The surrender of the Academy to the Marxist New Left in the 1960s has done everlasting damage to America. As one who vividly remembers the terrible ideological damage wrought by Hitler Youth and Stalin's Pioneers, it's hard to endure the similar brainwashing and political indoctrination of American kids. Make no mistake: those who engineered the coup and implement it now are every bit as totalitarian as the pair I mentioned.
Oh, I agree with you that they are totalitarian. They're my contemporaries. I've seen them in action.
A story I've told before. When I was at school, one of my teachers - a man I really greatly respected as a man - was heavily involved in the anti-Vietnam War movement. He opposed conscription very strongly, participated in all the rallies, and in our senior classes where were supposed to discuss issues, he presented the anti-war view, which as the son of a man killed in Vietnam, I often wound up opposing.
In my last year of school, I was seriously considering joining the armed forces, and I sought out a bunch of the men I admired for their opinions - including him. I went to him thinking he'd give me the arguments against joining and I wanted to hear them.
He surprised me. He told me the military was a good career, that he thought I'd do well in it and it'd be good for me. I expressed surprise that he said that.
And he sat me down and told me that as a teacher his number one priority in life was to teach his students to think for themselves. To look at the issues and let their own beliefs and their own conscience take them to what they decided was right. He would always be open about his own beliefs - he wouldn't hide them, because he felt a man should stand up for what he believed. But while he was naturally delighted when a student decided on their own that they agreed with him, he would be an absolutely lousy teacher if all his students came to that conclusion. What he wanted for us to agree with his positions - but for us to be capable of holding our own views with the same passion and strength of belief that he had about his.
Today I am a teacher - after over twenty years in the military - and I try to live up to that man every day I teach.
My students are going to think for themselves - and I want them to - even when I think they are wrong. I want them to be wrong because that is what THEY have decided for themselves, not right because I told them what to think.
And my contempt for people who try to impose their political views on kids knows no bounds.