To paraphrase the late American humorist, Will Rogers, Liberals never met a bad idea they didn't like. And by the same token, Conservatives embrace every good idea that comes down the pipeline, as long as it doesn’t come from a Liberal. The wide gap between the two is commonly referred to as - American Politics. This system of partisan mandated intransigence to input from opposition sources, and a built in aversion to compromise renders the unproductive end result we refer to as the American political experience. Increasingly we have become a society held hostage to chaos as the deciding factor.

This is not to say that Conservatives do not blindly contribute to their own credibility misfortune in the eyes of the common man and woman. For while staunchly resisting the idea that a Minimum Wage is necessary for a low paid workforce, they rally in defense of outrageously high executive compensation packages by arguing that Liberals want to 'tax the successful.'  

By such a measure of ‘morality’, a bank robber or pickpocket who gets away with his or her felonious deed must also be classed among the successful. So the question is not wealth in and of itself, but at what moral or social cost that wealth was achieved.

All taken into consideration, however, despite the of the shortsighted social imperatives put forth by Conservatism and its advocates, by any measure, misguided Liberalism has inflicted far more lasting damage to the basic fabric of American society than all of its wars – including those presently taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan. And to demonstrate this point, let us take a stroll through the debris-strewn landscape of Liberalism.

Progressive Education

The move toward the dumping of what worked for that which didn't in the American education system, was led by two efficiency fanatics named W.W. Charters and John Franklin Bobbitt  in the eary1920’s. In many ways their efforts at the radical reform of public school education, bore a most uncomfortable similarity to that practiced in Russian society after the rise of Communism: which ironically was taking place at about the same time. From their Liberal mind's viewpoint, they envisioned the wholesale ditching of the traditional 'subject-matter' curriculum for something untried. What they conspired to do was to substitute vocational training for jobs then in existence.

By estimating that only 6 percent of boys would ever become professionals, and only 7 percent of girls would become teachers, Bobbitt concluded that "the rest would work as servants, cooks, waitresses, laundresses, and salesmen”, therefore he argued, "that 90 percent needed vocational training."   "The curriculum," Bobbitt went on to state, " would be derived from hundreds of job analyses, such as what a department store or grocery clerk actually did.

Fortifying that approach for him was one Lewis Terman a professor at Stanford University, and into the educational arena came the Stanford-Binet IQ test. Terman believed that the IQ test measured ‘innate and unchanging’ intelligence. He wrote in a landmark study, “The dull remain dull, the average remain average and the superior remain superior.”

The renowned journalist, Walter Lippmann and many in academia immediately went on the attack against Terman.  In an article in The New Republic in 1922, Lippmann argued that he could not imagine "a more contemptible proceeding than to confront a child with a set of puzzles, and after an hour's monkeying with them, proclaim to the child and his parents, that here is a C-individual."

Nevertheless, even after these early dire warnings and criticism from respected quarters, mass IQ tests were developed and became the imposed norm: The tragic history of American education in the 20^th century is that, unfortunately, the Terman crowd won and the Lippmann crowd lost. The catastrophic result of that loss can be evidenced all around us today.

What we now witness in today’s American society is the resultant evolutionary chaos of ‘extreme’ social experimentation: children who don’t meet their grade standards are, nevertheless, ‘passed on’ because the Progressive System dictates that they will ‘catch-up’ (they don’t), and that to leave them back will hurt them psychologically.  They have been through the New Math and report cards without 'D's' because failing grades supposedly lowers students’ self-esteem. The troubling end result is a large majority of American youth who cannot read well, hold a writing instrument properly or write legibly, nor are capable of mathematically calculating with any degree of competency. To wit, their general knowledge of just about everything is virtually nonexistent.

Added to which children we used to credit inattentiveness to as daydreaming, are today labeled as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and those who are overactive are referred to as 'Hyper - Active'. Both Liberalist pronouncements now condemn such children so 'afflicted' to be therapeutically drugged.  

In its destructive wake, Liberalism has brought us back to the turn of the 20th century: where the wealthy were well educated in private schools and the poor and middle class was undereducated in public schools. And it is important to note that these forces are not through as yet. For in the world of Liberalism, every failed social concept can readily be replaced by another untried and questionable social theory; all that is required is funding. After all, perpetual failure requires perpetual finance. Really!

Psychology: From Science to Liberal Pseudo Science Fantasy

December 5, 1979

Despite a label on his file jacket at the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center stating that the authorities and his ex-wife should be "immediately" notified if he escaped, and despite letters from authorities urging that he not be released, Adam Berwid was given a weekend pass. Stopping only to purchase a large hunting knife, he went directly to his home in Minneola where his former spouse and two children, ages 4 and 7, was living. Berwid, 43, stabbed his ex-wife, Ewa, to death. He then washed the body, cleaned up the blood and calmly called the Nassau district attorney's office to tell them what he'd done - exactly as he'd promised he'd do in court during his sentencing to the psychiatric facility.

When they were later questioned by the authorities and the news media as to why they'd allowed him a weekend pass, his two assigned staff psychiatrists stated: "He seemed okay with the treatment and besides, he had rights too."

About 40 or so years ago, I attended a Science Fiction convention where the noted scientist, historian and Science Fiction writer, Dr. Isaac Asimov, was a guest speaker. In a casual discussion in the convention hotel lounge during the evening, Dr. Asimov made the following statement to a gathered group about the field of Psychology:

"The promise of Psychology as a legitimate science ended with the death of Sigmund Freud (1856 -1939)," he stated. "What we have now in its name is a badly practiced form of the black arts."

So with all of the practice out there, why don’t individuals in therapy, eventually, get better?  Like many of you I know people who have been in therapy for decades.  To make matters worse, it is almost impossible to gain access to accurate figures on just how many Americans are presently undergoing psychological therapy of some sort, because Applied Liberalism has inundated the Sciences of psychology and, via psychiatry Medicine, to the extent that just about every psychological disorder has been labeled a 'disease.' In fact, many universities list courses under the title of "Psychological Diseases."  But how does one go about contracting a - psychological disease? Is it spread through the air by sneezing, improperly prepared food, blood transfusions and sexual contact or, heaven forbid, unclean public toilet seats? In short, there is no such malady as a 'psychological disease.'

Such pretensions in the guise of pseudo science are spread by books, magazine articles, television interview shows and gurus like Daniel Goleman, a former New York Times science writer. No one has been more successful in propagating the national anguish of, for want of a better term -'a nation at mental risk' than this highly successful author. In his 1995 best selling book, "Emotional Intelligence", he describes America as a nation suffering from a 'profound emotional malaise' and in the grip of 'surging rage and despair.' I don't think so!

In their nonfiction book, "One Nation Under Therapy", authors Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel point out that there is absolutely no evidence that large segments of the population are on  - psychological freefall.  On the contrary they reveal, researchers who strictly abide by the professional protocols of ‘genuine’ social science have found that, on the whole, most Americans - young and old - are faring quite well.

The editor of the New York Observer, Jim Windolf, in an article published in the Wall Street Journal he described his research into the number of Americans allegedly suffering from some kind of emotional disorder. He sent away for the literature of dozens of advocacy agencies and mental health organizations; then he did the math. In his own words, Windolf reported the following:"

"If you believe the statistics, 77 percent of America's adult population is a mess.... And we haven't thrown in alien abductees, road-ragers’, and Internet addicts. If we factor in drowning girls, diminished boys, despondent women, agonized men, and the all-around emotionally challenged, the country is 'officially nuts'."

One individual that I am acquainted with since the mid-nineteen sixties has outlived two therapists and is now on her third. And what is her assessment of this long and incredibly expensive period of treatment?  She says she’s getting better.  Really!

The Invasion of Medical Science By Hijacked Psychology

As far back as the late 1920’s, there had been an ever-accelerating push by Liberal forces to eliminate the control of the distinction placed upon the mantra of disease by the medical establishment. The social upheaval of the 1960’s afforded them a window of opportunity, and their effort began to bear fruit soon after. For up until that time, a disease was considered to be an internal physical affliction of the body, biological in origin, defined by the field of biochemistry, and brought on by causative factors limited to germs, viruses and melanomas (cancers). The medical science establishments classified malfunctioning of the body’s organs as afflictions, and malfunctions of the human brain (unless specifically traced to a particular disease) were referred to as chemical balance aberrations.

What Liberalism desperately desired, however, was to gain effective 'control' of the assignment of the medical classification of - 'Disease.' With this sacred medical classification under joint management, they could liberally extend it to and spread it like margarine over their franchised list of metal disorders. Stealthily, by the late 1960's, Liberalism began to make significant inroads by jumping on the new science of genetics. Now, Alcoholism is refereed to as a 'disease.' 

In fact, just about every psychological condition and addiction (with the notable exception of vampirism) is now referred to as a ‘genetically based disease.'  We now have eating disorder diseases, drug addiction diseases, depression diseases and the list goes on and on.  By the new Liberalist standards, the emotionally disturbed, mentally ill and outright insane, are on an equal plane with the physically ill cancer patient, heart patient and the kidney dialysis patient and logic be damned. Really!

The Political Correct Destruction of Social Discourse

The forces of Conservatism and Liberalism are both adamantly pro Freedom of Expression - as long as they can edit what is expressed or discussed in public.  The danger is that bottled up thoughts are greater threats to any society - even above that of a terrorist nuclear weapon. People within a society need to express themselves freely, even if that expression is not always to our liking. For history has demonstrated that feelings and sentiments long suppressed do not go away, but like volcanoes eventually explode destructively Unfortunately, Liberalism has as yet to receive this message.

Their PC mission is a quest to make certain that no racial or cultural minority's feelings or historical sensibilities are brutalized, but in reality such suppression is an outright assault on the First Amendment right to free expression. For if you legislate my right to refer to another individual or a cultural or racial group of individuals by obscene or playful cultural humor, as socially reprehensible or questionable as the action may be- such restriction limits my right of free expression.

Minority Rights in America has come to be almost totally limited to creed, color, gender, sexual preference and (as with immigrants) national origin. The right of the American individual as such is rapidly being diminished to the preference of the political Left. And the catch phrase "protection of Minority Rights”, in the end, has traveled back in time to hurt the ancestors of those it is intended to protect.

Back in the 1940's as a young boy of color, I enjoyed the antics of a Black comic character actor named Mantan Moreland. He was the sole reason a crop of poorly made films, the Charlie Chan detective series, was so popular. Yet today, as these films are shown on television and made into DVD’s, as in Cold War Communist Russia, Mantan Moreland has been edited out. His performances are now considered to be 'Politically Incorrect.' And the same fate befell the popular Black series of the late 1950's, "Amos and Andy”, even though the characters portrayed are Black mirror images of the White characters on the "Andy Griffith Show."

Once again, I find it troubling that the PC movement so closely resembles the 1920’s – 30’s "Leninist" Communist Movement's early days, during which PC denoted one who strictly toed the Party line. In this case the party line is rampant Liberalism. So no matter it’s intended purpose, Political Correctness is an attempt at "Thought Control", and its application reflects the dire warnings of author George Orwell's chilling novel, "1984."  Really!

The Homosexual Challenge to Society

The practitioners of Liberalism love to play with words and conflicting phraseology that will allow them to bypass the annoying scientific control standard of - Normal. For example, they will readily admit that a child molester or serial killers are sexual and homicidal Sociopaths.  However, they veer off to the nonsensical left by insisting that homosexuals, transgender individuals and transvestites are ‘not abnormal’, but the product of a “Lifestyle Choice.”  In truth as verified by real medical science and psychological studies, all of these individuals suffer from a “mental condition.”  During their biological formation something went terribly wrong with Nature’s Plan, and the end products are aberrations of the human psyche - not Lifestyle Choices.

There is however one fact that history bears out and that cannot be challenged changed or politicized. Every developed society in which homosexuality became openly rampant has gone on to either oblivion or a destructive path.  In point of fact, in a well-known and often-repeated laboratory experiment with mice and guinea pigs that are deliberately placed in overcrowded living conditions, within short order three factors make their ominous debut - cannibalism, homicide and homosexuality.  Note, heterosexuality does not show up or assert itself as a deadly symptom – ever.  Really!

In The Final Analysis

Not withstanding the given assertions of the 'Crimes of Liberalism', I do hereby admit that there are Liberal Conservatives and highly Conservative Liberals. And I do give high praise to the push Liberalism contributed toward the end of racial inequality and the advent of equal opportunity that finally came about in America.  Had they not done so, it may well have taken another quarter of a century to come about as natural progression.  Unfortunately, they did not stop there because, all along, they were motivated by forces that held a hidden agenda: they wanted to change all of America’s social systems to their Liberal viewpoint – and the battle, as ferocious as ever, continues today.

The difference is that, unlike Conservatives who are always suspicious of any leaning to the left by their brethren, Liberals in general exhibit a perilous tendency to regard as fellow journeyman, anyone who expresses a Liberal sounding idea.  They rarely check into the possibility of hidden agendas. This fault has left the Liberal world open to serious damage from corrupting outside influences; such as Communism, Socialism and – taking into historical account Adolph Hitler’s Nationalist Socialists Party - even Fascism.

The forces of Liberalism have yet to learn that America overcame its initial cultural weaknesses and faults to become the powerful and influential nation it is today, by the steady painful application of tolerance to the differences of it citizens as a whole, not to abdication to those minorities whose psychological social needs and desires are outside the established norm of the majority.  Really!