had worked for the C.I.A.
I hope that Idaho never legalizes pot. Think of all the baked potatoes.
Culture in that time and place was dominated by television. And not only was it dominated by television, it was dominated by three networks: ABC®, NBC™, and CBS©. When it came to culture, they were all on the same page, the liberal one. They even canceled the sitcom about Abe Lincoln – it was shot before a live studio audience.
That liberal culture that they put out on the airwaves, minute after minute, was the single most inclusive culture in the history of mankind. The networks indoctrinated an entire generation of white kids into the least prejudiced generation of any people in the history of mankind.
Really.
That was my generation. The indoctrination was so very deep that when we heard someone make a disparaging remark about another, we’d physically wince. This indoctrination turned it from a rational thought to a matter of faith.
That was the key. We were on board. We really did believe in a country that was based in a sense of civic nationalism as the highest value. To be fair, it’s a beautiful story, and if it were left at that, maybe, just maybe it might have worked. Even though I’ve always been on the Right, I was on board.
When the UK left the EU they freed up 1 GB.
However, down in another level of indoctrination that was played out in communities different than mine, the message was likewise a different one: the United States is inherently evil, racist, and (that community) were nothing more than victims.
What? Who was spreading that message?
The Academy. The Academy is the network of colleges and schools. High school isn’t the end of indoctrination, college is the next step.
For example: one kid that I went to high school with normally dressed like a serious nerd. Button-up collared shirts and slacks. The rest of us were in t-shirts and jeans, mostly.
I saw him at Christmas after we’d both been at college for the first semester. He was wearing torn jeans, a green trench coat, a beret, and John Lennon sunglasses. I think he got better.
That was after six months. Yes, he went to a really, really Leftist school. But his personality changed entirely after that. A major source of indoctrination into Leftist dogma is at the colleges: why do you think they invented degrees that have “studies” in the title? I mean, it’s not (only) to get people that are unequipped to take real courses into spending $150,000 for a degree that will earn them a $23,000 a year job they could have had straight out of high school.
And the colleges indoctrinate the next professors. Those professors in turn then indoctrinate the next school teacher, and the next youth pastor and the next youth baseball coach.
Hey, it’s all up on the Gonzaga® website. Looks like the Academy takes care of its own.
For decades, the Academy has been teaching Critical Theory at schools. Critical Theory is Marxist, and not the good Groucho kind. The reason that Critical Theory was developed was because people in the United States in the 1920s weren’t (and aren’t) class conscious. Commies tried to use the rich and poor divide to create revolution in the United States, and found something unusual:
Not only wasn’t the United States class conscious, many of the people that they could get to join labor unions were anti-communist. That perplexed the Leftists, until they realized that most Americans thought that they could become rich. The fixed idea of class that worked so well in Russia and China failed miserably in the United States.
What to do? In this case, develop Critical Theory. They did this because a certain former corporal kicked all of the commies out of a certain country, so instead of heading to Russia, they decided to infect the United States. They called themselves the Frankfurt School. DuckDuckGo® them if you’re bored. You won’t be disappointed.
Critical Theory tries to use an assessment of history, society, and culture to challenge power structures as well as culture. They use a tremendous number of nonsense academic-speak words in what they’re saying because it’s not really academics, it’s a cult.
Really, though, the goal was to find something, anything, to drive a wedge between the American people. And, after trying and failing, the Frankfurt School found that wedge.
Race.
I got pulled over the other day for just trying to keep up with traffic. The state patrolman said the road was clear. “Yes, officer, that’s how far behind I am.”
Race has been the single most divisive topic in the United States, and the Academy is doing everything possible to pour pee in the PEZ® bowl of America. Why? The Soviets, who the Leftists that make up the Academy love, went bankrupt.
Next? The Chinese embraced state-run capitalism combined with a Chinese nationalism that makes true Leftists cringe. What to do?
Ahhh, yes, create enough racial tension to pull everything down. Here, at last, they can finally create a true equality!
Critical Race Theory is one of the latest salvos intended to completely reconfigure the United States, if not the world. Note that it’s just “Critical Theory” with Race tucked smartly in the middle. It is nothing more than the early versions of this Marxist attack on Western Civilization in general, and the United States in particular, but using their most effective wedge: race.
I’d say (if I were to guess) the best race relations ever seen in the history of the world were somewhere between 1990 and 2008 in the United States. Barack Obama wasn’t elected as a racial wedge, but that’s exactly how he played his cards. He had the unique opportunity to heal, but instead chose to rip the Band-Aid® off and then rub Madonna’s underwear on the healing wound.
Or more time with an iron.
Every place (and I mean every place) that I’ve worked where things went well, there wasn’t a sense of entitlement. People worked hard, heck, sometimes competed to work harder. It wasn’t about the money, it was about doing good work. But one person can show up in a workplace and destroy that cohesion.
All they have to do is convince a few people that they’re being taken advantage of. That people in another company have it better. That they have a new enemy, the Man. That’s what Critical Theory, and in this case, Critical Race Theory is all about. Creating division.
It’s cloaked, like every Leftist lie is. Leftists who write, teach, and indoctrinate using this nonsense are exactly the type of people who use phrases like, “My truth.” They say that they’re doing nothing more than “telling the truth” which explains why they don’t want lessons or homework discussed with parents.
It’s about creating division.
What do you think reparations are? A fight for division. Understand, if reparations were set at $30,000 or $300,000 or $3,000,000 per person, the answer would be, “It’s not enough.”
It will never be enough because the goal isn’t goodwill toward men, it is division.
I guess women who vote for the Right are okay. I always liked Republic-hens. (not my meme)
In my generation, the indoctrination was all some version of, “hey, we can all get along,” and if the goal was to get along they had gone very far. But that was never the goal. Division is first.
Then, destruction. Followed by? Suppression that would make Stalin jealous. Then, they think, Power.
The Leftists must think they have won. Critical Race Theory is the equivalent of surrounding the embassy in Saigon. If we don’t push back, who will be left to educate?
And if we don’t push back, will there be room on that last chopper out?
