I sympathise. Our British political class is mostly rubbish too, and it is almost entirely our our own fault.
However, you still have some good men around, and no doubt women. I was fascinated by the post below about Rep. Thaddeus McCotter. He looks just fine to me. There must be others.
We still have a few rather like that, but they are mainly older and a little worn: European politics corrupt even the best.
It may seem naive to say so, but you still have the Constitution and the Bill of rights to fall back on, and they could save the US yet. Our documents of Liberty are mostly forgotten: ironically they, and the events which gave rise to them, went a long way to inspiring yours, which are living documents - in the best sense.
...unannounced but obvious purpose of our public school system over the last 100 years..
Again, this presumes a concerted effort to create that effect - in short, a conspiracy, and a rather vast one at that. I would argue that the result isn't in dispute, but the process is. This is important because if you are going to cure the disease you've got to understand what it is - otherwise you'll fall back on medieval medicine and apply leaches to remove the bad humour. And you won't fix a damn thing.
A conspiracy? Well, it was a quite open one, based out of the Frankfurt School, but after they set the parameters and wound up the mechanism, it was self-sustaining and largely unconscious from that point forward, IMO.
You totally have a point saying that in regards to the Frankfurt School...
I'm up here in the Midwest's hotbed of liberal activism: Madison, Wisconsin. Famous of course for bringing progressive ideas, such as Social Security (which is anything but...), to the forefront. Anyway, one of the perks, other than the cheese, beer, and football, are the multitudes of used book shops what contain stacks of (usually) Marxist-Lenenist filth in addition to some excellent used fiction and older firearms-related tomes (e.g. my copy of Elmer Keith's "Six Guns").
I was looking over a particularly interesting box of pocket-sized books after I spied the 1913 "Small Arms Firing Manual" in it. It was a good call on my part, since I found a 1945 edition of F.A. Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom". I purchased both books and began to read Hayek's at the nearest coffee shop.
I'm stupefied that four short pages in it has summarized most of "Liberal Fascism" and has framed our current problem so well:
"But the socialism of which we speak is not a party matter, and the questions which we are discussion have little to do with the questions at dispute between political parties. It does not affect our problem that some groups may want less socialism than others; that some want socialism mainly in the interest of one group and other in that of another. The important point is that, if we take the people whose views influence developments, they are now the democracies in some measure all socialists. If it is no longer fashionable to emphasize that 'we are all socialists now,' this is so merely because the fact is so merely because the fact is too obvious."
In 1944, F.A. Hayek grasped the thread of what is to follow and I'm sad to say that I think Mike V. is correct...
"Several years earlier W. H. Chamberlin, who in twelve years in Russia as An American correspondent had seen all of his ideals shattered, summed up the conclusions of his studies there and in Germany and Italy in the statement that 'socialism is certain to prove, in the beginning at least, the road NOT to freedom, but to dictatorship and counter-dictatorships, to civil war of the fiercest kind. Socialism achieved and maintained by democratic means seems definitely to belong to the world of Utopias.'"
"The the first task must now be to win the war, to win it will only gain us another opportunity to face the basic problems and to find a way of averting the fate which has overtaken kindred civilizations."(Hayek was speaking about WWII, but it is eerily prophetic...)
Dewey well precedes Frankfurt, and progressives of the era for all of their faults, were not typically pawns of the Communist Internationale. As you yourself have noted, much of our current educational dysfunction ties back to Dewey's ideals. In which case, the problem is more rooted in America than in Europe, and thus to attack Frankfurt is to draw blood with leaches.
It could simply be that we are tracing an arc well established in human history, which I find more likely than our downfall coming at the hands (or minds) of quasi-intellectuals plotting the downfall of the West.
Dewey well precedes Frankfurt, and progressives of the era for all of their faults, were not typically pawns of the Communist Internationale. As you yourself have noted, much of our current educational dysfunction ties back to Dewey's ideals. Indeed he does, and the Progressives indeed became pawns of the Communists only later, but they plowed and fertilized the field for the Frankfurt School to plant their seeds in.
I just have to pull out part of that article for highlighting because what it's saying is critical to this debate:
"It sounds compassionate for a politician to say “everyone is entitled to adequate medical health care,” but stop and consider the implications of this statement. Vice President Biden – along with President Obama and the majority of the members of the U.S. Congress – have confirmed in the minds of at least some portion of the American public that they are “entitled” to the services of another human being.
Those “other” human beings are, of course, Medical Doctors, people who invest huge chunks of their time and energy and often delay gratification of their personal lives for a decade or more and frequently incur enormous personal debt just earning the right to practice their craft. And now the U.S. federal government says that “the rest of us” are entitled to a piece of these individuals. In previous generations, the idea of being entitled to the services of another person was called “slavery.”"
I pointed this out in debates prior to the passing of the bill, and was told "no one made them become doctors". Actually, it was more personal than that. I was describing how this mentality, when applied to my wife, who is a trauma pharmacist, essentially made her a slave. And was told that no one put a gun to her head to force her into pharmacy school. I about lost my shit. I have a pretty good benchmark for RCOB, now.
Please tell me that person realized what he had actually said and decided that it would be a good time to be elsewhere.
I wonder what makes people like this think that A) people will voluntarily sign up to be slaves and B) current medical personnel won't quit rather than be slaves?
It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.
A-frickin'-men. Simply due to the way the American system is set up, the government is not the problem. The government is almost never the problem, unless the problem arises in between elections and is dealt with at those elections.
Of course, how many times has that actually happened? Sure, a few, but how comprehensive was the error-correction in each particular instance?
And, additionally, as time marches on and as more and more governmental agencies are formed and granted certain powers without appropriate oversights, that "almost" gets larger and larger... But who is creating those agencies and giving them those powers? And who is putting those people into their positions of power?
The American method of government makes it very easy to error-check the system, at least for the originally-proscribed segments of the government in question. And until we are able to do something about the root causes of the errors, this country is going to continue on the downward spiral of increased governmental controls and decreased freedoms and liberties for the forseeable future (and, in my humble opinion, until the system catastrophically fails).
It continues to astonish me how few people, on all sides of the fence, actually grasp that concept...
It didn't start in Russia, Kevin, it started long before that in Germany.
Oh, and yeah, I'm reading Hayek too. Funny thing is I just commented on that in another post before reading this one and the comments here. Everything in that book is relevant to our current struggles in most arenas.
After reading that, what is really evident is that it seems that the problems/solutions don't even matter to our political parties anymore... The questions I'm starting to ask is, "How long after we've reached Lenin's 5 points do things truly fall apart?"
Here is a man: with no military experience, no business experience, no leadership experience, who is an historical ignoramus, Marxist-by-training, cohort of domestic terrorists, and liar and phony even by the standards of politics. Never would have thought such a person would be elected President in my lifetime. I feel like I'm in the midst of a cosmic political satire. Or a bad dream.
Did you see the bit where the White House is buying off journalists to keep these dirty secrets on the QT? It's not that I didn't know this stuff goes on, it's the brazenness of it all. Whatever happened to the pretense of decency and objectivity? They (.gov and media) just don't care anymore.
There was no such time. What is so noticable now is, as Sarah stated, "It's not that I didn't know this stuff goes on, it's the brazenness of it all. Whatever happened to the pretense of decency and objectivity?"
Thus my observation that an amateur was in play. He doesn't know what he doesn't know, which includes how to induce the suspension of disbelief. Slick Willie had that gift, hence his name. Obamateur doesn't.
Note:
All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost;
references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>
JS-Kit/Echo comments for article at http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2010/04/quote-of-day-weve-met-enemy-edition.html (28 comments)
Tentative mapping of comments to original article, corrections solicited.
I sympathise. Our British political class is mostly rubbish too, and it is almost entirely our our own fault.
However, you still have some good men around, and no doubt women. I was fascinated by the post below about Rep. Thaddeus McCotter. He looks just fine to me. There must be others.
We still have a few rather like that, but they are mainly older and a little worn: European politics corrupt even the best.
It may seem naive to say so, but you still have the Constitution and the Bill of rights to fall back on, and they could save the US yet. Our documents of Liberty are mostly forgotten: ironically they, and the events which gave rise to them, went a long way to inspiring yours, which are living documents - in the best sense.
Well, otherwise the wrong rhododendron might get in.
...unannounced but obvious purpose of our public school system over the last 100 years..
Again, this presumes a concerted effort to create that effect - in short, a conspiracy, and a rather vast one at that. I would argue that the result isn't in dispute, but the process is. This is important because if you are going to cure the disease you've got to understand what it is - otherwise you'll fall back on medieval medicine and apply leaches to remove the bad humour. And you won't fix a damn thing.
Not so vast there, juris!
A conspiracy? Well, it was a quite open one, based out of the Frankfurt School, but after they set the parameters and wound up the mechanism, it was self-sustaining and largely unconscious from that point forward, IMO.
You totally have a point saying that in regards to the Frankfurt School...
I'm up here in the Midwest's hotbed of liberal activism: Madison, Wisconsin. Famous of course for bringing progressive ideas, such as Social Security (which is anything but...), to the forefront. Anyway, one of the perks, other than the cheese, beer, and football, are the multitudes of used book shops what contain stacks of (usually) Marxist-Lenenist filth in addition to some excellent used fiction and older firearms-related tomes (e.g. my copy of Elmer Keith's "Six Guns").
I was looking over a particularly interesting box of pocket-sized books after I spied the 1913 "Small Arms Firing Manual" in it. It was a good call on my part, since I found a 1945 edition of F.A. Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom". I purchased both books and began to read Hayek's at the nearest coffee shop.
I'm stupefied that four short pages in it has summarized most of "Liberal Fascism" and has framed our current problem so well:
"But the socialism of which we speak is not a party matter, and the questions which we are discussion have little to do with the questions at dispute between political parties. It does not affect our problem that some groups may want less socialism than others; that some want socialism mainly in the interest of one group and other in that of another. The important point is that, if we take the people whose views influence developments, they are now the democracies in some measure all socialists. If it is no longer fashionable to emphasize that 'we are all socialists now,' this is so merely because the fact is so merely because the fact is too obvious."
In 1944, F.A. Hayek grasped the thread of what is to follow and I'm sad to say that I think Mike V. is correct...
"Several years earlier W. H. Chamberlin, who in twelve years in Russia as An American correspondent had seen all of his ideals shattered, summed up the conclusions of his studies there and in Germany and Italy in the statement that 'socialism is certain to prove, in the beginning at least, the road NOT to freedom, but to dictatorship and counter-dictatorships, to civil war of the fiercest kind. Socialism achieved and maintained by democratic means seems definitely to belong to the world of Utopias.'"
"The the first task must now be to win the war, to win it will only gain us another opportunity to face the basic problems and to find a way of averting the fate which has overtaken kindred civilizations."(Hayek was speaking about WWII, but it is eerily prophetic...)
Dewey well precedes Frankfurt, and progressives of the era for all of their faults, were not typically pawns of the Communist Internationale. As you yourself have noted, much of our current educational dysfunction ties back to Dewey's ideals. In which case, the problem is more rooted in America than in Europe, and thus to attack Frankfurt is to draw blood with leaches.
It could simply be that we are tracing an arc well established in human history, which I find more likely than our downfall coming at the hands (or minds) of quasi-intellectuals plotting the downfall of the West.
Dewey well precedes Frankfurt, and progressives of the era for all of their faults, were not typically pawns of the Communist Internationale. As you yourself have noted, much of our current educational dysfunction ties back to Dewey's ideals.
Indeed he does, and the Progressives indeed became pawns of the Communists only later, but they plowed and fertilized the field for the Frankfurt School to plant their seeds in.
Heh. I read this post through Google Reaser, which doesn't always keep formatting and fonts.
I kept reading "fool" as "tool", and honestly the QOTD makes more sense that way...
Doctor Zero strikes again...
http://www.doczero.org/2010/04/the-parable-of-the-referee/#more-14300
And this one is so perfect I just had to post a link:
http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-unicorn-the-other-white-meat
Another gem:
http://townhall.com/columnists/AustinHill/2010/04/04/note_to_doctors_now_im_entitled_to_your_services
I just have to pull out part of that article for highlighting because what it's saying is critical to this debate:
"It sounds compassionate for a politician to say “everyone is entitled to adequate medical health care,” but stop and consider the implications of this statement. Vice President Biden – along with President Obama and the majority of the members of the U.S. Congress – have confirmed in the minds of at least some portion of the American public that they are “entitled” to the services of another human being.
Those “other” human beings are, of course, Medical Doctors, people who invest huge chunks of their time and energy and often delay gratification of their personal lives for a decade or more and frequently incur enormous personal debt just earning the right to practice their craft. And now the U.S. federal government says that “the rest of us” are entitled to a piece of these individuals. In previous generations, the idea of being entitled to the services of another person was called “slavery.”"
Exactly right, Ed.
I pointed this out in debates prior to the passing of the bill, and was told "no one made them become doctors". Actually, it was more personal than that. I was describing how this mentality, when applied to my wife, who is a trauma pharmacist, essentially made her a slave. And was told that no one put a gun to her head to force her into pharmacy school. I about lost my shit. I have a pretty good benchmark for RCOB, now.
Please tell me that person realized what he had actually said and decided that it would be a good time to be elsewhere.
I wonder what makes people like this think that A) people will voluntarily sign up to be slaves and B) current medical personnel won't quit rather than be slaves?
Here's a similar article that I had posted a while ago. But it's on the same subject so I thought it would be appropriate to repost it.
Health care slaves? "Public goods" versus private exchange
It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.
A-frickin'-men. Simply due to the way the American system is set up, the government is not the problem. The government is almost never the problem, unless the problem arises in between elections and is dealt with at those elections.
Of course, how many times has that actually happened? Sure, a few, but how comprehensive was the error-correction in each particular instance?
And, additionally, as time marches on and as more and more governmental agencies are formed and granted certain powers without appropriate oversights, that "almost" gets larger and larger... But who is creating those agencies and giving them those powers? And who is putting those people into their positions of power?
The American method of government makes it very easy to error-check the system, at least for the originally-proscribed segments of the government in question. And until we are able to do something about the root causes of the errors, this country is going to continue on the downward spiral of increased governmental controls and decreased freedoms and liberties for the forseeable future (and, in my humble opinion, until the system catastrophically fails).
It continues to astonish me how few people, on all sides of the fence, actually grasp that concept...
I watch CSPAN now and then. The biggest difference I see between plants and Congresscritters is the Congresscritters don't turn towards the sun...
"Congresscritters don't turn towards the sun..."
That is because cockroaches hate the light. Vermin prefer darkness.
QOTD!
It didn't start in Russia, Kevin, it started long before that in Germany.
Oh, and yeah, I'm reading Hayek too. Funny thing is I just commented on that in another post before reading this one and the comments here. Everything in that book is relevant to our current struggles in most arenas.
Well, THIS is timely:
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/04/05/the-knowledge-problem-congress-doesnt-have-any-even-its-own-bailiwick/
After reading that, what is really evident is that it seems that the problems/solutions don't even matter to our political parties anymore... The questions I'm starting to ask is, "How long after we've reached Lenin's 5 points do things truly fall apart?"
Few of you will be surprised by this, but it appears Obama is a fraud. See also: The Biggest Hustle in Human History.
Here is a man: with no military experience, no business experience, no leadership experience, who is an historical ignoramus, Marxist-by-training, cohort of domestic terrorists, and liar and phony even by the standards of politics. Never would have thought such a person would be elected President in my lifetime. I feel like I'm in the midst of a cosmic political satire. Or a bad dream.
... with no executive experience ...
... who is a Constitutional ignoramus ...
Here is a challenge, ladies and gents. Fill in the list, lest we forget something.
Nice find, Sarah.
Did you see the bit where the White House is buying off journalists to keep these dirty secrets on the QT? It's not that I didn't know this stuff goes on, it's the brazenness of it all. Whatever happened to the pretense of decency and objectivity? They (.gov and media) just don't care anymore.
Yup, I saw it.
This is what happens when an amateur lives in the White House.
Perhaps you would share the time when it wasn't thus. What golden age fairytale do you believe in?
There was no such time. What is so noticable now is, as Sarah stated, "It's not that I didn't know this stuff goes on, it's the brazenness of it all. Whatever happened to the pretense of decency and objectivity?"
Thus my observation that an amateur was in play. He doesn't know what he doesn't know, which includes how to induce the suspension of disbelief. Slick Willie had that gift, hence his name. Obamateur doesn't.
Note: All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost; references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>