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Education, Education, Education . . .
Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.
– quotes from Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
The acceptance, and indeed, ascendancy of socialism across most of the Western world is a testament to the strategy of Lenin and his progeny - to control the education of children. With that lead in, consider the education of the following author, 7th grade student Claire Canfield, who won her school's contest for best essay on Earth Day:
We’re being haunted. Not by a restless spirit, but by something even more upsetting and much more real.
We’ve awoken it, and unlike supernatural haunting, it’s our fault.
Climate change.
A fear, a promise that our lives (and world) will become drastically different in the years to come. We desperately need an exorcist, but in this case, it’s not as easy as mumbling incantations.
We’ve dug and drilled (and drilled) ourselves into quite a big mess. I’m surprised the tilt of the earth hasn’t changed from all the natural cycles we’ve thrown off. We’re throwing off the nitrogen cycle so we can become fatter, and the carbon cycle so our newly fat selves can sit around all day, and not lose the weight we spent so much effort gaining.
. . . As I sit here writing, listening to Nina Persson croon, “It’s closing time, and a well known fact is that life is very short,” in my heated bedroom (with very bad insulation), I am contributing to climate change.
What’s the big deal, you say. Life is very short;, I’m not that much of an impact, right?
The average American creates about 15,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and, although life is very short, we’ve done in about a century what normally takes millions of years. You, as you are reading this, are probably contributing to climate change.
From transportation and electricity to food and clothing, we are slowly killing our planet. And everything on it.
Seven hundred and eighty four species of plants and animals have gone extinct in recent history, and there’s no sign of slowing down. In fact, 16,938 species are currently “threatened” by extinction. Eventually, if we can’t curb our appetite for, well, everything, there will be nothing left to feed us.
“It’s closing time, and a well-known fact is that life is very short.”
So what do we do? Just let the ghosts of the future haunt us?
Yes, our actions can affect our planet in harmful ways, but we can also help – by taking the bus to work, buying local produce or simply remembering to turn your lights off – you can lessen your impact, your footprint, and, essentially, help save the world. . . .
Read the entire essay.
Claire is obviously an articulate young girl. She has equally as clearly been educated by people who are true believers in anthropogenic global warming. They have have fully inculcated their dogma in Claire. No hint of uncertainty clouds Claire's view. Carbon is evil. Catastrophe is but around the corner. Global warming is wholly man made. And there are even religious overtones in her belief. We are sinners and must repent. Claire is fully a progeny of Gore and his many acolytes who serve as the teachers to our young.
Indeed, as we sit and ponder how it is that socialism and its closely entwined radical environmentalism have achieved such success in the West, we must realize that the single greatest failing of the conservatives and classical liberals among us has been to allow the left to gain control of our system of education. How we change that, I know not.
Update: This just got much worse. This from Protein Wisdom:
“We are gathered to unveil the No Child Left Inside Act of 2009, which will support environmental education in our nation’s schools,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), a lead sponsor of the bill, said Thursday at Upper Russell Senate Park (near the U.S. Capitol). “These young people will be the environmental stewards and leaders of tomorrow, and we have to prepare them today – and that’s the whole point of this legislation.”
The bill, sponsored and co-sponsored by Democrats, was introduced in the House and Senate on Earth Day, April 22. It would provide $500 million over five years to schools with approved “environmental literacy” plans for students in grades kindergarten through 12, and offer competitive grants to schools and non-profits for outdoor education projects. . . .
It would seem that our new socialists with to plant a lot of seeds.
13 comments:
If you have a free moment...I'd appreciate your thoughts on the comments made on this post:
http://formerspook.blogspot.com/2009/05/meet-new-chief.html
The commenter is tagged as a conspiricist - and I should note that reading a couple of older posts and comments attached, he's not a stranger to the blog.
Maybe he is. Or maybe not. Are those who believe that much of politics is controlled by an "illuminati" simply conspiricists? I wonder.
Suek, I looked in the comments section but it appears the comments you refer to have been removed.
I can't really tell what your question is without those comments, unfortunately, though I can guess at it.
My general take on conspiracy theories are that most are fantasies. There are just too many variables in our incredibly complex world for small groups to try and influence or control events. Further, people talk. If there is a significant conspiracy with radical goals, then there is a real chance that it will be exposed.
That said, collusion and single issue conspiracies clearly exist. Most are a part of our political mosaic and in the open. Some try to gain and wield influence in the dark.
But all of that is generalizing. If you could sum up the now deleted comments, I can try to give a specific answer.
Ok...who knew! It never occurred to me to copy and save. Obviously the "spook" has decided he's a kook. Or at least an annoyance. Nevertheless, I found another comment by him on another thread and followed the links. The link below states his position:
http://thefinalphaseforum.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=44
The facts he raises are undoubtedly true. I'm of the opinion myself that the Communists sent infiltrators into the US who have done their work so successfully that their descendants have no idea that they _are_ descendants. So his narration rings true to me.
On the other hand, I think that to have a conspiracy, you need to have a planner or at least a central mover, and that's where this fails - the basic idea seems to be that there is an unorganized body of individuals working towards the same end. After all these years, is this possible?
And the reason his comments probably got pulled is that he made a direct accusation that the new Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force just appointed is a man with possible communist connections in his career. I have no idea what he bases that accusation on. He comment focused on the Gramsci connection and alleges widespread infiltration throughout the government and the military.
The conspiracy he sites seems to me deeply in the realm of fantasy. Its hard enough to make discrete events come out as one plans, let alone a master plan that would be initiated by socialists voluntarilly giving up power and their empire.
That said, I agree with you. I think we very much are experiencing the effect of 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation communist agitators. Marx and Lenin are winning in America. Alinsky is winning. Obviously not them, but through the work of their agents and the people they have influenced, spreading out like some demonic web.
That is really the point I make at the conclusion of my post above on Candidate vs President Obama. We are way behind the power curve in responding to this. These folks have an advantage because they are utopian - and who wouldn't want to live in Utopia - and because they use an incredibly effective blend - epitomized by Obama - of intellectual dishonesty cast in a false cloak of morality. If we don't figure out how to effectively attack it, its lights out.
>>Its hard enough to make discrete events come out as one plans, let alone a master plan that would be initiated by socialists voluntarily giving up power and their empire.>>
Agreed. Conspiracy is an interesting concept. Why would some one (or some group of some ones) plan for something that would not come to fruition until decades after their deaths? Immediate or somewhat delayed success would be something to shoot for...but half a century or even longer? It seems unlikely.
Then I consider our own founding fathers. I've come to the conclusion that Freemasonry had a role to play. It may have been simply one of providing a setting where security was provided when treasonous ideas were discussed, although I understand that the ideals of the FF were probably congruous with those of the Freemasonry. Then too there's the matter of trust. How do you learn to trust someone who lives a week's travel - or more - from you with matters of treason? Your life, your property and your family would be at risk. The oaths taken by the Freemasons at certain levels may have provided the security that must have been required. If indeed there was a unity provided by the organization of Freemasonry, what provides the framework for the Gramsci apostles? How do they acquire their converts? They have infiltrated us - how can we infiltrate them?
I suspect that it borders on a religious belief, and the only cure is to replace it with another religious belief. Muslims need not apply. Please. They have too much in common.
By the way...I have another link - somewhere - that gives clear indication that the Catholic church has also been infiltrated by communists. I'm RC, and when I see the changes in the Church since I was young, I can believe it. Just think priests, for example. The Church has been around for a long time. We've had our problems with priests - but homosexuality was not one of them. Why now? why so many? It's almost as if they were chosen...so...maybe they were!
Here's another interesting link. They are jumping to the conclusion you - and I - wish to avoid - even as we admit we don't know how.
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2009/05/if-theres-consensus-well-move-on-it.html
One question I have that they don't address is that if you assume their intervention is needed, if you assume that they are successful...what then? How do you start over? What can you do to try to prevent the same thing from happening again?
I think it has to start in the schools - which brings us back to your original article - but obviously there may be some protections put in place in the Constitution and the Amendments that would need to be added. But I don't know what you can do to protect people from their own foolishness.
Maybe require that you have to have paid taxes each year in order to vote. Maybe have a competency test concerning people and issues before you vote. Maybe establish that if you take welfare you can't vote. Maybe eliminate welfare.
Interesting. I dont think its protecting people from their own foolishness as much as it is a few structural changes that limit the ability of the far left to make changes to our system by non-democratic means, and two, give all citizens a relatively even stake in the success of business in America.
If I could wave a magic wand, the five changes I would make would be - and the first two at least hit on your suggestions.
1. Everyone pays some tax. Right now, there is a huge percentage of of the population that pay nothing. No one should be made to feel like a leech. Everyone needs a sense of ownership in society and a concern with making it efficient moreso than taking from it whatever they can. Increase economic assitance by 15% and have the people at the low end then pay that back in taxes. It seems like a useless exercise, but I think the psychological effect throughout society would justify it.
2. Privatize social security. Everyone should have a stake in business in America. Attitudes towards wealth creation and class warfare will come to a screeching halt when and if A-L-L Americans have a financial stake in the success of American businesses. Karl Marx out, Wallmart common stock in. Its why the left was so set on killing the Bush social security reforms.
3. Pass a Constitutional Amendment requiring Supreme Court Justices to, wherever possible, identify the intention of the founders - or the drafters of Amendments - as the alpha and omega for Constitutional interpretation. This would not stop judicial activism - justices would try to, as they do today, get around this with intellecutal dishonesty and dissimulation - but it would significantly constrain judicial activism. It would also completely neuter some of the craziness, such as looking to cherry picked international law to support an avant garde rewriting of the Constitution.
4. End private enforcement actions of environmental laws. Handing the keys to the courthouse to the greenies has been an absolute disaster with radical greens who would be happy to see U.S. society set back several centuries and completely shut off exploitation of our natural resources. They combine with cherry picked left wing judges who are neither scientists or economists to throw monkey wrench after monkey wrench into the economy. For example, it was 5 liberal activists on the SCT who essentially pushed the EPA into declaring carbon dioxide a pollutant. The Courts need to be taken out of the equation.
Enforcement actions should arise at the sole discretion of the agency. The public should be able to petition for action to the appropriate agency, with the agency having final and absolute discretion as to whether to go forward on the petition.
5. Its taken the left half a century to take control of academia from K through graduate school. Unscrewing that is of prime importance, but it will take decades. One way to both enhance education and move it back into the sphere it should be in would be to get read of teacher colleges. If you want to teach math, then you should have a regular math degree along with a teaching minor or a teaching certificate. You are not qualified to teach math just because you have a teaching degree where exams did not require math skills, but rather required spitting back the wit and wisdom of Bill Ayers and company.
Interestingly, I took a Praxis exam in history two years ago just to see how it was. That is sort of an SAT for teachers to establish their knowledge in the subject they intend to teach. I did not study for it, and my formal education ended over two decades ago. It was not hard. A note here that Praxis is pass fail, though they hand out award certificates to the top 15% on each test. When I got the results back, I was given an award for scoring the top 15%.
That is a bad thing. I was not awarded because I am that intelligent. Rather, I was awarded because the majority of people testing to teach in history having a teaching degree, not a history degree.
Making the suggested change would mark a major shift in how we train and certify teachers. It would raise the standards while minimizing exposure to the mass of left wing ideology that is taught at most teaching colleges.
Two, state college curriculum should be subject to review by the state in some meaningful way. For example, while California circles the economic drain, UC Berkley if financing as a major a "peace studies" program that could have been written by Hugo Chavez. Soft disciplines that are nothing more than vehicles for indoctrination in a political ideology - and as a substitute for the true mission of college, to develop critical thinking skills - need to be taken off the books. In other words, a liberal arts degree should only be offered in traditional core liberal arts displines.
At any rate, your musings have obviously struck a chord with me. I agree, something needs to be done. The above are a few of my suggestions but there is much more, and none are a panacea to the damage already done by a half decade of ever increasing infiltration of far left ideology into our schools and, now, into the corridors of power in Washington.
Wow, hit publish before doing a proof read. The above is almost unintelligable. Sorry about that.
Wow. Have you ever noticed that some things just seem to come from multiple sources at the same time? Check this out:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/frankfurt_school_reigns_suprem.html
In particular this link within the above:
http://www.newtotalitarians.com/FrankfurtSchool.html
This is the completion of the circle.
Now...how to counteract. Their intent was to change the culture. They have done so. If we have to change it back before we can get our country back, we're really in trouble. Is there another way?
>>The above is almost unintelligable.>>
Not so much. I agree with most of it except the environmental stuff. Environmental is a problem, I agree, and needs scientific investigation, but putting it in the hands of any government agency invites an override of private property rights.
I also have this nagging feeling after reading the AT article and link that the only counter is going to be Christianity in some form. If we lose the Judeo/Christian ethic, I suspect we are lost. I think that is the crux of the problem.
Not that each individual needs to be religious, but that we accept that the society as a whole is based on Judeo/Christian ethics.
When you eliminate the concept of God and the expectation of an afterlife which will reward or punish, you eliminate answerability. You eliminate the concept of morality. Without a concept of morality within a society, you simply cannot make enough laws. If man is not governed by God's laws, then man will be governed by man's laws. What else is there?
"On the other hand, I think that to have a conspiracy, you need to have a planner or at least a central mover"
I think the case where there's some kind of central control is actually a cabal.
"the basic idea seems to be that there is an unorganized body of individuals working towards the same end."
That's the (non legal) definition of a conspiracy. The problem is that most people say "conspiracy" when they mean cabal. So nobody really understands what the word conspiracy means anymore.
Sorry to be a language nazi, but this bugs me.
I'm a conservative. Language nazis are good.
What's the (legal) definition of a conspiracy? any difference?
On the other hand, the truth is you're probably right - if we started talking about a cabal, someone would probably want to know when drinks were being served...!
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