Pink Floyd’s stark words voiced in its album, The Wall, have been realized, at least some of them. Given consistently falling test results year-by-year and the shocking inability of many students to read, do mathematics, think critically, understand history, civics, English language and numerous other subjects, it is obvious that many American students aren’t receiving an education.

But they are receiving a heavy dose of thought control and that is showing up dramatically in their behavior.

More dismally, they have been taught to turn their backs on a society where an increasing number of the citizens have ended up without any education in the fundamentals and civic commitments concerning what is required in the creation and preservation of an incredibly complex democratic republic of the kind represented by the United States.

We are now well into the second generation of individuals educated in an intellectually deficient educational system that fails to teach critical concepts, skills, subject matters and responsibilities. This includes civics, the spirit of the Rule of Law, how to think honestly and precisely, and how to resolve disputes and engage in political compromise.

Nor have all that many people been taught how to think critically based on the application of actual evidence and valid data—fundamental attributes of effective decision-making.

People who do not understand what is critical to the maintenance of a strong, just, and balanced political community where there will and should be inevitable disagreement and a corresponding need for balancing and compromise about disputed issues, are highly susceptible to having their thoughts controlled. We really are at risk of mirroring George Orwell’s “Oceania”.

“New Oceania”

In many ways we are moving toward the kind of totalitarian state George Orwell warned against in his classic novel Nineteen Eighty-four. 1984 predicts the emergence of a version of a totalitarian state of the kind now being created in America through a variety of techniques.

These include outright intimidation, propaganda, rage and threat, shaming, rioting, “canceling”, suppression and manipulation of information.

They also include the creation of false “narratives” aimed at bypassing our rational minds and capturing us on the level of our deeper emotions. Such tactics have swept through our society like an ill and bitter wind.

In considering this, it may be useful to regain a sense of Orwell’s story. Cathy Lowne offers this in a capsule overview she wrote in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

“The book is set in 1984 in Oceania, one of three perpetually warring totalitarian states (the other two are Eurasia and Eastasia). Oceania is governed by the all-controlling Party, which has brainwashed the population into unthinking obedience to its leader, Big Brother.

The Party has created a propagandistic language known as Newspeak, which is designed to limit free thought and promote the Party’s doctrines. Its words include doublethink(belief in contradictory ideas simultaneously), which is reflected in the Party’s slogans: “War is peace,” “Freedom is slavery,” and “Ignorance is strength.” The Party maintains control through the Thought Police and continual surveillance.

Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-four as a warning after years of brooding on the twin menaces of Nazism and Stalinism. Its depiction of a state where daring to think differently is rewarded with torture, where people are monitored every second of the day, and where party propaganda trumps free speech and thought is a sobering reminder of the evils of unaccountable governments. Winston is the symbol of the values of civilized life, and his defeat is a poignant reminder of the vulnerability of such values in the midst of all-powerful states.” Cathy Lowne, Encyclopedia Britannica, 7/22/24.

The following brief descriptions of how “Oceania” is being recreated in America demonstrate just how aggressive are those seeking that result, as well as how proud they are of what they are doing. The examples are only a small part of what is taking place, but my 2021 book “Un-Canceling” America (Amazon) contains 600 more reported activities.

What is taking place is a movement, and although there are numerous elements, corrupting America’s educational system, K-12 and universities is a core part of the transformational strategy.

In many ways, it seems we are in the midst of a shift toward Marxism and Maoism and we need to stop that movement before it goes much further. Make your judgment after reading the examples and responses.

“A Way of Life” Through “Deprogramming”?

https://www.theepochtimes.com/how-california-is-embracing-mandatory-racial-injustice-study-for-all-of-its-1-7-million-high-schoolers_3727957.html. “How California Is Embracing Mandatory Racial-Injustice Study for All of Its 1.7 Million High Schoolers”, John Murawski, RealClearInvestigations, 3/12/21.

“The Liberated Ethnic Studies group includes many of the original authors of the 2019 Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum that the state has gutted, as well as 50 scholars, teachers, practitioners and students, according to Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, an Asian American Studies professor at San Francisco State University, speaking during a Feb. 2 online event.

The advocates say that many state officials fail to grasp that ethnic studies is not a traditional school subject, but a movement and a philosophy best described as “narrative medicine,” “radical healing” and even a “way of life.”

It’s distinguished from traditional classroom instruction by its emotional, immersive pedagogy designed to deprogram kids from European cultural assumptions, to make teenagers conscious of systemic inequities, and to reconnect them with forgotten ancestral knowledge.”

The “Four I’s of Oppression”: A New Education Bill in California “Cancels” a Balanced, Non-Ideological Examination of American History

The Wall Street Journal reports on a new education proposal advancing in the California legislature. Caleb Parke provides further explanation.

The four “I’s” are the “ideological, institutional, interpersonal and internalized” ways that the creators of this educational movement allege that “oppression is said to take hold in a society.” The proposed educational offerings:

[W]ould aim to “build new possibilities for post-imperial life that promotes collective narratives of transformative resistance.”

The [WSJ] further said that the proposed bill suggests teachers provide “examples of systems of power, which can include economic systems like capitalism and social systems like patriarchy.” [Leonard] Jones’ comment about “the four ’I’s of oppression” students would learn about refers to “ideological, institutional, interpersonal and internalized” ways that oppression is said to take hold in a society. https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-education-student-k-12-lawrence-jones. “CA curriculum bill is example of ‘radical indoctrination’ in schools, ‘parents have a choice’: ‘Are the parents just going to sit back and watch this happen?’”, Caleb Parke, 9/1/20.https://www.wsj.com/articles/californias-radical-indoctrination-11598829048. “California’s Radical Indoctrination: A bill would establish a K-12 curriculum in the ‘four I’s of oppression.’”

Brainwashing Through Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

https://www.theepochtimes.com/trading-academics-for-far-left-social-emotional-learning_3466722.html. “Trading Academics for Far-Left ‘Social-Emotional Learning’”, Alex Newman, 8/21/20.

Academics are fast becoming a thing of the past in public schools. In their place: behavioral psychology and “social and emotional learning” (SEL) designed not to educate, but to transform children’s core values, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior.

Once upon a time, education meant learning how to read, write, do math, and think. It meant learning history and science as well. That is barely happening now, as government data show. Today, government schools use advanced methods, including SEL, to instill in children a radical new and oftentimes contradictory “politically correct” value system: radical environmentalism, radical feminism, critical theory, Marxism, social justice, LGBTQ+, population control, socialism, hyper racialism, class struggle, and more.

“Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions,” explains the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), one of the leading outfits promoting SEL. Among the webinars offered there are “SEL as a Lever for Equity and Social Justice,” and also a lecture on how to use SEL to “support antiracist practices.”

Another webinar outlines how to use policy to “dismantle inequities.” Again, the leftist buzzwords are everywhere. And that’s not an accident.

The children are also expected to “develop an understanding of systemic or structural explanations for different treatment and outcomes.” In short, they are expected to believe the highly controversial hypothesis that America is awash in “systemic” and “structural” racism, and that only massive government-led social engineering can fix it. The children are also expected to accept and agree with the artificial divisions being fomented along “race” and “class” lines as part of the now-obvious effort to “divide and conquer” America.

“Anyone can march but not everyone can get a job.”

https://www.foxnews.com/us/chicago-schools-illinois-progressive-politics-teaching-standards-inclusive. “Reporter’s Notebook: Chicago schools face nightmare as Illinois pushes progressive politics: Only 37% of Illinois’ third-graders demonstrated grade-level proficiency in English-language arts in 2019”, Eli Steele, 2/18/21.

Eli Steele offers an incredibly poignant and powerful description of his interaction with a young black man in Chicago.

“While I was shooting B-roll footage on the South Side of Chicago, a young man approached and asked what I was doing. I explained I was gathering footage for a short documentary on the new “Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards” that the Illinois Board of Education had approved and was on the verge of being ratified by the Illinois General Assembly.

He boiled it down to, “A documentary on education?” He then told me that he had been kicked out of two high schools and never graduated. His mother worked two jobs to provide for him and his sister and he never learned how to read.

As a parent of two children, I asked him how this was possible. Didn’t his teachers in the Chicago Public School system know that he couldn’t read? He shrugged and asked me if I had any work to give him. He was in his mid-20s, looking for work in the middle of an icy, sunny day.

I told him I was sorry and that I was leaving for the airport in two hours. Used to these kinds of turn-downs, he grinned and said it was all right.

In 2019, only 37% of third-graders in Illinois demonstrated grade-level proficiency in English-language arts, and when it came to math only 41% could demonstrate grade-level proficiency. Why would the state of Illinois consider new standards when it failed to uphold the most basic and universal of education standards?

The disconnect between the progressive ideology driving these new standards and the realities on the ground could not be starker. After I filmed the shot that the young man recommended, I asked him how he felt about the education system wanting to encourage students to become activists.

He laughed and said that was easy. “Anyone can march but not everyone can get a job.”

“OOPs! Political Scientist Carol Swain Warns “The BLM curriculum is ‘destructive’ to the Black community”

Seizing control of not only university education but elementary and high school education is a critical part of the use of Cancel Culture strategy.

This is because young minds are innocent and malleable and are not prepared to fight back against Orwellian infusions of what they are required to believe. As reported below, political scientist Carol Swain has described what is going on as “destructive to the Black community”.

Political scientist Carol M. Swain derided the Black Lives Matter curriculum on Monday, arguing that it hurts students and destroys the Black community. “The curriculum put forth by Black Lives Matter and being embraced in too many places is really destructive of the Black community and the Black family and racial justice,” said Swain, a former professor at Vanderbilt and Princeton.

[In discussing] the Black Lives Matter “week of action” Swain stated: [A] document was given to teachers and outlined the week of action’s “guiding principles,” which included “disrupting the western-prescribed nuclear family.” “It doesn’t help Black people,” Swain said in response.

“It doesn’t help White people. It doesn’t help America. And I would strongly encourage everyone who cares about education to go to the Black Lives Matter website and learn more about them and their principles, because there’s nothing there that advances our society in a way that’s beneficial.” https://www.foxnews.com/media/carol-swain-black-lives-matter-curriculum. “Political scientist says BLM curriculum is ‘destructive’ to the Black community: ‘It doesn’t help Black people. It doesn’t help White people. It doesn’t help America’”, Sam Dorman, 2/2/21.

“Kneel to Allah”. It’s Only Prayer, For God’s Sake

In the UK two boys were given detention after refusing to kneel down and ‘pray to Allah’ during a religious education lesson.

Two schoolboys were given detention after refusing to kneel down and ‘pray to Allah’ during a religious education lesson. Parents were outraged that the two boys from year seven (11 to 12-year-olds) were punished for not wanting to take part in the practical demonstration of how Allah is worshipped.

They said forcing their children to take part in the exercise at Alsager High School, near Stoke-on-Trent – which included wearing Muslim headgear – was a breach of their human rights.

One parent said: “This isn’t right, it’s taking things too far. “I understand that they have to learn about other religions. I can live with that but it is taking it a step too far to be punished because they wouldn’t join in Muslim prayer.

“Making them pray to Allah, who isn’t who they worship, is wrong and what got me is that they were told they were being disrespectful. … Another parent said: “I am absolutely furious my daughter was made to take part in it and I don’t find it acceptable. “I haven’t got a problem with them teaching my child other religions and a small amount of information doesn’t do any harm.

“But not only did they have to pray, the teacher had gone into the class and made them watch a short film and then said ‘we are now going out to pray to Allah’. … ”Not only was it forced upon them, my daughter was told off for not doing it right. “Schoolboys punished with detention for refusing to kneel in class and pray to Allah”, July 4, 2008. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1031784/Schoolboys-punished-detention-refusing-kneel-pray-Allah.html.