How did we get into this mess?

Look no further than your local “institution of higher learning.”

By Dr. Jimmy T. “Gunny” LaBaume

Did you ever wonder where mankind came up with the idea that he needed to be “governed?” Actually, it was before recorded human history—when the strong tribe invaded the weak, killed them all and took their stuff. Of course, being endowed by their Creator with the ability to reason, it didn’t take them long to realize that, if they didn’t kill them all but instead reduced them to some level of servitude, then over the long run they could get more stuff. That was the birth of what we know as the modern “nation state.”

“We” are not the government. No matter what “ism” you put behind it, all forms of government are nothing more than a group of men (and a few mentally retarded women like Nancy Pelosi) who own a regional monopoly on the use of force and violence. Just as any other Mafia like criminal organization, they have one and only one purpose—to take wealth from certain groups of people for themselves and their cronies in the military-industrial-congressional complex.

On a daily basis and a massive scale, they commit crimes that they lock the rest of us up for. They commit extortion and armed robbery (and call it taxation). They commit mass murder (and call it war). They counterfeit and call it a “stimulus package.” They are slave masters but they call it conscription.

They are always the minority (one hundred parasites can survive on 1,000 hosts but not vice versa.) Consequently, they must rely on “public opinion” to continue their criminal behavior.

In the early days, they depended on the clergy. In exchange for being allowed to exist and a share of the booty, the clergy convinced their congregations that the leader(s) had a direct line to God. In some cases, like Japan, that they were God. But, in the more secular age, this approach ceased to work.

Now they rely on the “opinion molders”— controllers of the media (including entertainment) and teachers.  This leads us to the role of so-called “higher” education.

The education system is so bad that people clamor for more money to fix it. But money only makes it worse. After all, being motivated by self-interest like all other men, why should “educators” cater to consumers of education when they get money no matter how badly they perform? Educators are unresponsive to consumer demands because their funding sources are independent of their customers’ satisfaction. Theirs is a captive market.

The problem is not confined to public (primary and secondary) education. It originates in the university. Publicly funded universities entrench intellectuals who support the over-extension of the State and teach young people that it is worthy of their unwavering support.

This is not a blanket indictment of all university professors but it is an indictment of “publically-funded” higher education and an exposé of the army of academics who shape the ideas and opinions of millions of our young people. These are the people who build public support for state interference into every nook and cranny of our lives. It is just that they “so happen to be” the vast majority of today’s university professors.

Clever and articulate (but wrongheaded with tenure) professors “train” millions of students every year in how to be subservient to the state. They spread false concepts, twist the meanings of words, and endorse questionable philosophies. They create an impression of scientific objectivity that conceals their true agenda. They are masters at disguising their endorsement of the only ther option to liberty, which is tyranny.

Their ideas are spread through their control of the academic journals, the award of doctorate degrees, and the content of textbooks that are widely-read.

They attend important conferences and devise the latest progressive (statist) agendas. Some move in and out of government at will. Most feed at the trough of publically funded grants and contracts. They testify at hearings and claim the expertise that the general public trusts.

Entrenched professors hold their young charges in the palm of their hands. They are able to instill statist philosophies in their students because, having come from the “public” school system (aka the mandatory government propaganda camps), these students have no intellectual defense against statists doctrines. These are the people who “train” the teachers, lawyers, judges, and journalists who all have wide influence.

Whether or not they are well-meaning innocents, dupes, dopes, minions of the state, paid hacks, or conscious evil-doers is irrelevant. There is no question that they are tremendously influential. So much so that they have created an ideology that worships the state. They bear a major responsibility for the current trend toward greater tyranny and less liberty.

Our noble experiment with constitutionally limited government has been a catastrophic failure because we have failed to keep the ruling class under control. Society has failed because these “opinion molders” have hammered too much anti-freedom drivel into too many heads over too long a time. As this continues it sustains the general public opinion that undergirds the State’s out of control extension of its power.

It is plain to anyone willing to look. Just listen to the daily political and social ideas espoused by the college-educated individuals who write the editorials, broadcast the news, testify before Congress, run for office and, yes, even those of Congress itself. We only need to ask, “Where are they getting these ideas? The answer is simple: From the university intellectuals.

Consumers of university education face formidable statist influences in the areas of social science, law, journalism, English and even from such seemingly unlikely sources as biology, geology and schools of agriculture. There are many cesspools of corruption and academic rot posing as areas of excellence within any university.

So what can be done about it? The influence of these statists must be radically undermined. This can be done in two ways: withdrawing support and supporting alternatives.

Universities provide a great deal of “training” but not much education. Animals are “trained.” People are educated. When choosing a college (for yourself or a child) look at the faculty and ask: Will you be educated? Will you be taught how to think independently or will you be “trained” – inculcated with the thinking of your professors? Ask: What is their agenda? Whether it is right-or left-wing, does it support and aggrandize the state? If you get the wrong answers to these questions, take your business elsewhere.

Of course, the state-supported universities are the primary culprits but private universities have also been infected through bribes—government money dispensed under the guise of “research.” Universities run on money. Withdraw their financial lifelines and they cannot survive in their present form as fertile seedbeds of statist propaganda.

All universities receive a great deal of financial support from their graduates. Before higher education can become an accountable, market-oriented system, this financial support must be removed. Stop contributing money to universities that are dominated by ideologues who support tyranny. At the same time, become an educated buyer of educational services and (as Michael Rozeff put it) “cut the alma mater cord.”

Footnotes and Citations:

Cut the Alma Mater Cord by Michael S. Rozeff http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff164.html

Jimmy T. LaBaume, PhD, ChFC was a professor at Sul Ross State University. He retired in the summer of 2011 and is currently the President and CEO of Land & Livestock International, Inc. He can be reached at drjimmytlabaume@landandlivestockinternational.com.