Coming Soon: Religion and the Right

Gary Presley has been kind enough to agree take the time to write an article for this blog explaining why religion matters in the Conservative Christian community here in the United States.  The article will be published in full & without commentary, save for the half-hearted spelling an grammar checks that passes for editing here at inevitablepolitics, which means it will be given a quick once-over & then posted directly, possibly being edited days later when readers point out the many over-looked mistakes.  I hope you find his article as illuminating & informative as conversations with Mr. Presley always are.

Hypocrisy and Me

I understand that I did promise to not use footnotes after the last failure, I suppose my hypocrisy knows no bounds, but I couldn’t resist it.  I like to use quotes & let’s face it, footnotes were burned into me in college where I was lucky enough to have a professor or two that shared my profound hatred for APA.  Part of me realizes how much of a pain seeing [I] for every citation must be, I’d be mad if I actually took the time to read what I wrote, or even cared what I had to say.  But then there’s the larger part of me, the part that loves a challenge, the part that still believes in his heart-of-hearts that there must be a way to make footnotes work because otherwise wordpress wouldn’t have the feature available….right?

A Problem with Liberalism & Free Speech in America

Mill wrote, “If mankind minus one were of one opinion, then mankind is no more justified in silencing the one than the one–if he had power–would be justified in silencing mankind,”  it would probably be misleading to post this quote without posting another famous Mill quote:  “conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.”  However true, or untrue the last quote may be, it does lead to an interesting problem facing many liberals in America today, that is the willingness to throw away their own freedoms, specifically the Freedom of Speech.

It’s not hard to find a liberal in America that will reject Fox for openly lying to its viewers & spreading misinformation to millions of Americans (http://foxnewsboycott.com/resources/fox-can-lie-lawsuit/), as made clear to the world after they fired investigative reporters Jane Akre & Steve Wilson after refusing to lie on a report about the ill effects of Monsanto’s bovine growth hormones.  Some even calling for an open & public  boycott of Fox News, at best this illustrates a mistake made by many, the mistake of ignoring the propaganda brought forth by the other side of their respective political divide.  At worse it poses a clear & present threat to liberalism itself, especially in an era where H.R. 1955 passed so easily in the House, only to be ignored in the Senate due to the outcry of the few people who cared enough to pay close attention to what their nation was attempting to classify as “domestic terrorism.”

“Many universities, under pressure to respond to the concerns of those who are the objects of hate, have adopted codes or policies prohibiting speech that offends any group based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.”  Like all political movements with revolutionary and socially altering agendas, the biggest force of these issues springs out of the university campus, the very breeding ground of that twenty-percent of the population that must be indoctrinated to the greatest extent.  This is done to the point that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) felt the need to publish an article on December 31^st 1994 warning of the dangers the label “hate speech” has on college campuses.  “That’s the wrong response, well-meaning or not. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects speech no matter how offensive its content. Speech codes adopted by government-financed state colleges and universities amount to government censorship, in violation of the Constitution. And the ACLU believes that all campuses should adhere to First Amendment principles because academic freedom is a bedrock of education in a free society.”

Even today, especially today, in major universities, the Heterosexual Organization for a Moral Environment (H.O.M.E) will come onto campuses to preach messages of hatred towards homosexuals.  The Minutemen will do the same, in their efforts to end illegal immigration and Affirmative Action, the signals they send out are often blatantly racist and sexist.  Even the TEA Party will march with signs that read “There’s an African Lion in the zoo & a Lying African in the White House.”  Nearly any time these organizations make an appearance either on a college campus or in the public forums, an inevitable counter demonstration will follow.

The problem here, obviously, is not the counter demonstrations.  The problem here is that more often than not you will find an individual with a sign that reads: “Hate Speech is Not Free Speech.”   The fact is that the American liberal is unable to separate the protection of the expression of an individual’s views and support of those views.  Often, in the press, in the public arena, in political debates, and in casual conversation the Americans with a liberal bend will readily accuse anyone that protects a divergent opinion’s freedom of speech will be lumped in with those that support that divergent opinion.  This is but another example of the walls of Plato’s cave closing in on the intelligentsia of America, those that are intended to be the “Natural Aristocracy,” to quote the Founding Fathers, “those that have the right, through wealth and education, to rule the people in their state.”

Even right-wing comedians like Dennis Miller have voiced their concerns about the double standards of the Freedom of Speech in America:  “You know as Americans we have a sacred commitment to uphold and respect Freedom of Speech, and that includes speech we not only disagree with, but radically and fundamentally are opposed to…So next time you get the urge to shut somebody up because they don’t see the world exactly the same way you do, take a deep breath, get out your Bill of Rights, and count to the ten amendments.”

This is a political sin that both sides of the debate are more than guilty of, the Republicans in general & the TEA Party in specific have openly admitted that to doing whatever they can to silence the liberal’s media, rights to assemble, & in 33 states, have made headway in silencing their right to vote (http://www.campusprogress.org/articles/conservative_corporate_advocacy_group_alec_behind_voter_disenfranchise/ and of course, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2011/03/republicans_war_on_voting.html).  The difference here is that when the American liberal movement attacks the 1st Amendment Rights of other Americans, they do it in the guise of making America a more equal nation & preserving the freedoms of those that are attacked by hate speech.

As in most cases, it was Noam Chomsky that best illustrated the problems with the liberal attacks on the 1st Amendment:  “I do not think that the state ought to have the right to determine historical truths and punish people who deviate from them, I’m not willing to give the state that right…what I’m saying is that if you believe in Freedom of Speech you believe in Freedom of Speech for views you don’t like.  Gerbils was in favor of Freedom of Speech for views he liked, right?  So was Stalin.  If you’re in favor of Freedom of Speech, you’re in favor of Freedom of Speech precisely for views you despise. Otherwise you’re not in favor of Freedom of Speech.  There’s two positions you can have on Freedom of Speech, and you can decide which position you want.”

The Chicago Way: An Apology

Something happened with the footnotes added to the last post.  I have made several attempts to correct the ordering & placement of the footnotes.   For some reason, unknown to me, there are paragraphs where wordpress saw fit to label every footnote as [I] and so far each attempt made to correct for this has failed miserably.

From looking at the texts, the footnotes work their way from the bottom up, the first being last.

I’ll try never to use footnotes again, however, in this instance, I wanted clear & present proof of the statements made to assure any would-be reader that these are historical facts & not the rantings of a lone conspiracy theorist in his parents basement typing under the light of a bare bulb & checking the sky every half-hour for black helicopters, UFO’s, & the UN chartered fighters that will act as a harbinger for the NWO, Alien-Zionist takeover, liberal-socialist-fascist revolution to overthrow the supreme court & enact Sharia Law, just about anything Jesse Ventura will advocate, or ________place favorite conspiracy theory here__________.

On the Wisconsin Protests

This is a more personal entry.

I’ve been spending some time in Madison of late, mostly for reasons of solidarity, but partially out of the knowledge that I’m taking part in & witnessing history in the making.  If you’re a Fox viewer, the protests are small & violent, if you stream Democracy Now! last Saturday saw 185,000 peaceful protesters in attendance.  The latter is far more accurate from what I witnessed.   The Saturday prior, when Michael Moore spoke, I was unable to get close enough to get a good look.  Moore believes that Madison is the start of something larger, only time will tell if he is correct.  In any case, I’ll give you a passage from Theses on Feuerbach that I believe sums up the attitude of the protesters best & certainly the impression I hold to the event in question.  It has always been, & remains to this day, my favorite  quote from any philosophical work.

“The materialist doctrine that men are products of circumstance & upbringing, & that, therefore, changed men are products of other circumstances & changed upbringing, forgets that it is men who change circumstances.”

The Problem with Privatized Schools

The Homestead Act of 1862 required that section 16 of township, divided into 36 sections be placed aside for public schools.   In later states this was changed to section 36, & in some cases section 16 was sold off to raise funds for public schools that were then relocated section 36.  In any case, it should be noted that the strive towards privatization of the public school system in the United States is in violation of the Homestead Act.  What is happening in many cities is the closing of public schools due to the guidelines set by No Child Left behind (NCLB)–which incidentally punishes failing schools rather than aiding them, & the opening of private & charter schools in their place.

In some cases the arguments for these schools is strong, especially for those who have seen Waiting for Superman, which neglects to mention some of the real life shortcomings of the drive for privatization.   What Waiting for Superman does honestly depict is the success of these privately owned schools contrasted with the difficulty individuals have with the lottery system that accepts new students into these schools.  What is not told is that the opening of each of these schools generally comes at the expense of the closing of public schools.  Privatized schools have a set number of students they accept per classroom, this helps them succeed in two ways, the first is that they are able to cherry pick the best & the brightest whilst weeding out the disciplinary problems, the second is that it keeps classroom sizes down to a manageable size.  It is far easier to teach a classroom of twenty students than it is a classroom of forty students.  Both factors allow the charter schools to have an unprecedented success rate compared to public schools.  One is tempted to endorse America’s movement towards the total privatization of schools on the numbers alone.

The other side to this is the consequences these charter schools project onto public schools.  With the opening of each charter school usually comes with the closing of a failing public school.  What happens afterwords is hard on the students as they have to fight & compete & pray for winning the charter school lottery to be accepted into a high performing and successful school, usually busing on public transportation across the city to attend these schools.  Meanwhile the dense mass of remaining students unable to attend these charter schools are shuffled by the city’s public schools & crammed into the remaining passing public schools, which are unable to reject students.  The access students flood classrooms, pushing up the numbers to 60 students per class in some instances, sometimes stuffing them in schools without enough text books or desks to accommodate the new students.  this causes previously passing public schools to fail, driving down the numbers of successful schools in the public section.

Funding & accountability are also to be noted.  Both public & charter schools are subjected to standardized testing & the requirements of NCLB, & both get funding based on performance.  The problem here is that charter schools, that accept fewer students & are in the position to cherry pick the most successful students get their money from largely the same tax dollars that the public schools.  This means that the tax payer & home owners are giving their money to charter schools at the expense of private schools.  This could arguably mean that charter schools should not be categorized as “private” as they get most of their money from tax dollars, however, most do operate as for profit, meaning that they are in fact private, but profiting from your tax dollars.  This means that the passing public schools that are soon to be over crowded will not get the money they need to supply the materials to the excess students that the charter schools are not accommodating, thus forcing failure yet again on the public schools.  A second topic to note is accountability, public schools are public, they have schools boards & being public they have to listen to the will of the people they serve.  In some cases, as in Texas (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html), where the science & history curriculum was rewritten to suit conservative views over solid facts, this involvement can be seen to be a negative.   However, negative or not, it still means that the schools are required to answer to the people, as such institutions should be in a functioning democracy.  If a parent wants to attend the school board meetings & have a direct hand in the education of his or her child, they can.  This can’t be done in charter schools.  Meaning that people are paying tax dollars to schools that they have no say in the operations of, or the education of the children attending.

It should also be of note that according to the 2010 Pennsylvania Department of Education’s PSSA results 30 charter schools, about 15% were in the bottom 200 list.  In Chicago, the UNO Charter Schools & the Chicago International Charter Schools are also failing.  It should be noted that, although there are many successes with the privatization of our education system, & despite the fact that there are fewer charter schools stripping money away from public schools and accepting fewer students, they are still failing.  However, the charter schools that are failing are those that generally have been open long enough to be successfully tested over a given period of time, most open & close, switching names & locations before any long-term testing can be applied to them.

Socialism Defined

The definition of socialism in the United States has spiraled out of control of late, in some cases it’s defined as anything that concerns government intervention in finances, from regulation right through to corporate bail-outs.  According to some, especially those on Fox News, Glenn Beck, & his loyal viewers, Socialism can be easily defined as any view that is that does not completely conform to conservative views.  This, of course, is deeply disturbing, on many levels, & easily countered by anybody with the most basic understanding of socialism…socialist or not.

What is even more disturbing, however, are the self-proclaimed socialists that have a lack of understanding of the term.  Many of which are European, but some are American.  Here we see a willingness to label state intervention and control of natural resources & infrastructure as socialist.  These are the people who proclaim that a state controlled health care system, state controlled water & power, state built damns, docks, and rail roads are aspects of socialism.  This is just as mistaken a definition as those that believe anything that isn’t conservative is socialist.  The problem here is the fact that the state control of these industries, where it does benefit the middle-class, & could justifiably be championed by the middle-class, as it serves their best interests, is nothing more state capitalism.  Possibly, it is even monopolistic state capitalism.

In either case this has been attempted before & brought naught but failure, in the Soviet Union, the United States, & many European states.  Though the details have varied substantially in each case the outcome, in credo, has been largely the same.  This is to say that in all cases the outcome has been the consolidation of wealth & power in the hands of the few, which, in turn, has created all the social & economic problems that come with the consolidation of economic & political power.

The best definition of Socialism, to date, has been defined by the Irish patriot James Connolly in his June 1899 essay State Monopoly Versus Socialism.  Here he makes the clear-cut separation between control of infrastructure and the regulation of industry through the state–which in a republic will mean that the people vote for those that have this control–& the direct control by the people as seen through the hands of the workers. This will, arguably, bring any state one step closer to an ideal democracy if the definition of democracy can be agreed upon as “one man one vote.”

Connolly’s definition reads as follows: “Socialism properly implies above all things the co-operative control by the workers of the machinery of production; without this co-operative control the public ownership by the State is not Socialism–it is only State capitalism.”

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