Another view of extremist tendencies

This was forwarded to me by a friend. Until I learn to link, this will have to do.

Who's brainwashed in America?

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Posted: March 23, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

Ask some non-religious liberal friends how they would describe a person who attended only fundamentalist Christian or ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools from preschool through graduate school. "Brainwashed" and "closed-minded" would be their most likely answers, and they would often be right. Most people assume that any person who is exposed to only one way of looking at the world for all of his or her life can hardly be regarded as open-minded.

Now ask those same individuals how they would describe a person who attended only secular schools from preschool through graduate school.

Your friends would probably look at you with incomprehension. What kind of question is that? After all, they and the great majority of people in our country attended secular schools, and they consider themselves perfectly normal and open-minded. "Brainwashed"? "Closed-minded"? Such terms cannot possibly be applied to the secular or the "progressive," only to the religious and conservative.

But, of course, such a response is logically untenable. If a person is to be considered brainwashed for having only received a religious education, a person who has received only a secular or liberal (as in politically liberal) education should be regarded identically.

In fact, when secular people and those on the Left deny this, it actually illustrates that they probably have been brainwashed. The secular-Left immersion they underwent has been so effective that it has rendered them incapable of realizing that they have been so immersed.

This is one reason it has become more and more apparent that the most closed-minded people in American and European society today are not the religious, but the secular, not the Right, but the Left. The majority of even fundamentalist Christians and Orthodox Jews are exposed to far more secular thought and behavior than the secular are exposed to religious thought and behavior. Virtually all religious Christians and Jews study secular subjects, have been taught by secular teachers, read secular books and watch secular films and secular television. Virtually no secular people have studied religious subjects, been taught by religious teachers, or read religious books, let alone watched religious films or television, neither of which exists in any number. [I'm don't think this point is supportable. Curious, intellectual minds are drawn to answers to the "bigger than life" questions, no matter their secular or religious background. dlc]

The same holds true for liberals and conservatives. Virtually every conservative reads a liberal newspaper, watches liberal newscasts, reads liberal magazines and has been taught in liberal schools by liberal professors. Few liberals have read a conservative newspaper (there are almost none anyway), read a conservative magazine, studied in conservative schools or been taught by a conservative professor (of whom there are also almost none).

So who exactly is more likely to be provincial and ignorant of other ways of thinking? The question is rhetorical. That is why the late distinguished University of Chicago professor Allan Bloom wrote his best-selling "The Closing of the American Mind," not about religious or conservative America but about secular liberal America as embodied in its temple, the university.

That also helps explain why the secular Left (not yet a redundant phrase, but getting there) so often hurls epithets – "racist" (for opposing affirmative action), "homophobe" (for opposing the redefinition of marriage), "sexist" (for opposing medically unnecessary abortions) – instead of offering reasoned responses. As befits a person who has almost never been exposed to opposing ways of thinking, sustained argument is not possible.

Just as many liberals and secularists can only imagine a religious person being brainwashed, not a liberal or a secular one, they likewise can only imagine religious extremism, never secular extremism. One can easily be too religious, but never too secular. Yet, we have far more secular extremism than religious extremism in our society.

The American Civil Liberties Union is one such example. The organization recently threatened to sue the National Park Service over two little plaques at the Grand Canyon that had Psalms written on them. That most Americans do not consider a lawsuit over something so trivial a manifestation of extremism only proves how effective the secular brainwash is.

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Dennis Prager, one of America's most respected and popular nationally syndicated radio talk-show hosts, is the author of several books and a frequent guest on television shows such as Larry King Live, Politically Incorrect, The Late Late Show on CBS, Rivera Live, The Early Show on CBS, Fox Family Network, The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity & Colmes.

What a Time

Today was my favorite kind of day. It was pretty busy from arrival to departure. I left work with three more documents to review sitting on my desk, so I'll have something to do as soon as I get in tomorrow. I love days like that. You know, the days that seem to occur elsewhere. You get to work, hunker down, do your stuff, and look up to see the sun has magically shifted from east to west, it's quiet in all the cubes around you, and only the die-hards remain at the helm.

If every day could be like that I would...well, I would probably expire. For certain my back would bow, my eyes would cross, and my shoulders would try to meet in front of me. I need a day every now and then devoted to getting everything back in place before the next round begins.

Am I strange because I love this stuff? I can already imagine a couple of you replying to reassure me. "No, you're not," then going on to say, "you're strange for another reason entirely." Seriously though, I could happily edit for the rest of my life. Some people are so sharp at putting thoughts together and getting them on paper. I like to come in after that. I feel like the literary equivalent of either a shoeshine boy or an auto detailer. I just like to knock the dust and muck off the writing, then shine it up a bit.

Good stuff today. And tomorrow? Wax on. Wax off. Wax on. Wax off. Very good, David-san. (I'm still learning this craft. Gotta find me a Mr. Miyagi.)

Where Have All My Callouses Gone?

I picked up my axes for the first time in far too long tonight. I've only played three times now since Heartland merged with Cornerstone. After dropping Darling off at dance class, I met a fellow at church and plugged in. We quickly established a couple of things. 1) He needs to remember to bring his capo. 2) I have not yet developed any reliable instinct for landing on the right place on my fretless.

Despite that, it was wonderful to play again. There's something about the bass that demands community. Even bass players are not particularly fond of bass solo pieces. It's all about the pocket and groove. And that is only achieved by melding with another musician. I think that is why I enjoy it so much.

For a little less than an hour tonight I was an eager participant in the musician's version of a first date. A little nervous, a little curious, a little tentative, but fully immersed in determining at least a part of what made the other person tick and flowing with that to create a unique connection.

Happiness is a Big Bottom. Long Live the Phat Strings!

And the Refrigerator says ...

If a See-and-Say existed for appliances, the refrigerator would say, "I'm tired." At least ours would. I began to get suspicious when, in the course of a week, I went from scooping my ice cream to pouring it. Now I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer (and I have references for that), but I was beginning to form niggling doubts that our freezer was, indeed, well ... fulfilling its job description. And it may be a union tactic, because the Brotherhood of Cooling Appliances, Local 104 (which includes refrigerators) began a protest of attrition at about the same time.

Thankfully, it wasn't a full-blown walkout. I wouldn't blame them if it was. How would you feel if every time your door was opened, revealing all your innermost being, an anxious little brown dog appeared acting for all the world as if he hasn't been fed in six weeks. That's what our appliances put up with.

Needless to say, we've sought binding arbitration. Some time today a man with a plan will drive from the other side of Baltimore. After he says something charming like, "You really live OUT here, don't you?" and I bite my tongue to keep from suggesting that he really lives OVER there, I'll hand him 60 hard won dollars and he'll make suggestions that will, hopefully, restore harmony between the Grocery Getters and the Grocery Keepers.

Of course, whatever the Man from Over There suggests will have an associated cost not covered by his $60 prize for locating our home. But, like the rest of the world, he'll work pretty darn hard getting here the first time so it's probably worth it. And, again most hopefully, at the end of the day the Refrigerator will say, "I'm cool."

Tack Says

It's that time again. Time to make certain our benevolent Uncle gets his share. And, often, then some. So tonight I did not only our 1040, but my in-laws' as well. I appreciate our freedom and our system of government as much as the next guy, but I'd love to hang onto a little more of what we worked for this past year. I'll stimulate the economy. I swear I will. Just let me keep it for a while.

What's that? Hmmph, I didn't think so.