The Tyranny of a Liberal Education

 

By William L. Garvin 

"Ideally, a liberal education produces persons who are open-minded and free from provincialism, dogma, preconception, and ideology; conscious of their opinions and judgments; reflective of their actions; and aware of their place in the social and natural worlds.  Liberally educated people are skeptical of their own traditions; they are trained to think for themselves rather than defer to authority.”

The American Association for the Advancement of Science 

There was a time when recipients of a liberal education could engage in proper debate and discussion based on facts, logic and reason.  Questions could be formulated, positions established, arguments made, and conclusions drawn.  Those days appear to be dwindling.  Under the combined onslaught of politically liberal education systems, politically liberal Hollywood and pop culture, and agenda-driven politically liberal media, we are faced with a generation of “educated” but brain-dead zombies.  Like their popular walking dead, they are devoid of original insight but continue to lurch forward regurgitating their progressive, politically correct propaganda.  When their orthodoxies are challenged, being unable to intellectually defend their positions, they tend to turn inward to their social peers, where their mocking, name calling, and crude invective is not only tolerated but encouraged, even lauded.

We’ve recently seen a fading comic-actor try to force his way into political relevance by producing a video and mocking a dead actor.  The crude central theme was to pretend Charlton Heston’s support for second amendment rights was because of sexual inadequacy.  Now that’s the liberal fighting spirit…pick on someone who can’t fight back.  The pathetic attempt at satire was neither edgy nor funny.  Slightly below the incredibly low bar that had already been set was another B-list “comic” who tweeted crude, lewd, and unfunny comments about the Pope.  If you really want to be edgy, let’s see these brave new leftists pop off about Mohammed.  Or face off with the violence and misogyny in rap videos…or video games…or horror of horrors, Hollywood movies!

These are the same lib-zoms who rallied to the support of Sandra Fluke and think that other taxpayers should buy their contraceptives.  Of course they blithely ignore the impact of their musical bed lifestyle (modeled by their Hollywood heroes).  First, fifty percent of mothers under thirty are bearing their children out of wedlock.  If they are single moms, look out for the high correlation between single parenthood, poverty, and crime.  Secondly, the Center for Disease Control says in 2008, there were nearly twenty million new venereal infections bringing the total in the United States up to 110,197,000 infected individuals.  Thirdly, maybe that’s part of the reason Planned Parenthood aborted 333,964 babies in the 2011-2012 fiscal year alone.  Good thing there were no scientists who could cure cancer, or Shakespeares, or Beethovens, or Rembrandts in the one million abortions PP “performed” in the last three years!

On the religious front, lib-zoms did lose their battle to exclude the cross-shaped steel beam found in the World Trade Center wreckage from the Memorial and Museum.  Sorry about that American Atheists.  However, the principal of an elementary school in Alabama cancelled the Easter egg hunt for the kids because “the egg hunt is associated with Easter, and Easter may be offensive to some people.”  Then there’s the Florida Atlantic University instructor who told his students to write “Jesus” on a piece of paper and then stomp on it.  A student who refused to do so was then initially suspended for violations of the student code of conduct.  By the way, Dr. Deandre Poole is not only the instructor in this tawdry scenario, but he is also the vice chairman of the Palm Beach Democrat Party. 

Then there’s the Easter service that the President attended.  "It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us back ... for blacks to be back in the back of the bus ... for women to be back in the kitchen ... for immigrants to be back on their side of the border," preached/pontificated Rev. Luis León at St. John's Episcopal Church.  Naturally, no one has challenged Reverend Leon to name one religious right captain who is guilty of any of the scurrilous allegations he made in his ad hominem attack.  Certainly the President didn’t.  Just another hit and run assault by the left that will remain unchallenged.

In today’s brave new world, politically correct lib-zoms will tolerate anything but someone who disagrees with them.  They’re all for free speech unless it’s dissent or opposition based in fact.  Their minds are made up and they won’t be confused with facts!  But as Aldous Huxley noted, “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."