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Andrew Breitbart famously said, and I agree, that “politics is downstream of culture.” Meaning, politics is a lagging indicator. Things change in our politics because our culture has already changed.
“Yes, politics is downstream of culture. But even deeper than that, culture is downstream of religion.”
Then it is a spiritual change that is necessary.
Abraham Lincoln’s warning that “the philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation becomes the philosophy of government in the next.”
Paideia, simply defined, represents the deeply seated affections, thinking, viewpoints, and virtues embedded in children at a young age, or, more simply, the rearing, molding, and education of a child.
Without realizing it, today’s American students absorb a deep affection for scientism (science is the only way to find truth), equity/equality (there is nothing better or worse, just different), individualism (identity politics), neo-Marxism (the government can and should solve all inequalities), along with a host of other modern and postmodern affections that lead to servitude (it’s all about your job).
All I can do is shake my head. Science is good. Equity/equality is taught by Jesus. (God created diversity.) smh
“The chief end of man is to improve himself, both as an individual and as a race.” (You may note the contrast with the Christian catechism “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”)
Education is not a subject and does not deal in subjects. It is instead a transfer of a way of life. —G. K. Chesterton
[I do not] seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe that I may understand. For this too I believe, that unless I first believe, I shall not understand. —St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, twelfth century.
Where do correct ideas come from? Do they drop from the skies? No. Are they innate in the mind? No. They come from social practice, and from it alone. . . . Once the correct ideas characteristic of the advanced class are grasped by the masses, these ideas turn into a material force which changes society and changes the world. —Mao Zedong, 1963
A few hours a week in church—Sunday school and Wednesday nights—don’t stand a chance against more than forty hours a week in progressive schools. I am a living example of this . . . and that was thirty years ago. While my veneer as a youth was Christian, my public schooling core was purely secular. And many of the choices I made later in life reflect this bifurcation during the formation of my character. My paideia was progressive. I never had a chance, and I want a better foundation for my kids.
1 John 4:4 says, "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." Do you honestly think God's Word can't overcome a "progressive paideia"? It does. Using worldly methods to try and effect a spiritual change is a waste of time.
Our only option is insurgency. Our only chance is to become educational insurgents in our own country. Throughout history, insurgency has been the preferred tool of the “weak against the strong,” the “have-nots against the haves.” Insurgents don’t play by the old rules, because the old rules are used to protect the status quo—in our case, the Marxists who have taken full control of America’s education system. We are the new radicals, the new revolutionaries. We must choose insurgency, since all other options are a path to certain defeat.
This kind of rhetoric feeds extremist thinking and leads to violence (like the attack on the Capitol on Jan 6th). smh.
The best definition of insurgency I encountered during my study of the subject was by David Kilcullen, in his book Counterinsurgency. He defines insurgency as “an organized, protracted politico-military struggle designed to weaken the control and legitimacy of an established government, occupying power, or other political authority while increasing insurgent control” (emphasis mine). The definition need only be modified slightly to fit our use. Obviously our struggle is not military, but instead politico-cultural.
Obviously... but the felon president certainly seems willing to use the military to bully the weak. Calling for insurgency against our teachers and educators is, in my opinion, nuts.
we should have our “defund the unions” movement,
Why? To further fund the oligarchy? That is what would happen. smh.
while this book is about classical Christian schools, it’s important to remember that the center of Christian salvation is not education, it’s grace. Nobody knows this more than me; my life has been riddled with craters that have required mountains of grace.
The center of salvation is Jesus. He said the two greatest commandments were to love God and love others. Love is a verb. It results in action... loving action, not violence, not insurgency, not cutting aid to the needy, but action that extends a hand to the helpless. It is not the government's job to share the gospel.
