"How lucky it is for rulers, that men cannot think."
The horrors that followed in Nazi Germany might have been easier to explain if Hitler had been right. But the problem is not so much that people cannot think but that they often do not think. Or if they do think, as in the case of the German people, that thinking becomes muddled and thus, easily led to slaughter. Hitler's meteoric rise to power, with the support of the German people, is a case in point. On January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in full accordance with the country's legal and constitutional principles. When President Paul Von Hindenburg died the following year, Hitler assumed the office of president, as well as that of chancellor, but he preferred to use the title Der Füehrer (the leader) to describe himself. This new move was approved in a general election in which Hitler garnered 88 percent of the votes cast.
Education... Do Americans Think?
It cannot be said that the German people were ignorant of Hitler's agenda or his Nazi ideology. Nazi literature, including statements of the Nazi plans for the future, had permeated the countryside for a decade before Hitler came to power. In fact, Hitler's book Mein Kampf, which was his blueprint for totalitarianism, sold more than 200,000 copies between 1925 and 1932 - a full eight years before his rise to power! Clearly, the problem was not that the German people did not think, but that their thinking was poisoned by the enveloping climate of ideas that they came to accept as moral. At a certain point, the immoral became moral, and obedience to the government in pursuit of security over freedom became predominant. Hitler even went as far as stating to the German people that their children did not belong to them, but belonged to the state! Parental authority was destroyed and private schools/homeschooling was outlawed.
We see this same scenario being played out in America today where analytical thinking has given way to a steady diet of mindless entertainment and endless distractions. Rejecting community and God in favor of self-gratification and isolation, we have in essence become an atomistic society, a characteristic of an emerging totalitarian society. Connected to all our technological gadgets, we are increasingly disconnected from each other. Even when physically crowded together at entertainment spectacles such as concerts and sports events, we fail to truly communicate with one another - young and old alike. As author Alex Marshall observed, Americans live "in one of the loneliest societies on the earth." All the while, with little outcry from the citizenry, the government has erected a surveillance state, slowly transforming itself into a centralized, authoritarian bureaucracy that is gobbling up our civil liberties on a daily basis.
Woefully ignorant of the freedoms given us by our forefathers and their subsequent erosion by our government of wolves, Americans rarely come together to strategize on how to maintain our freedoms. Indeed, most Americans do not even engage in meaningful discourse about pressing issues of national and international significance. And as studies show, Americans know much more about meaningless trivia such as the names of the Simpsons and the Three Stooges than they do the Bill of Rights. For example, a recent study shows less than one percent of adults can name the five rights found in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution (freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble and the freedom to petition). And, as another study recently found, only three percent of high school students can pass the U.S. Immigration Services and Citizenship exam. Incredibly, of those from foreign countries aspiring to be American citizens, some 93% who took the same test passed. However, as our founding fathers who wrote the U.S. Constitution over two centuries ago warned: a citizenry ignorant of their rights would lose them!
Plain and simple: American educational institutions no longer teach children about their freedoms and how to exercise them. But it gets worse. America currently spends well in excess of $40 billion annually on public education. Yet the numbers are undeniable: in comparing the literacy level of adults in seventeen industrialized countries, America was number ten on the list. And the 16 to 25-year-olds under perform their foreign counterparts as well. Moreover, they do so to a greater degree than do Americans over 40. And with the loss of literacy goes a critical ingredient in maintaining freedom- citizens who think Biblically and analytically.
There is a direct correlation between America's academic decline and the humanists' successful expulsion of God from America's schools. While the United States once had an educational system that was the envy of the world, today we consistently rank toward the bottom of all industrialized nations in academic scores. Recognizing the problem as early as 1981, President Reagan ordered a study of America's educational system. Released two years later, the report, entitled A Nation at Risk, stated:
Incidentally, the following three strategies are waging war on our nation's Christian and moral foundation:
We see this same scenario being played out in America today where analytical thinking has given way to a steady diet of mindless entertainment and endless distractions. Rejecting community and God in favor of self-gratification and isolation, we have in essence become an atomistic society, a characteristic of an emerging totalitarian society. Connected to all our technological gadgets, we are increasingly disconnected from each other. Even when physically crowded together at entertainment spectacles such as concerts and sports events, we fail to truly communicate with one another - young and old alike. As author Alex Marshall observed, Americans live "in one of the loneliest societies on the earth." All the while, with little outcry from the citizenry, the government has erected a surveillance state, slowly transforming itself into a centralized, authoritarian bureaucracy that is gobbling up our civil liberties on a daily basis.
Woefully ignorant of the freedoms given us by our forefathers and their subsequent erosion by our government of wolves, Americans rarely come together to strategize on how to maintain our freedoms. Indeed, most Americans do not even engage in meaningful discourse about pressing issues of national and international significance. And as studies show, Americans know much more about meaningless trivia such as the names of the Simpsons and the Three Stooges than they do the Bill of Rights. For example, a recent study shows less than one percent of adults can name the five rights found in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution (freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble and the freedom to petition). And, as another study recently found, only three percent of high school students can pass the U.S. Immigration Services and Citizenship exam. Incredibly, of those from foreign countries aspiring to be American citizens, some 93% who took the same test passed. However, as our founding fathers who wrote the U.S. Constitution over two centuries ago warned: a citizenry ignorant of their rights would lose them!
Plain and simple: American educational institutions no longer teach children about their freedoms and how to exercise them. But it gets worse. America currently spends well in excess of $40 billion annually on public education. Yet the numbers are undeniable: in comparing the literacy level of adults in seventeen industrialized countries, America was number ten on the list. And the 16 to 25-year-olds under perform their foreign counterparts as well. Moreover, they do so to a greater degree than do Americans over 40. And with the loss of literacy goes a critical ingredient in maintaining freedom- citizens who think Biblically and analytically.
There is a direct correlation between America's academic decline and the humanists' successful expulsion of God from America's schools. While the United States once had an educational system that was the envy of the world, today we consistently rank toward the bottom of all industrialized nations in academic scores. Recognizing the problem as early as 1981, President Reagan ordered a study of America's educational system. Released two years later, the report, entitled A Nation at Risk, stated:
Of other significant importance is the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child treaty currently being bolstered by the United Nations, which threatens the American family, parental rights to educate their own children, religious freedom and other constitutional violations. The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child is extremely dangerous because it has not been ratified by the U.S. Senate. However, through the high Court citing the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child as international precedent, the Court is laying a foundation of case law for the treaty to be implemented through judicial activism, ignoring the electoral process all together.Our Nation is at risk... We report to the American people that... the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people... If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves... Our society and its educational institutions seem to have lost sight of the basic purposes of schooling and of the high expectations and disciplined effort needed to attain them.
Incidentally, the following three strategies are waging war on our nation's Christian and moral foundation:
Post-Structuralism - Persons have value not on the basis of who they are individually, but rather on the group in which they identify with (similar to "Identity Politics"). It claims we are separate from nationalism, fostering a nation of "groups" in which race-bating and class warfare run rampant.
Deconstructionism - A steady flow of negatives about Western institutions, beliefs and values in order to tear down the old certainties in which Western culture is founded- Christianity. It seeks to build something "new" and is nothing less than "destruction on purpose" just as the world experienced with Europe. Unless our citizens become wise to this enemy of freedom, America will not be far behind.
Revisionism - Not only wrong information, but the complete omission of important facts to purposely misrepresent a subject matter. It's goal is to move from the original intent of historical documentation and textbook writings to one's opinions, attitude and philosophy.
Thus, ignorant of the very basis of citizenship and overwhelmed by the informational glut of modernity, it is little wonder that many - ostrich-like - individuals are allowing an out-of-control government to move forward unimpeded. Yet while most may feel snug and secure in their technological wombs, they are only temporarily keeping the wolf at bay. Hiding from reality is not the solution. In fact, non-participation by the citizenry only makes matters worse. "Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote," the drama critic George Jean Nathan once remarked. I would also add: Bad officials will run roughshod over citizens who are clueless!
In Closing:
For whom does the bell toll? It tolls for us- We the People. Everything America was founded upon is in some way being challenged. We are involved in a spiritual war - God is building His Kingdom and satan is building his. At stake is the very foundation of our American Constitutional Republic - and even more important - our souls. While it may be easy to fault a particular pastor, politician, event, Hollywood or the media - television in particular - for the current state of our nation, the blame rests with us, the citizens of these God ordained United States of America. It is time to wake up!
"Now more than ever the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature... If the next centennial does not find us a great nation... it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces" James A. Garfield: 20th President of the United States of America
We must pray, get informed, get involved and make a difference!
Understanding is a wellspring of life - Proverbs 16:22
Blessings on your success!
Shane <><
Lighthouse Publications <><
"Dedicated to the Never Ending Search for the Creator's calling within You" (TM)
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