Battle for the American Mind Quotes

“Plato records the dialogues that Socrates had with a number of bystanders, like Euthyphro, Gorgias, and Meno. In these dialogues, Socrates employs Logos to prove that there is only one God, one ultimate standard of goodness (virtue), and that man cannot know about God unless He reveals Himself to us. These, and many other logical proofs by Socrates, resulted in two things: First, he was put to death by the Greeks for “corrupting the youth” and “atheism” because he argued against the prevailing view of this time (sound familiar?). And second, five hundred years later, he would be recognized as the first proto-Christian. His views became the center of Hellenistic philosophy, in which Christianity was formed.”
― Pete Hegseth, Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation

“From Trotsky, to Lenin, to Mao, to Castro—to socialist Bernie Sanders and Comrade Ocasio-Cortez—a common tool for manipulating paideia is to use words that people associate with positive virtues, but to change their meaning.”
― Pete Hegseth, Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation

“one were to place the founding fathers on a spectrum between traditional Christian authority and Deistic rationalism, it might be reflected this way—Christians: John Jay, Patrick Henry, Roger Sherman, John Witherspoon, Benjamin Rush; mixed theology: Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, George Washington; and Deists: James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine.”
― Pete Hegseth, Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation

“Human civilization was rooted in raw power and superstition. Life, as Thomas Hobbes wrote, was brutish and short. To our eyes, their customs were weird and pagan. People were told what to believe, and they did. Each tribe or nation had a god. And broader people-groups shared multiple gods. Most men were indentured to authoritarian leaders. The Greco-Roman-Christian civilization changed all that. Today we take this for granted. And, because we take it for granted, we are about to lose civilization as we know it.”
― Pete Hegseth, Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation

“Make no mistake about it: the historical singularity that was America’s founding was a result of the culmination of the Western Christian Paideia (WCP). Full stop.”
― Pete Hegseth, Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation

“Under the old form of classical Christian education, children gained wisdom by studying history and the classics.”
― Pete Hegseth, Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation