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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The History of Progressives: Be Very Afraid

A very interesting article that mentions some of the history of liberalism, nee "progressives," in American politics.

Obama's Not ‘New’ by Jonah Goldberg on National Review Online:
"Wilson, Roosevelt and now Obama — all their ideas sprung forth from the work of John Dewey, the most important liberal philosopher of the 20th century. Dewey held that “natural rights and natural liberties exist only in the kingdom of mythological social zoology,” and that “organized social control” via a “socialized economy” was the only means to create “free” individuals. Dewey proposed that statism be taught as a kind of civic religion in our schools so that Americans could be raised to see the government as the solution to all of our problems.

"Dewey lives on in the education reform ideas espoused by former Weatherman Bill Ayers. Ayers, now an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, often invokes Dewey when justifying his own dream of indoctrinating public school students in “social justice.” Obama doesn’t condone Ayers’ ’70s-era bombings, but he certainly subscribes to Ayers’ educational vision. In fact, Ayers’ educational work is the primary defense for the candidate’s association with an unrepentant terrorist."
Of course, Karl Marx lamented the use of the State in this kind of controlling, brainwashing capacity, and in fact described it as a means of how the State propagates itself to remain in power. But I suppose that's not to be mentioned - nor that fascism has a lot to do with state control of everything, too, including young minds. Obama Youth, anyone?

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