By Ilana Mercer
The specter, on the nation’s campuses, of frightened, middle-aged white educators, mostly men, resigning in fear of a mob rising in rage against hurtful words and gestures—all constitutionally protected speech—is an organic extension of the American educational project, down to your child’s school.
If your kids are in the country’s educational gulag—primary, secondary or tertiary—however well they’re faring; they’re still being brainwashed and de-civilized. Most private schools are now bastions of progressivism, too. “Progressivism,” of course, does not imply progress.
The “justice” for which privileged youngsters on America’s coveted campuses are rioting—the right to silence and purge dissent and dissidents—they’ve imbibed in schools public and private, prior to arriving at the university.
On the University of Missouri campus, atavistic youth have joined against hurtful words, symbols and unsettling, unorthodox ideas, and for “safe spaces,” where these brave hearts can hideout from “racial microaggression.” Examples of “microaggression” are asking a black student for lessons in twerking, complimenting her weave, or simply being white.
But mostly, these minorities and their propagandized white patsies are campaigning for the unanimous acceptance of the following destructive, dangerous, often deadly, dictum:
“White racism is everywhere. White racism is permanent. White racism explains everything.”
The “systemic racism” meme you hear repeated by media, across the American campus, and preached from the White House is a function of “Critical Race Theory,” the sub-intelligent, purely theoretical, and logically fallacious construct, now creeping into American schools at every level.
As detailed in WND colleague Colin Flaherty’s “Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry,” America’s children, black, white and brown, are being taught, starting at a tender age, about “racial hostility and resentment.”
This racial hostility is said to be endemic and always and everywhere a white on black affair.
Ask your state representative and your school board about Glenn Singleton and his Pacific Educational Group’s curriculum, deceptively titled “Courageous Conversations.” The PEG poisonous program has been adopted by “hundreds of school districts across the US,” and foisted on millions of pupils, very possibly your child.
Beware; propaganda is process oriented, and an insidious one at that.
ITEM: Your cherub’s project receives an A. His work the teacher praises before the classroom. Yet, oddly, the child’s identity she will studiously conceal. This is in furtherance of the egalitarian idea, implemented, whereby no individual student is to be identified as having produced superior work to that of the collective.
“[U]nder the Singleton influence,” explains Flaherty, “the Seattle schools [have] defined individualism as a form of cultural racism and said that only whites can be racist.” Moreover, “emphasizing individualism as opposed to a more collective ideology is a form of racism,” too.
The progressive educational project carries its anti-white bias into teaching about the Orient (East) versus the Occident (West).
ITEM: A Christian boy, placed in an academically advanced study program, is tasked with submitting a project about one of three ancient civilizations: Egypt, India and Rome.
Ancient Egypt, a big hit apparently, is spoken for. The teacher, generally “white, female, liberal,” advises the boy: “Choose India. Rome is … BORING.”
What is it that this colossal ignoramus has conveyed to her student with the words “Rome is boring”? Let us unpack the meta-message (with reference to History.org):
• Christianity, first adopted and spread by the giant empire of Rome, is BORING.
• Engineering, which the Romans perfected and excelled at like no other civilization, is BORING.
• Related in tedium and utterly BORING: The ingenious construction of roads and aqueducts.
• The Greeks, an inspiration for Rome—what little boy doesn’t love Leonidas of “300”?—BORING.
• The form of government known as “republicanism,” an inspiration for the American Founding Fathers: BORING.
• The notion of equality under the law, invented by Rome and instantiated in Rome’s Twelve Tables, 449 Before Christ: BORING.
• The intrigues of Julius Caesar’s court: BORING.
• The oh-so relevant lessons of Empire and government overreach: BORING.
• Spartacus, gladiator and rebel leader against Rome: BORING.
• “Gladiators, Chariots, and the Roman Games,” the riveting stuff of kiddie video games: BORING.
• The fine art of argument and oratory: BORING.
• Masters of literature and poetry: Horace, Virgil, Ovid, Livy: BORING!
• The greatest romance in history, Antony and Cleopatra’s: not quite on the level of a Bollywood tryst.
Rome is the foundation of our Western civilization. The boorishness of telling a Christian young boy that Rome is boring conjures a skit from the “Life of Brian,” a parody by British comedic genius John Cleese about Judea under Rome:
So, “What have the Romans ever done for us?” asks Reg, a Jewish rebel against Rome. “The aqueduct,” one rebel ventures. Says a second, “Sanitation, remember what the city used to be like?” A third Jewish rebel praises the roads. A fourth, the public baths. Exacerbated by the growing list of Roman improvements, rebel-in-chief Reg responds: “All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?”
Except that what is par for the course in your children’s’ schools is no laughing matter.
Certainly, parents ought to familiarize themselves with the politicized process of textbook and course-material selection.
In Washington State, the selection of textbooks is a highly centralized affair, arrogated to a “textbook commission,” which consists of five individuals, whose liberal, labor-union credentials are guaranteed to be unimpeachable.
Put it this way, textbook selection effected by the politburo of books will ensure that your child never ever comes away believing in the immutable truth, say, of the philosophy that animated the republic’s Founding Fathers. Or in the originalist intention of the US Constitution.
Yes, your kids will learn about the Constitution and about theories of constitutional interpretation. But so will they be inculcated in the unshaken view of originalism as a quaint notion reserved for oddballs (Auntie ilana’s preference for the Anti-Federalists is tantamount to a thought crime), and that “progress” demands that the Constitution be “updated.”
Your child will be taught that eternal verities—the rights of private property and self-defense—shift with the times, when in fact truth is not relative, but both knowable and immutable (also the theme of a magnificent encyclical penned by the late Pope John Paul II).
Fact: Yale and Mizzou students are oblivious to the cherished American tenets of freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion; diversity of thought, and most important: the magnificent life all people irrespective of skin color can labor to achieve in America.
These students didn’t arrive on campus with such illiberal biases. The rot didn’t start there and didn’t unfold overnight. The closing of the Millennial Minds at the University of Missouri and beyond, to yield such philosophically and ethically bereft boorishness, has happened over time. The seeds of the bizarre contagion spreading across American campuses were sown in your kids’ primary and secondary schools, public and private.
And as we speak.
ILANA Mercer is a paleolibertarian writer based in the United States. She pens WND’s longest-standing, exclusive paleolibertarian column, “Return to Reason.” Ilana’s latest book is “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons For America From Post-Apartheid South Africa.” Her website is www.IlanaMercer.com. She blogs at www.barelyablog.com.
Ilana Mercer. Now that you’ve helped further explain an undoubted and growing problem, why not set out your ideas on how to solve it within a time frame that might reduce or even stop it before all hell breaks lose?
It’s probably too late for that, now, John.
It is definitely too late for it not to be much much worse. It may be too late to reverse and we may be witnesses to the destruction of a tolerant liberal democracy.
If it happens it will not be despite the efforts of the political class but because of them. Most politicians today, and their support teams in the press, media, NGOs, etc which we fund, are keenly supporting the sectionalisation of society. It is a classic marxist strategy, even if the practitioners are not themselves aware of being marxist.
The objective is to replace the current coherent society and replace it with a ghettoised one with groups against groups. That certain of these have a habit of violence assists the process by providing fear and allowing the new rulers to spy on our every action and introduce controls. Beware coin and paperless money; by making it all digital it can be precisely controlled, turned on and off and monitored. Your every transaction can be recorded and leaked against you if you do not comply.
In short read 1984. We are closer than you think.
Yes, I have not read Brave New World, (I have read 1984) but I read an excellent article 15 or so years ago on how BNW won out over 1984. It definitely appears that we are fast-approaching the all-controlling gov. of Oceania, depicted by 1984. With the NSA, Big Brother is watching you, and we have the thought crime (anything racist, sexist, or anti-PC). Preston, in a speech, said one of the SJW’s biggest fears is not the actual socioeconomic consequences of racism, sexism, or homophobia, but that somewhere, somehow, someone is hiding in a broom closet thinking racist thoughts. LOL! I’ll have to reread 1984. Certainly the endless wars, with rapidly switching alliances and enemies has come into fruition: Saddam’s our ally then our enemy, Al Qaeda the same, We created ISIL and now we’re at war with them, while still supporting them. Oh, this is fun (and sad). When we had the Department of War, we only had 3 wars. When they became the Department of Defense we’ve had too many wars and coups to count, similar to how every government (ministry) was named the exact opposite of what it’s objective was in 1984. With PC you have Orwell’s doublethink- believing two contradicting statement simultaneously. “I’m racist and privileged because I’m white and I accept privilege theory, yet I’m poor and not racist at all?” We certainly have false historical revisionism like that carried out by the ministry of truth. The government can now arrest you and throw you in a dungeon, because of the Patriot Act and NDAA. OK, I’ll stop
This columnist is allowed 1000 words (special permission for more must be sought from those who commission the thing). One column can only cover so much. When next the topic is broached, I will certainly do as advised.
But basically, the manner of subversion is so subtle, a busy parent can’t hope to stay on top of it. Writers/readers of this site are analytical. So you will detect the programming and will be able to deprogram, Socratically. So talk to the brats (unpleasant notion, I know). When my daughter used to return from school, I would begin the deprogramming through discussion. Having a child in the public school system comes with the added responsibility to know your child is being programmed—not to doubt it or defend against it—and to be prepared to deprogram. (Examples of resources are the Homeschool Courses by historian Tom Woods and Ron Paul, or this writer’s columns on economics, the Constitution (and all others focusing on proper reasoning), to be found in the Articles Archive (http://www.ilanamercer.com/phprunner/public_article_list_search.php?Search+by+Category=Search+by+Category). Sean Gabb’s works, or that of other daddies on this site. A list of books is a good idea (http://barelyablog.com/classical-liberalism/). Send your suggestions. Kids can begin with Ayn Rand. We all do. Please post resources British parents can access, under this thread. Our friend David Conway will have ideas, too.
I carefully and not with any stress, de-programme our younger boy every day, on collecting him from school. (You call them public schools – we call them state schools).It’s a bore but it has to be done.
He already understands that “AGW” is nasty evil shit and lies. And moreover, he knows why; I gave him “the science” (with a pile of actual sums) which Al (chief USA GramscoFabiaNazi) Gore said “is settled”.
Bravo. Proper reasoning is vital. My columns are anchored in argument and reason (as best I can). For example, “Reincarnation of the Reds” brings up the concept of “the theory that can’t be falsified”: http://www.ilanamercer.com/phprunner/public_article_list_view.php?editid1=108. David Gordon, Ph.D, is magnificent on the reasoning front; he has written a kid compatible “Introduction to Economic Reasoning.”
What is AGW? Good luck.
Keith Preston’s Attack the System is an excellent resource. They very plainly, and succinctly explain the who, what, where, why, and when of PC, America’s never ending wars, and a number of other important issues. On his site he links to many other great sites, which is how I found this great website. I really like antiwar.com as well.
As I’ve often said, in my view “Political Correctness” is best understood on the religious model; our society under this system is effectively a secular theocracy and non-PC values a heresy. The Progressive Movements arose out of 19th century Protestant evangelism in the Anglo nations, and though they eventually dumped God, retained a fundamentally moralist model.
They are trying to purge society of sin. Unfortunately, having dumped God as an authority (at least notionally) they looked for another authority and found it in (second wave) Marxist class struggle theory. And here we are.
One interesting thing perhaps is that the first wave “evangelical” progressivism was reinvigorated in the “second wave” largely by Jews and Jewish philosophy, particularly from the New York milieu. While this might seem contrary, it’s useful to observe that the Puritan movement (from which the Proggies themselves descended) thought that the way to be more Christian was to be more Jewish, getting back to the Judaic roots. Hence the model of a collectivist society with no separation of Church and State, with local communities ruled by lay preachers whose interpretation of scripture is all that matters (sola scriptura and all that). So, a natural fit really, secularised Puritans and secularised Jews, both replacing God with political theory (from Marx).
They are still trying to build their New Jerusalem, their shining city on a hill. They are trying to purge society of all sin, which means tearing down the old to replace it with the new.
Yes, and if PC fails, one can only imagine what the next pernicious ideology the ruling classes will turn to or slowly create next. PC is already falling apart from much infighting. It’s turning on the Zionists who helped create it. It could turn on the elites in this country who are mainly white and male, and by PC’s definition, the epitome of privilege. Prey it’s end comes swiftly.
I was speaking to a young lad in my church who has very much got a mature head on young shoulders. He recognised that what he was getting at his school was ‘indoctrination’ rather than ‘education’ and that all he cared about was getting through his exams before concentrating on the real world life education as he knew that the education system was all messed up.
Sadly there are not that many young people who recognised the same as him as they just accept that it is the ‘education’ that they are getting and that’s it, nothing else matters.
I must admit that I didn’t get much of an education at school in my day so the problem we have now is what do we do about it?
My position is to bring back grammar schools as they bridged the gap between rich and poor plus they taught traditional values and brought discipline.
I also believe that we should change ownership of schools from the state to what I would describe as ‘parental trusts’ as every parent who has a child going into that school should have a say in how their child’s education should be structured. The money would come from membership, donations and sponsorships and the money would be used ‘wisely’ as the state would have no control whatsoever over the education and examinations of each school.
Home schooling and private/public schools also have a place in the fusionist position as I am looking towards a family structured education system whereby the state has no say over our children’s future and that every child regardless of background has a fair shot at learning and growing up independently.
Does anyone have any questions, queries or counter-arguments?