| Truth, Science, and a Free Nation |
The United States now faces a very serious looming national crisis (and it surely is not Y2K). Until recently, although the signs of trouble were gradually increasing, we did not have solid proof of the seriousness of our situation. Now, the evidence is inescapable.
No civilization based upon freedom and free enterprise can exist if its people do not insist upon truth, justice, and common decency as essential elements of public morality. That is not to say that all of its citizens must always be truthful and just. Public morals - the mores that dominate public discussion, laws, and action - must, however, demand honesty, justice, and decency. Without these mores, freedom does not work. Without them, a country drifts, of necessity, into tyranny and slavery - its people controlled by force alone.
Sound public morals have prevailed in America during most of its history. Our laws, while not always equitable or equitably enforced, have generally mirrored these morals. Lesser transgressions have been codified in our laws as "misdemeanors,'' while very serious transgressions have been designated "felonies.'' During recent weeks, however, it has become evident that public mores in the United States have collapsed. Most Americans now know that the President of the United States - the head of our national armed forces and of our national law enforcement agencies - is guilty of several felonies and of actions that were untruthful, unjust, and indecent. Moreover, these actions were taken - repeatedly and deliberately, over many months - during business hours, inside the physical office of the President, and at tax-financed expense. Further, the President spent millions of dollars in tax money directly on efforts to prevent the discovery of these actions.
It is not, however, the President's actions that are evidence of a national crisis - it is the response of the American people to those actions. It should be entirely unnecessary for the Congress to even consider impeachment. Simple resolutions in both the Senate and House asking Bill Clinton to resign - passed virtually unanimously, since no legislator would dare face his constituents otherwise -should be enough. Actually, even these resolutions should be unnecessary. The Congressional leadership - both Democratic and Republican - should have explained to Mr. Clinton that these resolutions would be unanimously passed if he did not immediately resign.
The truth, unfortunately, is otherwise. It is apparent that many Americans - possibly even the majority of Americans - think that Clinton's actions were consistent with his remaining in office as the President of the United States. To be sure, not everyone feels this way. Disgust, for example, in the American armed forces has become so prevalent that our soldiers and officers have been ordered by their commanders (who report to Bill Clinton) to stop making derisive public comments about the President. The fact is, however, that Mr. Clinton is still the President of the United States. This fact provides inescapable evidence that our public mores requiring truthfulness, justice, common decency, and even reasonable fiduciary responsibility have collapsed. Without these mores, we can only be governed by tyranny and raw force. Unless the degradation of public morality is reversed, our free republic may soon cease to exist.
Is there a way back? Perhaps. Last month in "Misinformation'' we discussed the positive contribution that will be made by the communications and information storage revolution. At least, it is becoming impossible to hide the truth - which places liars at a disadvantage.
Another bright spot is the continuing collapse of tax-financed education. Tax-financed education is one primary means by which the destruction of public morality has been brought about.
When a child studies mathematics and real science (as opposed to trust-and-parrot propaganda masquerading as science), each assignment is a subliminal lesson that the world contains right answers and wrong answers - black and white - truth and falsehood. When he studies classical literature and history written by the best minds of the past two millennia, he also finds scholars striving to learn and communicate the truth - in difficult, complex subjects.
In our tax-financed educational institutions, however, mathematics has been dumbed down and right answers are now de-emphasized in favor of grading the student's method rather than his results. The scientific method and thought problems have been cast aside in favor of descriptive memorization. The student starts by memorizing true superficial facts and then is easily led into the memorization of propaganda. In essence, we now have new subjects masquerading under the names math and science - but with truth, reason, and the essence of rational thought removed as much as possible.
In the humanities, the tax-financed institutions have simply replaced classical works of literature and history with new-left propaganda. A review of the humanities curriculum and required books of almost any university (much less those of the schools for ages 6 to 18) shows that this process is nearly complete. If an author uses enough foul language, portrays morality as relative rather than absolute, describes sufficient indecency, and dogmatically adheres to the current politically correct propaganda lines, he has a good chance of being read in these curricula - in preference to classical authors.
To a mind that has been adequately trained in math, science, and classical humanities, Bill Clinton is simply a pathetic degenerate who should not occupy any position of serious responsibility. To a mind that has been trained in the new pseudomath, pseudoscience, and politically mutated humanities, everything is relative, so Clinton is O.K. "He's one of us, and maybe he can be induced to give us a little more of someone else's property. In any case, we need not worry that right and wrong or common decency will deter him from favoring us.'' Most typical American children are now in the clutches of these tax-financed propaganda institutions for several hours per day. Several more hours are then spent with television and other media which reinforce the new "morality.''
Judeo-Christian morality built the United States and allowed it to flourish. Math, science, and classical humanities reinforced this morality - so much so that even those who departed from their religious heritage were able to comfortably coexist with it. The way back to that morality is by the same path we followed in the first place - religion, math, science, and classical humanities. The revolution in electronics will make it much easier for us to follow this path.