Question Thou Not!

     When the Left has power, even inquiring into its practices is deemed unacceptable, unconscionable, indefensible…almost (though for the moment, not quite) illegal. The intensity of the Left’s counterblast varies directly with how far from the American norm the practice at issue lies.

     Critical race theory, which purports to indict and convict (without trial) every American Caucasian of racism and oppressive “privilege” over American Negroes, is getting the nuclear treatment:

     ATLANTA – A Georgia lawmaker is trying to find out whether any of the state’s public universities are teaching about white privilege or oppression, part of a larger national debate over how colleges should teach about American history and race relations.

     University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley asked the system’s 26 colleges and universities on Jan. 21 to research the information after state Rep. Emory Dunahoo, a Gillsville Republican, submitted questions on the topic to Wrigley following budget hearings.

     Some faculty members are bristling at the questions, saying they intrude into a professor’s academic freedom and are part of an effort by Republicans to impose their vision of history and social relations. Conservatives, though, say they’re fighting left-wing indoctrination by professors.

     John Hinderaker comments thus:

     State legislatures have oversight responsibility over public institutions, but any time they try to exercise that responsibility, it is considered dirty pool.

     Naturally! The educational system is the Left’s most potent weapon against the United States, its Constitution, and its founding ideals. The universities, in particular, are a machine for turning out Marxist radicals and left-wing Cause People. To permit “outsiders” a peek into their methods would fatally undermine their whole project.

     It’s in the universities that the Left has most thoroughly implemented Herbert Marcuse’s recommendations from his essay “Repressive Tolerance:”

     The whole post-fascist period is one of clear and present danger. Consequently, true pacification requires the withdrawal of tolerance before the deed, at the stage of communication in word, print, and picture. Such extreme suspension of the right of free speech and free assembly is indeed justified only if the whole of society is in extreme danger. I maintain that our society is in such an emergency situation, and that it has become the normal state of affairs. Different opinions and ‘philosophies’ can no longer compete peacefully for adherence and persuasion on rational grounds: the ‘marketplace of ideas’ is organized and delimited by those who determine the national and the individual interest. In this society, for which the ideologists have proclaimed the ‘end of ideology’, the false consciousness has become the general consciousness–from the government down to its last objects.

     To put it baldly, Marcuse detested freedom of speech because he absolutely hated freedom of thought and opinion. That’s the whole point of his Ur-Marxist “false consciousness” canard. The contemporary Left has taken his recommendations as its marching orders. Under that aegis, the schools will no longer encourage the traditional American contest between ideas and philosophies, which began with Socrates and has been the foundation of freedom ever since. Rather, they will indoctrinate their students in goodthink. Leftist “educators” will strive to render their victims incapable of entertaining any idea contrary to their dicta without suffering intense internal agony and guilt.

     The assembly-line production of little Leftists begins in the government-run (a.k.a. “public”) schools, continues in the universities, and is enforced as straitly as possible by “diversity” officers paid by America’s employers. Its smooth efficiency is made possible only by generation after generation of Leftist infiltration and colonization. Those generations have imbued American “educators” with a near-perfect commonality of vision.

     To subject a defenseless child to this machine is an act of child abuse. American parents have been realizing this in increasing numbers. To deter flight, the Left’s agents in Departments of Education in all fifty states are doing their damnedest to make “public” schooling unavoidable, largely by raising school taxes ever higher. At a high enough level of taxation, family budgets can no longer afford an alternative.

     But wait: there’s more! Along with increasing school taxes, the “public” schools have steadily reduced their emphasis on fundamental intellectual assets: reading, basic mathematics, history, and the ability to distinguish among facts, conjectures, and opinions. The consequence is that the typical high-school graduate is no longer employable in any field that requires those competences. The only possible redress is “higher education:” colleges and universities.

     Sixteen years in the belly of this machine does a rather thorough job on 90% or more of those who pass through it. The Left will never permit a serious incursion into its “educational system.” Students competent in the fundamentals of the intellect might question elements of the Left’s agenda. They might prove capable of comprehending articles such as this one. The whole Leftist program would be fatally undermined.

     There is no Last Graf…or rather, there’s no need for one. The solution is “obvious.” The implementation, however, is expensive and difficult. Even so, an increasing number of American parents are gritting their teeth, embracing the financial and practical difficulties, and removing their children from the “educational system.” There may be hope after all, though patience will be required.