Take that Alinsky!

Over the years, the Progressives have infiltrated and taken over mass media and popular culture. Their memes are embedded in virtually any TV show, movie or piece of music, providing an echo chamber of self referential and self re-enforcing themes and ideas. Original and critical thought is not just discouraged, it is simply drowned out.

Or is it?

Take a look at this video which lays out the two main strands of economic thought in an entertaining Rap video:

"Fear the Boom and Bust" a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk

Andrew Breitbart of BigJournalism fame now has a catchy tune for "Retracto the Correction Alpaca" (itself an entertaining meme):

http://bigjournalism.com/retracto/2010/02/09/introducing-the-retracto-the-correction-alpaca-theme-song/

Enjoy, and pass these on.

Taught to Think

I'm wondering how many of the people who visit here were taught how to think in school?

H/T Dr. Hurd

What if Milton Friedman was addressing America's schoolchildren?

Although a President making an address to schoolchildren should not seem controversial, President Barack Obama has managed to arouse a great deal of resistance and opposition to his planned address.

The controversy isn't so much about the remarks of the address (which, being pitched to children, is relatively mild and uncontroversial in of itself), but the larger context of how the administration operates in general and the crude and ill conceived "learning package" that was planned to go with the speech, a package for America's schoolchildren which has all the hallmarks of indoctrination.

Perhaps it would be better if schoolchildren everywhere were to hear from notables like Milton Friedman. I pulled this gem from "Dr Helen":

I would rather think that the words of Milton Friedman from his book Capitalism and Freedom make more sense:

"The paternalistic 'what your country can do for you' implies that government is the patron, the citizen the ward, a view that is at odds with the free man's belief in his own responsibility for his own destiny. The organismic, 'what you can do for your country' implies that government is the master or the deity, the citizen, the servant or the votary. To the free man, the country is the collection of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them. He is proud of a common heritage and loyal to common traditions. But he regards government as a means, an instrumentality, neither a grantor of favors, and gifts, nor a master or god to be blindly worshipped and served.

Now there is a lesson we can all get behind

Save the world; one girl at a time

As seen on YouTube, a common sense idea for effective foreign aid:

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=WIvmE4_KMNw

UN bureaucrats need not apply

It can't be done!

When free market reformers suggest a market solution to any of the multitude of unwieldy, underfunded, unaccountable "public systems" The perennial answer from the unions, big government and their hapless drones in the public is "it can't be done!".

This statement is followed closely by its fellow travelers "what about the poor?", "what do you have against <insert 'protected' group/ideal here>?" and finally... "It could never work!" all of which are accompanied by the usual arguments from intimidation... "Certainly you don't mean..." "You couldn't possibly be saying..." "I know you don't intend to..."

Indeed... I do.

A fisherman with an understanding of economics that would put union officials to shame, who had moved his daughter from state to private school, told me that the private school proprietor needed to satisfy parents like him, otherwise he would go out of business. “That’s why the teachers turn up and teach,” he told me, “because they are closely supervised.”

One father, living in the Kenyan slum of Kibera, summarised it like this: “If you go to a market and are offered free fruit and vegetables, you know they’ll be rotten. If you want fresh produce, you have to pay for it.”

Signs of the Collectivist Apocalypse (SOTCA)

It is obvious to anyone who reads Atlas Shrugged, that throughout it, the policies and programs undertaken by the ubiquitous Thompson government and the so called Peoples States, combined with the altruistic and nihilistic tendencies of anti-heroes like James Taggart and Wesley Mouch are leading to the final destruction of society. Indeed the book culminates in a collectivist apocalypse and the escape of the heroes and heroine to Galt’s Gulch.

Like the canary in the mineshaft I seek to warn you all that we may be looking at the same fate somewhere down the road.

So just to keep tabs on the situation I introduce a recurring theme to Uncommon Sense, a chirp here and there which I will call…

Signs of the Collectivist Apocalypse (SOTCA)

My first entry is about the US Treasury and a sweeping power grab by its new Head

The regulatory blueprint proposes eventually vesting new powers in the Federal Reserve as a "market stability regulator" -- effectively formalizing a role the central bank already has adopted recently by expanding the list of financial firms which can borrow directly.

It would give the Fed authority to demand that all financial system participants supply it with full information on their activities and grant the Fed a right to collaborate with other regulators in setting rules for their behavior.

Woosh!!! Super Finance Cop to the rescue!

Hold on a sec... Weren't these the same guys that were at least partially responsible for the sub-prime fiasco? Foxes in Hen houses anyone?

The great Cash and Cars Giveaway

Or How Dalton Made us all Pay

WINDSOR, Ont. - Ford of Canada will use a $17-million investment from the Ontario government as part of a $168-million plan to reopen the Essex engine plant in southwestern Ontario, but the company warned Monday it will not expand the project further without direct participation from the federal government.

Excellent Dalton McSquirmy throwing good money after bad, just to be threatened by the Ford company that it will all be for naught if they don't get more!!!

It's almost like he wants to be the Premier of a have not province...

Lies, Damn Lies and Artists

So, my daughter wants to be an artist , no, not that kind of artist, a graphic artist. You know the kind that is actually interested in making money.

Months ago she sent out applications to 4 Universities/colleges that have degree programs in Graphic Arts. Each of these schools required a portfolio which my Daughter dutifully and painstakingly produced from her sketchbooks and paintings. She also had to include “artist’s statements” on her work and write an essay as to why she wanted to become a commercial graphic artist.

Having written the essay she brought it to me to proofread. I had only gotten about one paragraph into the essay when I stopped. It was full of statements about her “making a difference through her art” and extolling the virtue of art to change society.

“Do you really believe all this?” I asked.

“No, but that’s what the schools want.” She said.

“So telling them that you want to make lots of money so that you can be a functioning and productive member of society is out of the question?”

“Yes.”

So I read the rest of the essay, and corrected only for grammar and not content. The socialist mantra my daughter had espoused was a means to an end, I was happy about that at least.

But the incident bothered me, and still does.

Why is it necessary for us to hide the healthy, rational and logical reasons for our desire to work?

Why is it necessary for my daughter to lie and refer to the social ramifications of art and artists when all she wants to do is earn a decent living off of something that she enjoys and is good at?

But this tendancy is not new, when I joined the Army and was asked why, I would often say that I did it to serve my country, but slowly I began to realize that my reason, the real reason I joined the Army was to make a living. I was a mercenary, pure and simple.

I would not have spent 22 years soldiering if I had not been well paid for my service. Yes I served my country but making a living was THE reason behind it, not the other way round.

Sadly though altruism trumps honesty, integrity and rationality in the socialist age.

Until we as individuals learn to reject the altruistic lie and tell the whole truth about why we do something as fundamental to our way of life as work, we will continue to win the battle but loose the war with socialist thought.

Coming at it from Another Angle

As I was reading this, and planning to share it here, the thought occurred to me that some might find this opinion at odds with the proceeding post and the scorched earth ideal in general, but that is not necessarily so. Just as there is more than one strategy at play in our current shooting war in Afghanistan, then we too must use more than one strategy to win the cultural one at home.

J.S. Mill argued vocally that in order to understand any freedom or belief, we must allow those who do not to voice even the most odorous of thoughts in order, not only that we would have a better understanding of our beliefs through confrontation and argument but that the stupidity, ignorance and even evil of the other persons belief or position could be made apparent to them.

To that end, I finally bring you to the quote I wanted to show...
thanks to The Gods of the Copybook Headings

"To win the war against Islamism we need only be ourselves and proclaim it loudly. At every turn denounce the violation of liberties and basic humanity. Every author censored, every women beaten, every daughter denied an education, in Karachi, in Tehran and in Mississauga. Speak loudly, speak boldly, have no fear of causing offense. The truth will set us and them free."

Abandon All Hope

As much as the right wing and small “l” liberals in this country wine and wince about the socialist and leftist bend of our educational system we are the ones at fault for abandoning it to them.

Angelo Persichilli gets it. His article comes into focus in this statement…

“They have not simply become the apostles of left-wing culture. Rather, they are
the culture and, according to them, anyone who disagrees with their ideas is a
warmonger, hates the poor, opposes social justice. Their New McCarthyism is
actually McCarthyism in reverse.”

Until such a time as we on the right side of the political aisle in this country get our poop in a group and begin to take responsibility and ownership of the institution of education we will continue to be marginalized, and the democratic and capitalistic institutions that made this nation will continue to suffer at the hands of our children, whos education has been absconded by the socialists and leftists of academia for the common misery of all.

Marxist Pap Indeed

Thanks to Lorrie Goldstein for pointing out the rationality deficit of some of our educators.

"Excellence in schools is widely understood as reproducing 'model students' who
are trained to function within the capitalist economy. Students are not
adequately trained to ask critical questions about social inequalities; what
constitutes 'valid' knowledge; and whose points of view determine the criteria
for meaningful education. Myopic definitions of excellence are entrenched in
middle class values. These definition privilege discourses about merit and the
idea that individual hard work will result in success. The focus on merit and
individuality normalize class oppression and does not question the implications
for working class youths in schools. Critical educators propose a philosophy and
practice of excellence that centres equity and disrupt social inequalities."

If this is the prevalent attitude of our educational boards then there's no wonder that our school system is circling the drain

Read the article