Have you ever wondered why and how we, as the collective human race and, it appears, Americans in particular, ever get ourselves into the troubles we seem to do — over and over and over, ad infinitum?
The answer is, of course, is that we don’t emphasize history in our learning cycle; real history – not the ersatz crap that politically correct PhD bullshit artists write in order to shade history to their particular opinions, beliefs and wishful thinking.
I’m talking about teaching real, true history with all its’ warts, pimples, wrinkles, liars, wisdom, mistakes, heros, charlatans, great leaders, good speech writers, bad motives, treachery, wondrous achievements and all.
We don’t do that. We water history down to reflect what “should be” and “what we want it to be” and “we can’t say that because it might offend someone” and “These children are too young to be tainted by the truth” (I HEARD a teacher say that one time to a parent and lost it on the spot! I was asked to leave the meeting!) and generally try to warp history (and in a LOT of cases) to reflect the thinking, morals and ethical goals of the writer and accuracy be damned.
In some cases today, History, as a subject in Middle and High School is not being taught at all because some egghead on a board (and we all know what a board is, right? Good for two things; using as a teeter-totter or burning) has decided that more important subjects such as art history, black studies, sensitivity training and such bullshit is needed more. Big mistake. Big error. Getting bigger every year.
In Florida, the combination citizen/teacher text book selection boards (dozens of them across the State) are to be dismantled and replaced by one single appointee of our fascist Governor Scott so that hard right ideological material may be emphasized in books for K-12. Since there are many schools and school boards across our State, replacing perhaps 200 volunteers with one political appointee to evaluate all the textbooks for all the schools from K to 12th grade is surely going to be done efficiently and thoroughly.//sarcasm off//
Instead, what will happen is that political ideologues who agree with the Governor will compile lists of what they think the children of Florida should be taught as truth (including anti-abortion slanted and religious books) which, in turn will be rubber stamped by the Textbook czar and there you have it. Politically determined truth to be taught kids for the first 12 years of their lives.
If I were a parent I would very carefully consider home schooling my children in the State of Florida to insure a good, accurate, truthful education because the Governor is working hard to see they are indoctrinated with Government approved misinformation, opinions and biases starting next year.
Also – you’ll just love this — last week there were newspaper ads placed in the Tallahassee, FL, newspapers requesting that citizens please search out and take note, identify and report the “pervasive corruption in the State Government that exists at all levels”.
The ads were placed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up!
Our state government is so crooked the FBI is forced to actually advertise the fact and request help from whistle-blowers, who will, of course, when they respond, be summarily fired.
There is another saying; “Try never to make a mistake on your own when you can learn from the mistakes and remedies to them from those people who have had the same problems in the past.” I don’t remember anyone saying that except me but someone, somewhere had to have said it.
So here are some cool wisdoms by people who have passed before (some good, some bad) that, if the people now running this psycho ward had been taught in a History class, or even now, perhaps we could admit we have a problem and try to fix it.
Never happen – but hope springs eternal.
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Abraham Lincoln:
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away men’s initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.
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Alexander Tytler observed in 1775 during the Revolutionary War:
(Note: Some question exists as to whether Tytler actually wrote it all but the truths are still evident.)
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.”
“From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over a loss of fiscal responsibility, always followed by a dictatorship.”
“The average age of the world’s great civilizations before they decline has been 200 years. These nations have progressed in this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency (Note: we are here!); from dependency back again to bondage.”
(Note: There are eight “turnings” here but double them up and you can squeeze them into four! Ha..)
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Ludwig Von Mises:
“Government spending cannot create additional jobs. If
the government provides the funds required by taxing
citizens or by borrowing from the public, it abolishes on
one hand as many jobs as it creates on the other”…
(Note: credit creation and printing money [TARP, QE1,2,3,N(n+1)] is “borrowing” from the public who has to pay the bill by the loss of purchasing power of the money involved.)
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Thomas Jefferson:
A government big enough to give you all you want is strong enough to take everything you have….
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Richard Feynman:
Science is what we use to keep from fooling ourselves.
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These miscellaneous snippets of wisdom are dedicated to StuckinNJ with great respect for his sense of humor.
+Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won’t expect it back.
+When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire
Department usually uses water.
+You’re never too old to learn something stupid.
+Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the
street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.
+The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!
Have a great day from wherever you’re reclined.
Surly1 says:
Mike,
“The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!”
Love it.
Not for nothing has Gore Vidal called the US “The United States of Amnesia.” No surpise that Rick scott and his gang of fascists want to control what children are taught. This is how it starts. I am reminded of another quote, attributed to Sinclair Lewis:
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”
Were our children to actually learn something of the history of this country, we would be a different people. Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United Sttates” is a good place to start.
Thanks for the article.
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8th June 2011 at 11:06 am
Surly1 says:
A couple of other quotes:
“Fascism is capitalism plus murder.”
— Upton Sinclair
“If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States.”
— Henry A. Wallace
“The obvious types of American fascists are dealt with on the air and in the press. These demagogues and stooges are fronts for others. Dangerous as these people may be, they are not so significant as thousands of other people who have never been mentioned.
The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information.
With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.”
— Henry A. Wallace
Imagine if Wallce had succeeded FDR in 1945..
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8th June 2011 at 11:28 am
Muck About says:
@Surly1: Thanks. When I can get RE to shut up long enough, I enjoy putting together things for TBP. Today I discovered that WordPress sucks even worse than I thought. I tried to compose using their editor and the first “save” couldn’t find the database and trashed everything I had written to that point. Then I noticed every time I typed a return to start a new paragraph, it up’d the type face one size so you start out at, say 12 and end up by the end of the article typing in 24 pt. type.
Trying to use the editing tools is like a guessing game because you absolutely never know what will happen when you select a tool. The formatting tool doubles the spacing with no way to get back to where you were.
So I end up copying it all and pasting it to my trusty Nisus Writer, finish it and then past the whole damn thing into WordPress’s editor. This is like trying to submit articles to Hell.
Thanks for listening to a mini-rant and glad you liked the piece..
MA
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8th June 2011 at 11:31 am
Welshman says:
Good Muck,
Yes, sorry to say most history taught in schools is more propaganda than truth.
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8th June 2011 at 11:44 am
Reverse Engineer says:
“You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.”-Lincoln
Stated as axiomatic truth, but in reality is just an unproven postulate. Anyhow, even if true, you can still make the rich suffer right along with the poor.
RE
Hot debate. What do you think?
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8th June 2011 at 12:13 pm
Thunderbird says:
“Govenor is working hard to see they are indoctrinated with Government approved misinformation, opinions, and biases next year.”
No, I would say he is eliminating all those egotistical redundant administrative bodies adding their worthless misinformation, opinions, and biases. In addition to that he is eliminating all the worthless, arbitrary rules and regulations they add with their egotistical rule.
With the elimination of all this dead wood it would save money presently being thrown down a rat hole.
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8th June 2011 at 2:05 pm
Administrator says:
Muck
I write my articles in Word and then copy them over to WordPress because I’ve lost whole articles using WordPress.
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8th June 2011 at 2:21 pm
Thunderbird says:
I just want to add that parent/teachers have no more idea about history as the children do. All these people do is only add to the insanity. Get the cellphones and computers out of the classroom and teach the three important subjects: reading, writing, and arithmetic. Pull the troublemakers out of the classrooms and put them in a separte classroom for troubled kids.
Our school system is in a political quagmire of our own political making. The governor needs to go further and eliminate all the administrators. Teaching is a simple business. Administrators make teaching complicated for the teachers. Why do schools need administrators? They need them to enforce federal statutes. Eliminate the federal money and you eliminate the federal statutes along with the administrators. Enforcing all these federal statutes and hiring all these administrators is what is costing so much. Are our minds being put into captivity by the acceptance of federal funds? Our own taxes put to work against us? When will we learn that the federal government is putting the people of each State into captivity by the acceptance of federal funds. Let’s end this practice and elect State senators and representatives that refuse to accept federal funds with all their restrictive statutes so we can take our power back.
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8th June 2011 at 2:27 pm
Hobbes says:
We are all in this together. If we have an economic system that is composed of a financial elite and the bulk of the rest are poor, we neede to change the system. We need a system that rewards hard work, but also one that provides work at a livng wage for those who are physically able to work. For those who are physically able to work and refuse, let nature take care of them
)
30 years of trickle down hasn’t work. As the song from the last Great Depression went, The rich get rich and the poor get poorer.” 80 years later, we are right back where we started from. Maybe there is something to the 4th Turning stuff.
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8th June 2011 at 4:35 pm
Reverse Engineer says:
@Muck About
As I mentioned a while back to Stuck, you should use an HTML WYSIWYG editor to compose your articles, then paste the HTML into WordPress. If you don’t have one, a good free online one can be found at http://www.creatingonline.com/webmaster/html_generator.htm.
RE
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8th June 2011 at 4:42 pm
Muck About says:
@RE: I’ll check it out.. Thanks.
MA
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8th June 2011 at 5:22 pm
AKAnon says:
Good post, Muck. Thanks
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8th June 2011 at 7:11 pm
Reverse Engineer says:
OK, WTF gives me a “Thumbs Down” for handing out suggestions on how to compose and do layout in WordPress?
RE
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8th June 2011 at 7:30 pm
llpoh says:
It wasn’t me, but seeing as you mentioned it, it sounded like a good idea so I went back and joined the fun.
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8th June 2011 at 7:37 pm
Indentured_Servant says:
Four out of the five voices in my head telling me to SHOOT!
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8th June 2011 at 7:32 am
Thunderbird says:
Me too!!!
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8th June 2011 at 8:15 am
Novista says:
We’re on our way to a menage a trois.
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8th June 2011 at 9:28 am