Hard Truths About the Culture War - Robert Bork

firstthings.com via Orthodoxy Today ^ | June/July 1995 | Robert Bork

[Joe 6-pack]

"Perhaps Bork was a touch naïve in his judgment that the war on the body politic and on the culture by the left was not a conspiracy."

That is my sole disagreement with Bork in this piece as well. We now have the Venona papers, the books of Vasili Mitrokhin and any other numbe of credible sources that indicate a lot of these things were being deliberately orchestrated from the outside with the express purpose of bringing about the downfall of the US.

Those things were only coming into the light at the time Bork was writing this. There's no doubt Bork was aware of Cloward-Piven, Alinsky, Gramsci, et al, but perhaps viewed them as independent theorists/academics first, and activists second, rather than the unwitting elements of some coordinated conspiracy.

[Linda Frances]

Great essay. This just reaffirms what I have been saying.

We need both Newt and Rick on the ticket.

Newt (the attack dog) can cut through the heart of a matter, clearly and exacting, leaving liberals shell-shocked and not prepared to respond. Newt can handle the media, the leftist in academia, the politicians who have sold their soul and leave them sputtering like a bad engine. The media is not reporting all that is going on; kids in kindergarten learning sex about homosexuality at school instead of RRR Our schools are failing our kids because they are busy socializing them on the lefts agenda.

Rick can talk to the people, reaching their heart and souls, reminding them that their children are going to have to face a world that is so selfish, self-centered and corrupt. Where hard work is rewarded by giving it to the non-producer and where the guilty are coddled and the innocent are told to be tolerant. He can remind people that obama has no problem with abortion up to 9 months in the womb and even having a doctor finish the job when an abortion fail and a baby is born alive. What kind of heartless, soulless person can live with that. They even refuse to give these babies anesthesia like Europe does, because it might give the impression that its not just cells, but a kicking, crying baby trying to live.

Remember, over 80% of US believes in God, though many don't regularly attend church. Removing God from schools, who gave us our moral codes, started the moral decline in the schools. You can track the growth of problems from then on.

Since abortion was legalize you can track the rate of child abuse. If life is so cheap that you can kill your babies in the womb, how different are they then the ones you already have. Some people don't value life anymore, including the born. (We got some of these stats from Focus on the Family when I was a counselor at a CPC) Remember to watch who you get stats from because, just like anything else the left tends to adjust their numbers to meet their goals.

Kids are having sex earlier and with more people since schools started teaching the leftist curriculum which tells them, they can't control themselves—like they are animal- so they have to be given condoms....
50 years ago their was 4 types of STD.s. Today there is over 25 different types of STD even more strains of STD’s. (by the way-why can we tell kids they can say no to drugs and cigarettes, but not sex?)

Divorce rates higher
Children having children
Drug use up
Gangs, even in conservative cities
.....

everyone could add to this list.

[Linda Frances]

If Bork endorsed Romney, he has really lost hope in the future of this country.

[mick]

ping for later

[wintertime]

No one can be certain of the future, of course. Cultures in decline have, unpredictably, turned themselves around before. Perhaps ours will too. Perhaps, ultimately, we will become so sick of the moral and aesthetic environment that is growing in America that stricter standards will be imposed democratically or by moral disapproval. Perhaps we will reject a government that is controlling more and more of our lives. A hopeful sign is the degree to which modern liberalism and its works-political correctness, affirmative action, multiculturalism, and the like-is coming under intellectual attack, not merely from conservative but also from liberal intellectuals. If its intellectual and moral bankruptcy is repeatedly exposed, perhaps modern liberalism will die of shame.

I stand with Irving Kristol, and the other "cheerful pessimists"! I believe that there is still time to turn the culture around, and, with God's help, and faith whole mountains of sin can be moved.

Of course, modern liberalism has attacked nearly all of our cultural institutions. Of all of these institutions, education is one of the most important. It is why I am on Free Republic nearly daily urging conservatives to do several things:

1) Immediately remove your child from the government schools. Your child's godless government school is **not** different! It is evil to send your child into godless schools where they must learn to think and reason godlessly just to cooperate in the classroom.

2) Conservatives must work to entirely shut down our godless, single-payer, socialist entitlement, K-12 schools. They can **not** be reformed! When was it ever possible to reform a godless, socialist, and single-payer program?

3) Conservatives must work to see that all children in the nation have access to a private education that fully upholds Judeo-Christian values and our nation's founding principles. The prison-like Prussia-model of schooling should be abandoned. It is expensive. It is inefficient. It teaches children to be good little compliant prisoners. Instead, we should support neighborhood dame schools, one room schools, tutoring centers, and homeschool cooperatives.

Personally....Government schooling is, in my opinion, sooooo evil, so hurtful to children, and such a threat to our continuing freedom, that I have recently made a decision. I will no longer have a government teacher for a friend. I am done with them. I won't have an abortion worker for a friend either.

[Linda Frances]

I don't know if anyone has heard of The Truth Project, but it aligns with this essay. I facilitated it in my home and everyone said it was an eye opener. Here's what it looks like.

It's about 6 minutes. Watch at least one minute.

It IS life changing & the best thing I have ever seen on the culture we are living in. I promise you that you would never regret watching the series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzvKOgCrag8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Lesson 1 - Veritology: What is Truth?

The Truth Project begins by defining truth as “that which corresponds to reality.” This absolute and eternal truth, at the heart of Jesus’ mission on earth, continues to be the focal point of the Cosmic Battle in our own time. Back to top

Lesson 2 - Philosophy and Ethics: Says Who?

Truth is not simply an academic concept. The way we think about truth has a direct bearing upon the way we live our lives. What's more, our understanding of right and wrong is directly dependent on our worldview: is the universe God's creation or a closed cosmic cube? Back to top

Lesson 3 - Anthropology: Who is Man?

The Bible tells us that man was created in God's image but fell from innocence through sin. Modern psychology, on the other hand, asserts that man is inherently good and behaves badly only under the influence of social or institutional pressure. This lesson explores the implications of both views. Back to top

Lesson 4 - Theology: Who is God?

Eternal life, according to Jesus, is knowing God in an intimate, personal, and relational way. Such knowledge, which is possible only because of divine revelation, transforms us from the inside out as we begin to see ourselves in the light of His majesty and holiness. Back to top

Lesson 5 - Science: What is True?

Science, the “systematic study of the natural world,” brings to light innumerable evidences of Intelligent Design. But Darwinian theory transforms science from the honest investigation of nature into a vehicle for propagating a godless philosophy. (Part One)

A careful examination of molecular biology and the fossil record demonstrates that evolution is not a “proven fact.” Meanwhile, history shows that ideas, including Darwinism as a social philosophy, have definite consequences – consequences that can turn ugly when God is left out of the picture. (Part Two) Back to top

Lesson 6 - History: Whose Story?

Does the past have an objective actuality and significance? Or does it, as postmodernist philosophy asserts, exist primarily inside our heads? This tour considers the meaning of history as God’s story and shows us why remembering is so important. Back to top

Lesson 7 - Sociology: The Divine Imprint

The order we observe in the natural realm is even more apparent in the social systems God has established: family, church, community, state, labor, and the union between God and man. Life is a series of relationships that flow out of and reflect the Trinitarian nature of the Creator. Back to top

Lesson 8 - Unio Mystica: Am I Alone?

Is it possible for the infinite, eternal Creator to dwell within the heart of an individual? The implications of this great mystery, which represents the very core of the Christian faith, are explored at length in this examination of the most intimate of the social spheres. Back to top

Lesson 9 - The State: Whose Law?

Of all the social spheres, the state, to which God grants the power of the sword for the punishment of evil and the preservation of the good, has the greatest potential to go awry if it oversteps its authority. The civil magistrate must always remember his place under the sovereignty of God – otherwise, havoc will ensue. Back to top

Lesson 10 - The American Experiment: Stepping Stones

America is unique in the history of the world. On these shores a people holding to a biblical worldview have had an opportunity to set up a system of government designed to keep the state within its divinely ordained boundaries. Tour #10 follows the history of this experiment and explores what happens to freedom when God is forgotten. Back to top

Lesson 11 - Labor: Created to Create

Contrary to a great deal of contemporary popular opinion, work is not a “curse.” God Himself is active and creative, and He calls man to share in the joy of His activity and creativity. Labor, economics, media, and the creative arts all have a role to play in magnifying the glory of the Creator. Back to top

Lesson 12 - Community and Involvement: God Cares, do I?

The ethical law and the meaning of the Christian life are summed up in the commandment to love God and one’s neighbor. This command is the source of the believer's motivation for self-sacrificial service to the needy and their personal involvement in our culture. Back to top

[wintertime]

Remember, over 80% of US believes in God, though many don't regularly attend church. Removing God from schools, who gave us our moral codes, started the moral decline in the schools. You can track the growth of problems from then on.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The problem started with the nation-wide establishment of compulsory attendance, compulsory funded, single-payer, socialist schooling. ( Mid-1800s to early 1900s).

At best, modern single-payer, compulsory, socialist schooling offered the students a generic and lukewarm Protestantism. What is the problem with this? Answer: Children risked learning to be lukewarm and generic about their faith. What does Christ do with the lukewarm? He spits them out of His mouth!

It only took a generation or two for the socialist government schools to move toward secularism. My grandmother ( born 1894) attended secular schools that nodded to God on occasion. It was inevitable that socialists (that have **always** control teacher training and curriculum development) would increasingly move toward the utter godlessness that children and taxpayers are now forced to establish in these pits of ignorance ( misnamed “schools”).

[Joe 6-pack]

Thanks LF. Interesting post!

[PGR88]

The constraints that made individualism and egalitarianism beneficial included economic necessity, which channeled individualism into productive work, and religion (with its corollaries of morality and law), which tempered self-interest and envy.

I think he only brushes against the issue. I honestly believe that the root of this moral, liberal-lead decline he speaks is caused by the Federal Reserve - and I'm not even a Ron Paul supporter. The Federal Reserve was the first, and cornerstone, institution of Progressive Gov't. In sum, it helps Progressives pay for their social engineering schemes. No one has to pay for their sins (or, payment has been delayed so far.

[IronJack]

Very cogent observations. We will not make ourselves a moral nation by legislating morality. The source of our morality must be our SELVES, not any institution or collective. But most of all, we must stop apologizing for having that morality, for stating the obvious, and for standing by the principles that have evolved over ages.

A moral people have no need of pornography. Or drugs. Or violence. A moral people have little use for laws or the tyranny of the state. But the more immoral we become, the more some turn to the state to "protect" us from what are ultimately the consequences of our own decisions.

[Linda Frances]

You’ve studied this I can see. So what’s the solution? Please give me hope.

[wintertime]

The solution:

1) We must bring conservatives to an understanding that socialist-entitlement schooling was a corrupt idea from the beginning. It can not be reformed or “taken back”.

2) We must convince conservatives that their child's school is **not** different.

3) We must convince conservatives to remove their children from the government schools and work for their complete defunding. There are counties and states in this nation where, if every conservative were to remove their children, the government schools would immediately collapse.

4) We are a wealthy nation. Conservatives should set up education foundations that would provide grants to conservative teachers. The teachers would open tuition-free dame schools in their homes, one room schools, or tutoring centers. The foundations would certify the teachers, test the students, run science labs for older students, and organize arts, theater, and team sports.

5) The foundations would be temporary and transitional only. They would be dissolved after 30 or 40 years. The reason for this is that foundations, over time tend to be taken over by Marxists. Their purpose is to gradually accustom parents to paying for their own children’s education.

[trappedincanuckistan]

From the Communist Manifesto:

10. Free education for all children in public schools

[wintertime]

5) The foundations would be temporary and transitional only. They would be dissolved after 30 or 40 years. The reason for this is that foundations, over time tend to be taken over by Marxists. Their purpose is to gradually accustom parents to paying for their own children’s education.

[trappedincanuckistan]

We have our wires crossed. What are you saying?

[wintertime]

Conservatives in many counties and even entire states could shut down the government schools tomorrow, if they had the will. They don't, because:

1) They fail to see that they are Marxist dominated socialist-entitlements.

or....

2) They do see that they are Marxist dominated but think their child's school isn't **that ** bad.

or...

3) They do see that their child's socialist-entitlement school is **that** bad, but think that somehow ( against all reason) that a socialist-entitlement and compulsory program can be fixed.

Please read post #52 for one possible solution: Private conservative education foundations that would **temporarily** provide tuition-free education, while American parents adjusted to the idea of paying for their **own ** child's education.

[trappedincanuckistan]

Yes I agree. I was just pointing out that the Communists thought public schools were essential. To shape young peoples’ minds. Many people don’t see the threat posed by public schools. I think they are one of the biggest obstacles to restoring freedom.