Noemie Emery: Obama's Education of Little Use to His Presidency

What is the “educated class”? Anyone with a high school degree? Or is it those who just think they’re smarter than everyone else, “educated” or not?

You put your finger on a very crucial problem here, hsalaw.

Increasingly we live in a world where we don't know what basic words are supposed to "mean" any more. According to the (late) literary deconstructionist Jacques Derrida, words mean whatever we think they mean, without reference to the authority who wrote the words — whether a literary artist, or the greatest Artist of All.

Of course, that is the very same thing as saying that words really can mean nothing at all: If everyone were to interpret words entirely subjectively, human communication would instantly become impossible. Such an impasse would verily establish a new Tower of Babel....

Under such conditions, we would have to convene a committee of experts in order to define what "educated" means. The convocation would doubtless involve acrimonious disputes among the parties.... But at the end of the day, we would have the "expert" opinion....

Whether or not that would have anything to do with actual reality, as actual human beings actually experience it in their daily lives and over their lifetimes, is the REAL question — one seldom if ever asked nowadays. For such a question can only be asked from a position within First Reality.

And yet Second Realities are always constructed by means of words — which have to be given "new meanings," of course....

Go figure!!!

I honestly suspect that a Hard-Left Progressive individual such as the Usurper-in-Chief "honestly" believes that he can fabricate amazing Utopias for us just by changing the way we think about reality. Which largely depends on invoking the right "magic words" that will "ensoul" the brave new work of human progress with enough ersatz "spiritual content" that it can "move" deracinated, de-souled human persons in enough numbers to drag his nefarious project of destruction of historical, constitutional, republican America over the finish line....

I do not believe any of his flights of fancy can possibly work, at least not in the long run. But it seems to me a good deal of ruination can occur, if we allow them to proceed....

As mentioned earlier on the thread, I believe that Obama is trying to implement a Second Reality in America, and knows in order to do that, he has to completely "subdue" First Reality.

First Reality preeminently depends on our classical/Judeo/Christian heritage, so warmly embraced/invoked by the Founders/Framers of this nation; and on the universal acceptance of the moral code which this heritage establishes, on which the Constitution and the rule of law it establishes entirely depend.

Thank you so very much for sharing your insights, hsalaw!

Chin up, Betty Boop! The Obama express may be derailing from events in that most unlikely of places, Massachusetts!

LOLOL colorado tanker!!!! As I — a citizen of the Commonwealth — am so keenly and avidly aware!!!!!!!

Prediction: The second "shot heard around the world" will be fired by the people of Massachusetts (just like the first time), when they elect Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate this coming January 19th!

In a landslide!

[From your and my lips, to God's ear!]

I am a Scott Brown voter on Tuesday, and my entire family and most of my friends besides.

Ping to an interesting discussion of education.

Not exactly homeschool related in the usual way, but avoiding indoctrination and providing a real education is what we’re doing it for.

Sorry for the double post. I don’t know if it’s our computer lagging or FR but I got a error message for the first one....

as if those who oppose him are uneducated and/or without wisdom.

INDEED.

CONGRATS ON THAT.

I pray the vote for Brown is soooo overwhelming that the manipulators won’t dare jiggle the tally as they seem so skilled at doing.

“David Brooks notes that in the last year, something dire has happened: The public has turned decisively against the "educated classes" and all of their works.”

As is often the case, Brooks has it exactly bass ackwards. It is the “educated classes” (at least those who count themselves among the nattering Liberal boobs who thought 0bama some kind of Savior of Socialism) who have turned decisively against the People. The truth is, they never were “for” the People and have always looked upon themselves as a privileged class (much more so than “educated”) entitled to rule the People.

This was nowhere more evident than during the recent townhall meetings that so embarrassed many of the 0bamatrons occupying space in Congress. The insufferable arrogance was startling (witness Franks, Mertha, Specter, et al). It was glaringly obvious that these drones came not to learn the minds of their constituents, but to set the minds of their constituents straight. The Republic will not be safe until the halls of Congress are cleansed of their presence and the Kenyan Pretender is denied the power to fund a private army loyal only to him. Until that day, The Republic is in grave peril.

“Thought you might find this of interest....”

Thanks for the ping betty. Always a privilege to hear from you.

BB, I thought you might like this anecdote of mine re Scott Brown -- from another FR thread:

To contrast Scott with Coakley, I was working in my driveway in Norfolk, MA, when Scott came jogging up, introduced himself as a Republican, and said, " I'm running (literally) to be your Representative." (He jogged to every house in the district!)
I said, "there's a Constitutional question I'd like to ask", and he volunteered, "I'm a Major in the Army Guard -- and I carry!"
Bingo!!
After a few minutes of conversation, I asked (for the first time in my life) for one of his signs to put in my yard. I actively supported him as long as I was in MA. And I never regretted it!!!
As far as I'm concerned, Scott Brown is top-notch! I wish him every success -- from here in the Northeast Texas Piney Woods...
Too bad I can't vote in that election -- but I'll stay here in God's Country, thanks... '-)

So, you see, I've been a ScottB supporter starting with his very first campaign. (FWIW, I was one of those who, early on, suggested to him that he run for this US Senate opening). [I refuse to call it, "Kennedy's seat"...] And, at his request, I've been quietly "pulling strings" via this medium ever since Scott decided to "go for it"...

(Lest ye forget we once shared State-residence-in-common -- TXnMA) {GRIN}

BB, I thought you might like this anecdote of mine re Scott Brown -- from another FR thread:

To contrast Scott with Coakley, I was working in my driveway in Norfolk, MA, when Scott came jogging up, introduced himself as a Republican, and said, " I'm running (literally) to be your Representative." (He jogged to every house in the district!)
I said, "there's a Constitutional question I'd like to ask", and he volunteered, "I'm a Major in the Army Guard -- and I carry!"
Bingo!!
After a few minutes of conversation, I asked (for the first time in my life) for one of his signs to put in my yard. I actively supported him as long as I was in MA. And I never regretted it!!!
As far as I'm concerned, Scott Brown is top-notch! I wish him every success -- from here in the Northeast Texas Piney Woods...
Too bad I can't vote in that election -- but I'll stay here in God's Country, thanks... '-)

So, you see, I've been a ScottB supporter starting with his very first campaign. (FWIW, I was one of those who, early on, suggested to him that he run for this US Senate opening). [I refuse to call it, "Kennedy's seat"...] And, at his request, I've been quietly "pulling strings" via this medium ever since Scott decided to "go for it"...

(Lest ye forget we once shared State-residence-in-common -- TXnMA) {GRIN}

...as if those who oppose him are uneducated and/or without wisdom.

Oppose whom? Scott Brown? Why would an "educated person" oppose him?

As an "inhabitant" of the Commonwealth, I can support either Scott Brown or the Democrat Machine in Massachusetts.

That machine is killing us, sucking all life, vitality, creativity, innovation from the people, penalizing us for our law-biding and economically-productive habits. It's getting so bad, the state has been losing population by the hundreds of thousands over the past several years. We are probably going to lose a Congressman in the redistricting following the 2010 census, just because of population loss.

When our most productive citizen/taxpayers are leaving in droves, this only exacerbates the "fiscal problem" here....

People who don't vote for the machine are hardly "without wisdom." Indeed, they might be among the wisest, sanest people left in "public debate" with respect to the critical issues facing our state and nation.

Although Left Progressives marginalize such people at every opportunity, to me they are the only ones who are really paying attention to the well-being of our society, in a genuinely intelligent fashion (i.e., by consulting with the actual historical human record, including their own). I have further concluded that neither the Dem machine in Massachusetts, nor the Obama Administration (with its codependents and enablers in the double-Dem Congress) has any clue about what it takes to constitute a just society.

David Horowitz has said that he never met a Left Progressive that had spent fifteen minutes of his life contemplating what it takes to constitute a "just society."

In case anyone is curious about what a just society is, the classical description is: A society that imposes only one rule/standard of justice on all its members, uniformly, without regard to person or station in life.

That is, members of the "aristocracy" (self-selected or appointed) and members of the "plebean class" (your ordinary "Joe") are subject to the same strict standard of justice. No exceptions. Your wealth and the advocacy of politically- or financially well-connected friends cannot make up for critical shortcomings in your own personal choices in life. Every human person bears that responsibility alone.

IOW, a just society does not regard groups (artificially selected for political reasons or however else constituted), but only individual human persons, as subject to law and ultimately justice under law. IOW, justice can only fall on individual persons. And it inevitably comes.

Cowering in some self-selected group gives one no cover against the judgment to come. It does not affect groups, only souls....

Certainly such behavior does not contribute to the present or future well-being of We the People of the United States, nor of our just responsibilities as sovereign citizens of our extraordinarily, historically, and naturally beautiful home state, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts....

What's "wise" about continuing to elect a "machine" from year to year, forever, to "run" things the people of the Commonwealth would rather "run" for themselves? With as little interference from "public officials" as possible??? Not to mention they're sick and tired of being endlessly fleeced financially (read: taxes, fees, whatever) by the State, in increasingly innovative ways, for no discernible public purpose....

Well, let's see about that "wisdom" thing. As distinguishable from being "intellectual" or "knowledgeable," the contrary being "uneducated," or simply "lacking in knowledge," or even preternaturally stupid.

As if your average every day human being could be said to be "lacking in knowledge" — at least those of whom who continue successfully to manage for themselves, their families, and their communities. They can only do this, of course, if the rules of the game don't change with every passing fancy (i.e., according to no rule the American people have ever seen before) of this administration and the double-Dem Congress that continues (against all reason) to champion and support the Usurper-in-Chief's wrecking-ball policies.

But Obama knows he has to "unsettle the rules of the game" in order to create "fear and uncertainty" — hopefully soon to result in "crisis conditions" — into which he and the federal government can intervene in order to "restore order."

Well, forgive me, but I do believe it is up to the We the Inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (to use John Adam's language, who wrote the Massachusetts Constitution) to restore the civil order. It starts as a "state-thing," but its ramifications from there project nationally....

I hope and pray my beloved native state of Massachusetts will set a trend. And that trend — joined by other states — sets up lawful conditions for the removal of the Usurper in some way or fashion. And "punishment" for his cohorts in Congress.

Which of course remains to be seen.

Put the dynamic duo of "wisdom v. knowledge" into whatever juxtaposition you want to, in the end "wisdom" is not equivalent to "reason," but is ineffably superior to it. For wisdom is the "value-added" to reason that comes only from experience, personal and social, as recorded from actual human history going back (arguably) 40 millennia by now and counting.

Obama's folks don't pay any attention at all to such matters. They are simply "inconveniences" that ought/must be "forgotten," or the people will continue to be "ungovernable" (from their point of view).

Anyhoot, anybody who has read this piece, and basically agrees with it, will probably be voting for Scott Brown next Tuesday.

What are your plans for next Tuesday, Chickensoup?

You go, girl!

What are your plans for next Tuesday, Chickensoup?

I was refering to Obama.

Tuesday? That is my day for uninhibited unsafe sexual congress with multiple partners.

FOR SURE!

PREACH IT SISTER!

Being educated does not mean that one is smart only that they have been educated. That is a thing the left just doesn’t get you are not automatically wise just because your degree came from an ivy league school. I’ve met some very educated people in my life that made you wonder how they managed to get dressed on their own in the morning!

Well, thank you dear TXnMA! And thank you for sharing those insights with us!

Wow, what a splendid post, dearest sister in Christ!

I'm hoping this election will be the great turning point in American, to get us back to the "just society" we ought to be.

[ IOW, a just society does not regard groups (artificially selected for political reasons or however else constituted), but only individual human persons, as subject to law and ultimately justice under law. IOW, justice can only fall on individual persons. And it inevitably comes.

This is made abundantly clear in the election of the Affirmative Action President(Barry Half-White).. Same could be said for ANY affirmative action holder of ANY federal, state, county or local government position.. They are there not because of "justice" but because they are a little(or a lot) more equal than others.. Mocking the very premise of "justice"..

97% of black voters voted for the affirmative action president and support affirmative action "justice"..

3% of them are SMART.... a damning indictment but obviously true..

It is more pro-life, more anti-climate change, more free market, less statist, more inclined to favor “harsh” measures against terrorism suspects, more in favor of “waterboarding” the terrorist caught in the brief-bombing effort, more opposed to the closing of Guantanamo Bay.

There are those of us who are college educated and think this way.