home > archive > 2011 > this article

Western unrest and the failure of social engineering

By Frank Salvato
web posted August 15, 2011

While the world mainstream media is focused on the unrest that has plagued Great Britain, they are delinquent in reporting on societal unrest elsewhere in the Western world. In Chile, tens of thousands of students staged violent protests, demanding changes in government-funded public education. In Philadelphia, a rash of "flash mob" incidents has forced that city's mayor to impose curfews for teenagers in several neighborhoods. And in Milwaukee, authorities are investigating a string of mob-like actions involving large groups of predominantly black teenagers near the Wisconsin State Fair, leading one City Alderman to attributing the violence as a sign of "deteriorating African American culture in our city."

In all of these instances – from London to Milwaukee, Santiago to Philadelphia, one common factor exists: Young people, who have been endowed with a falsely elevated sense of self-esteem, are narcissistically demanding more from a grossly over-extended government entitlement system instituted by Progressives to create a dependent populace. Why would anyone want to create such an unstable and dangerous societal atmosphere? Power.

In its detailed examination of Progressivism, DiscoverTheNetworks.org, states:

"In the progressive worldview, the proper role of government was not to confine itself to regulating a limited range of human activities as the Founders had stipulated, but rather to inject itself into whatever realms the times seemed to demand. The progressives reasoned that although America's Founders had felt it necessary to limit the power of government because of their experience with King George III, government, as a result of historical evolution, was no longer the menace it once had been; rather, they believed government had become capable of solving an ever-greater array of societal problems -- problems the Founders could never have envisioned. Consequently, the progressives called for a more activist government whose regulation of people's lives was properly determined not by the outdated words of an anachronistic Constitution, but by whatever the American people seemed to need at any given time... 

"As its name indicates, progressivism suggests movement toward a goal – in this case, bigger government and increased state control. But it is a gradual, incremental movement rather than a sudden transformation. Progressives endorse evolution (rather than revolution), a process by which society drifts gradually but inexorably toward statism.

"To facilitate this evolution, progressives have sought, ever since their entry into the pages of American history, to infiltrate society's power structure and its key institutions – the schools, the media, the churches, the entertainment industry, the labor unions, and the three branches of government..."

We can see the intervening hand of Progressivism at the root cause of the civil unrest in Britain, Chile and the United States.

To focus on just one avenue that the Progressive movement has been successful in traveling, they have, for over a generation now, maintained a stranglehold on the American education system. Regardless of the fact that every school district is set up to be locally controlled, for reasons meant to benefit the immediate community, labor unions and special interest groups – enabled by over-reaching state and federal governments – have wrestled control of not only the classroom from locally elected school board authority, but curriculum as well. Today, instead of teaching critical thinking skills so that our children learn how to think; so that they learn how to educate themselves for their lives, Progressives have instituted an education system that teaches our children what to think. Putting it bluntly, they have instituted a system of education that indoctrinates our children into a Progressive line of thinking.

Again from DiscoverTheNetworks.org:

"In 1913, the Progressive historian Charles Beard published "An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States," which offered a Marxist view of history...It portrayed America's Founding Fathers as basically selfish men who had established a form of government that they thought would benefit them, and only them, financially. From Beard's premise, it was a short logical leap to discredit the Constitution itself as 'essentially an economic document' unworthy of the lasting reverence of legislators, judges, or ordinary citizens..."

To spotlight this tactic as it is used today, I need only allude to the many instances and stories emanating from the many classrooms that report the use of curriculum portraying our Founders and Framers as bigoted and racist slave owners, rather than the guardians of liberty who struggled during the debates of both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution over the issue of slavery.

An accurate reading of history includes the fact that Thomas Jefferson had included the abolishment of slavery in the Declaration of Independence only to have it removed after a vicious debate on the subject. It was only removed to facilitate the enlistment of the whole of the colonies in the revolution. Yet, today, Progressive curriculum teaches our children that Jefferson was not only a slave owner, but that he had fathered a child by one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. Today's history lesson of Mr. Jefferson omits the fact that there were seven Jefferson men with the same DNA at Monticello during the time that Ms. Hemings would have been with child. The lesson also omits, almost in total, any examination of the philosophy held by Mr. Jefferson with regard to humanity, revolution, government or society. Today, Jefferson, instead of being a brilliant visionary and a part of the creation of unique system of government new to all the world, he is a slave owning White man who impregnated a slave.

This singular example of Progressive manipulation established, understood and accepted, one of the most damaging and manipulative tactics used by the Progressive Movement in our education system is the artificially elevated self-esteem of our children. Today, Progressives instill in our children an unearned sense of self-worth; a falsely elevated self-esteem. Teachers and group administrators have been deceived into believing that by manufacturing a faux pride usually reserved for the realization of an achieved success, they can advance the educational capabilities of the child. These useful, albeit in many cases well-meaning, "idiots," as it were, have taken to eliminating the need to keep score at recreational sporting events, to awarding first prizes to everyone, to making sure "everyone is a winner," etc.

In reality, depriving a child of "learning how to lose" deprives them – robs them – of the critical lesson of how to learn from their failures – a lesson more valuable than learning how to achieve. And when a child has no skill set that can address failure; no skill set to derive a lesson from the failure so as to turn that failure into a victory, into a learning experience, into a success, what the "system" has created is an angry, frustrated individual possessing an entitlement mindset but who is less the critical thinking tools to affect achievement on an individual level. The Progressive education "system" has been producing individuals who believe they are entitled to everything and responsible for nothing.

When we understand the tactics used by the Progressives to affect a generation of those who they can enslave to entitlement, we can more clearly see just how much damage they have already done.

As British new media columnist John Phelan points out in addressing the riots engulfing the streets of Britain:

"There was always the danger that people on the left would seek to use this unrest as a vehicle for their own pet causes. Ken Livingstone proved again just what an irrelevant lump of 80's nostalgia he is by blaming, not the current government, but that of Margaret Thatcher. Others have consulted their A-level sociology textbooks and pinned the blame on the rioting youths' 'disenfranchisement' or 'deprivation.'

"None of this third rate Marxist rubbish holds up if you leave the lecture hall and come face to face with the rioters. It is almost impossible to think of a way these people are disenfranchised. Each and every one of them has the franchise. When they reach 18 they will have the right to vote. They may choose not to use it, but that's up to them.

"Neither did the rioters I saw look particularly deprived. The closest things they have to uniforms are Franklin & Marshall jumpers, which retail for about £60 each. Most of them were filming their rampages on iPhones which can retail at over £400.

"The poverty these kids have is moral, not financial. Many of them come from broken families which derive most of their support from the state. Neither they, nor their parents, have ever had to face consequences or take responsibility in their lives. If a girl gets pregnant the state pays. If they'd rather pose about like a gangster than get a job, the state pays. And if they commit a crime state punishment is often a joke. So, they behave as they please."

In one instance a British rioter, admittedly drinking wine at "half nine in the morning" was quoted as saying, "...that's what it's all about, showing the police we can do what we want." Another youthful looter bragged, "We're getting our taxes back."

From Birmingham, UK, to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Santiago, Chile, the scene plays out the same. Progressives have succeeded in creating a "Dependent Class" out of a generation of intellectually manufactured narcissists, all in the name of "social justice"; all under the wicked institution of social engineering; all at the hand of Socialism. Today, that "Dependent Class" is angry because the utopian promises made by glad-handing Progressive politicians and elitists to create an all providing nanny state has failed at the weight of the cost of those promises...and the world pays the price.

The unrest in the West is not racially motivated. It is not a battle between the "haves" and the "have nots." It is the result of a reckless experiment in social engineering executed by the power-hungry that used our children as guinea pigs. What we are witnessing is the natural result of a failed Progressive ideology and the intellectual destruction of a generation. What we are witnessing is the result of a true crime against humanity.

Sadly, no court in the world will hold the Progressive monsters accountable for their crimes...because, my friends, Progressives own the courts.

God help us all.

Frank Salvato is the Executive Director and Director of Terrorism Research for BasicsProject.org a non-profit, non-partisan, 501(c)(3) research and education initiative. His writing has been recognized by the US House International Relations Committee and the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention. His organization, BasicsProject.org, partnered in producing the original national symposium series addressing the root causes of radical Islamist terrorism. He is a member of the International Analyst Network and has been a featured guest on al Jazeera's Listening Post and on Russia Today. He also serves as the managing editor for The New Media Journal. Mr. Salvato has appeared on The O'Reilly Factor on FOX News Channel, and was featured in the documentary, "Ezekiel and the MidEast 'Piece' Process: Israel's Neighbor States." He is a regular guest on talk radio including on The Captain's America Radio Show, nationally syndicated by the Phoenix Broadcasting Network and on NetTalkWorld Global Talk Radio catering to the US Armed Forces around the world. Mr. Salvato is also heard weekly on The Roth Show with Dr. Laurie Roth syndicated nationally on the USA Radio Network. His opinion-editorials have been published by The American Enterprise Institute, The Washington Times, Accuracy in Media, Human Events, BigGovernment.com and are syndicated nationally. He is a featured political writer for EducationNews.org and is occasionally quoted in The Federalist. Mr. Salvato is available for public speaking engagements. He can be contacted at contact@newmediajournal.us.

Send a link to this story

Home