 Mindslaughter - Sunday, May 15, 2011 at 23:24 |
Mindslaughter
David
C. Stolinsky, MD
May 16, 2011
No, this
is not a typo. I am not referring to manslaughter, the killing of a human
being. I am referring to mindslaughter, the killing of a human mind. Like
manslaughter, mindslaughter may be either voluntary or involuntary. The
difference depends on the intention of the perpetrators. But it makes little
difference to the victims.
In the
case of manslaughter, the victims are just as dead. In the case of
mindslaughter, their ability to get a good job, earn enough to support a
family, be informed citizens, or even to think clearly is just as impaired.
The motives of those responsible are irrelevant to the damage done.
The influence
of the Left on primary and secondary education is undeniable, but its influence on the
universities is
even greater. My parents revered education. My wife and I have doctoral degrees.
So it is painful for me to say this. I believe that the decline of Western,
and specifically American, civilization occurred simultaneously with the
greater percent of people who attend university.
At the
university, students learn to be dependent on government-sponsored loans to
pay inflated tuition, which was inflated because of government intervention.
How they will repay this debt they cannot say. But having become used to this
system, they see no reason not to apply it everywhere, including home loans
and health care:
Government
intervention à inflated costs à government aid à dependency on
government + personal debt à greater dependency on
government + huge government debt à economic collapse.
Students
learn socialism before they attend a single class. And in class they learn
more:
● They
learn leftist dogma, taught as if it were truth
revealed on Mount Sinai. There are conservative colleges as well as the service
academies, but most universities have a marked leftward slant.
● They
learn to reject facts that refute leftist dogma,
rather than to reject the dogma − and if that fails, to make up “facts” that support the dogma.
● They
learn to admire the ability to talk glibly, but to disregard the ability to
actually do something − and to vote accordingly.
● They
learn to talk endlessly about working people, but in fact to look down on
them. They never learn the proverb, “Parents who do not teach their children
a trade teach them to be thieves” − in modern terms, to be dependent on the
government.
● They
learn that everyone deserves a
university education. So they teach algebra in middle school, but cancel vocational
classes. As a result, many students − especially minorities − drop out, or
graduate from high school with no marketable skills.
● They
learn that “higher” education entitles one to make decisions for others,
regardless of whether the education had anything to do with the subject in
question. Thus President Obama believes that merely because he graduated from
Harvard Law School, he is qualified to decide who gets pain pills instead of
hip surgery, and
who gets his best wishes instead
of a cardiac pacemaker.
● They
study Plato, and learn that a few self-anointed “elite” should rule the
“masses.”
● They
study natural sciences, but even here, the Left twists things to suit their agenda − as witness climategate.
● They
learn to blame the victim, not the assailant. So they make excuses for criminals at home and terrorists abroad, even blaming us for 9/11.
● They
learn to misuse language. They pass laws too complex for them to
understand − or even read. But complex laws require
bureaucrats to interpret them and lawyers to litigate them. Ambiguity becomes
an asset − in power for bureaucrats, in money for lawyers.
● They
learn that the Constitution is a “living document” that means only what a
judge says it means today. Tomorrow it may mean something else.
● They
learn that there are no moral absolutes, only matters of opinion. And the
only opinions that matter are those of the leftist “elite.”
● They learn,
“War is not the answer.” But they never learn to ask, “What ended slavery?”
or “What defeated Nazism?” or “What kept South Korea from becoming a slave
state like the North?” or “What freed the women of Afghanistan from being
beaten for not wearing burqas or for going to school?”
● They
learn to have contempt for the U.S. military. But who else did as much to
help the Haitians after the earthquake, or the Asians after the tsunami?
● They
learn to have contempt for capitalism. But what other system generates enough
surplus to help others after natural disasters?
● They
learn to have contempt for religion. But they never learn that religious people are more
likely to give to
charity − both in money and by volunteering.
● They
learn to “question authority” − but never to question leftist professors, who
may punish dissent with lower grades.
● They
learn to indoctrinate children with leftist dogmas, and even to train kids to sing hymns to the Leader. But they do not learn to teach
kids to love freedom.
● They
learn to refer to the “Prophet” Muhammad with respect, and even an
upper-case P, but never to refer to the “Prophet” Moses or the “Messiah”
Jesus.
● They
learn that “feminism” applies only to us, so they never criticize burqas, or
even genital mutilation or “honor” killings.
● They
learn to be parrots who respond to any problem by squawking, “Spend more,
raise taxes, enlarge government.” Can that be the answer for everything?
● They
remain in an infantilized state, as students, well into their twenties. So
they conclude that it is normal for adults to be told what to do − and what
to think. When the government does this, they see no problem. It was what
they became accustomed to for the first quarter-century of their lives.
They go
from preschool to graduate school without ever hearing conservative ideas.
Their leftist views are reinforced when they watch ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and
CNN; when they listen to NPR; and when they read newspapers from the New York
Times to the Los Angeles Times. So if by chance they meet a conservative,
they can’t counter his arguments with logical, fact-based arguments of their
own. Instead, they call him racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic,
xenophobic, or even Nazi.
My uncles
never finished high school, but they had more wisdom than most people in
graduate school. They got it from an extended family, a religious background,
and work experience. Except for immigrant groups, extended families are now
rare. But we can encourage religious education and work experience. Knowledge
isn’t wisdom.
In the
past, there were many jobs − good jobs − that did not require a university
education. In those days, high-school graduates were capable in spoken and
written English, history, and basic mathematics, as well as having good work
habits. But then the schools were dumbed down.
Now, a
high-school diploma is often a guarantee of little. As a result, most good jobs
require a university degree. That degree may also guarantee little in real
abilities. But as in “The Wizard of Oz,” the brainless believe a diploma is
all that is needed.
Meaningful
or not, a university diploma is now considered the key to the good life. As a
result, most young people feel that they must attend a university − and are
therefore exposed to the most left-wing area of the educational system. Then
many of them graduate with huge school-loan debts but few job prospects − and
thus become disaffected leftists yearning for “change,” and ripe for
exploitation by demagogues who promise it.
As things
are going, we will wind up with high-school graduates who studied quadratic
equations but can’t make change, and university graduates who
studied leftism and environmentalism but can’t make a living.
If we hope
to keep our republic, we must improve primary and secondary education, and we
must hire teachers and professors who have Judeo-Christian and American
values − which are now called “conservative.” If we hope to remain free, we must
not allow the next generation to become dependent on the government, because
their substandard education left them incapable of making it on their own.
www.stolinsky.com
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