JESSE POWELL writes:

I visited my old high school today. I was a student in the late 1980s and while my visit brought personal memories, I was struck by the cultural changes that had occurred. My old high school is looking very grand now after the many improvements made to the physical structure. Lots of sunlight pours in. There are big windows everywhere. In addition many of the classrooms are filled with computers, which were not a routine part of ordinary classes in my time. There were a few rooms I remembered from the old days but not very many. 

Thinking back on the politics of the old high school, there wasn’t much sloganeering on an official level. Sure, the teachers had their own point of view that was generally liberal but I don’t remember much heavy-handed pressure to conform to any “group think.” Most of the students seemed liberal but by maybe a 60 to 40 percent margin. Most importantly, I don’t remember any significant “preaching”; feminist causes or attitudes weren’t pushed, “multiculturalism” wasn’t overtly preached, and homosexuality was simply never brought up, discussed, or even thought about. Homosexuality was simply invisible and absent. The most remarkable thing looking back is simply the absence of overt “political consciousness.” Sure, there were cultural assumptions that were embedded in classroom discussions and social interactions; men and women were assumed to be “equal,” whatever that means exactly, and the races were assumed to be equal in basic ability and in their value to society but an “official party line” was not visibly promoted. 

In my return visit, the first thing I noticed was that a women’s basketball team was practicing in the gym, and they seemed aggressive and serious in their play. A women’s sports team practicing in the gym was a rarity when I went to high school and, truth be told, I can’t imagine the women from my high school days being as aggressive and as pseudo-macho as what I saw today. 

Things really became interesting though when I ventured into the school’s upper floor. When I went to school there were no political messages posted up on the hallways or on the side of teacher’s classes. Not so today; now the hallways were covered with various inspirational quotes and political messages as well as montages put together by students. There were four basic themes to the messages: feminism, homosexuality, bash the rich or the “oppressor,” and multiculturalism.

The feminist and pro-homosexual messages were typically professionally produced propaganda posters; they were not something put together by students. There were multiple posters encouraging women to enter into the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields. There were many posters encouraging students to try their best, to be ambitious, to face the difficult tasks and overcome obstacles, etc. These posters were typically gender-neutral in their language but the person shown accomplishing great things was almost always female; the overwhelming majority of these posters showed women. There was one poster urging women to accomplish great things in order to honor the great achievements of feminists in the past. The idea was that all these women, the feminist activists of the past, paved the way for you to be able to accomplish your dreams and so now you cannot let the sisterhood down by not living up to your full potential. Another poster said “These women dared to not keep silent” and then showed pictures with small biographical essays profiling many of the famous feminists of the past century. 

In addition to the feminist messages, there were several pro-homosexual messages. The two propaganda posters that were professionally produced said, “We are all unique. We are all the same,” and depicted many different couples looking lovingly at each other, half of the couples same-sex and half of the couples straight. At the bottom of the poster were two men (presumably homosexual?) each one next to a small child of another race. One was a white man and the other was a black man but in each case the child seemed to be racially South Asian. In each scene, the child appears to be affectionate towards the man and the man is smiling and happy. So, this poster seems to not only promote homosexuality but also homosexuals acting as parents to adopted foreign children. In the other professionally made pro-homosexual poster the title reads “History has been too straight” and the message was in so many words, “If you have assumed that all great contributors to the past have been heterosexual then your view has been too straight, and narrow. Being homosexual has never gotten in the way of contributing to society and indeed has never been an obstacle to making history!” Below the text are photos of eight famous people who were presumably homosexual. Lastly, in addition to the professionally made pro-homosexual posters there were multiple flyers posted at different places advertising the next GSA (presumably Gay Student Association) meeting. The flyer said all were welcome and would be accepted and it said it was sponsored by the GLBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer). For those wondering why “Queer” is added at the end the flyer it gives a helpful definition of what the word “Queer” actually means. Presented in the style of a dictionary definition the word “Queer” according to the flyer means: “Queer (adj.) – conforming to one’s own sense and understanding of self in defiance of convention.”

 The messages on the theme of multiculturalism and bashing the “oppressor” were posters, often seemingly done as part of class projects, that students themselves made. Multiple declarations that people are the same all over the world regardless of race were made. In addition, many students seemed to be telling their personal stories of why they left the country of their birth to come to America; stories of political oppression and poverty and exploitation that focused on the sins of racism and multi-national corporations. Many student made signs in Spanish and one in French and another in Taiwanese that named what various rooms and parts of the building were. I am quite sure that these signs in foreign languages do not serve any useful purpose; they simply are meant to express an appreciation of foreign languages, a kind of multi-cultural art to decorate the place. 

Walking through the halls of my old high school, I found an even more interesting treasure posted up on the wall for everyone to see. An American Government class had all the students take a test that would show where their overall political philosophy ranked. The students were ranked on two scales; they were either left or right economically and they were either libertarian or authoritarian socially. The test results of all 38 students in the class were posted on the wall and each student got to write a little essay explaining what their political beliefs were. Sure enough, as would be predicted by all the propaganda posted on the hallways, most students scored as being economically left and socially libertarian. However, to say “most” is understating things; 35 of the 38 students scored in the economically left and socially libertarian category. Of the three students who broke the mold, two did so mildly, scoring weakly positive in the socially authoritarian category while the other remaining student was a rebel scoring moderately in the economically right category and scoring very strongly in the socially authoritarian category; in fact, this student was more extremely socially authoritarian than any of the other students in the class were socially libertarian, he clearly sees himself as being in rebellion against the culture around him. 

In the essays that the students wrote again and again they said they were against discrimination based on race, sex, age, and social status. These four categories were repeatedly grouped together as if they all represented a common theme. In addition it was said many times that the student was in favor of abortion rights and homosexual marriage. These two positions likewise seemed to be linked together in students’ minds. Another common theme the students repeated was that they were against extremism on either side. Not once did any student in their essay articulate support for a conservative position. Not once did any of the posters put up on the school’s hallways support a conservative position. 

In my day, if I had done a similar walk down the halls, some announcements of school events might be posted and some “school spirit” might be exhorted and encouraged but that would be it. There weren’t any preachy “motivational posters” put up talking about the need to show ambition to overcome obstacles and achieve great things and there weren’t pro-feminist themes plastered on the wall. Most importantly, homosexual themes never showed up at all within the school. The idea that someone would proclaim themselves to be in favor of “gay marriage” as many students do today would be unthinkable.

I came away with the strong impression that the emerging generation of adults has so little foundation on which to build their future lives.

                                              — Comments —

Samuel C. Starrett writes:

The poster Mr. Powell saw with the slogan “We are all unique. We are all the same,” truly says it all. The fact that anyone could unironically promote such an idea simply demonstrates the insanity into which the Western(I dare no longer say Christian) world has sunk. It is a striking thing that for all its emphasis on the individual, and the individual’s rights, and the individual’s freedoms, liberalism nevertheless works very hard to eliminate differences and distinctions among individuals, and all in the name of promoting(or “respecting,” or “appreciating”) individual “uniqueness.” A strange kind of uniqueness indeed, that is predicated on the sameness of all individuals.

Liberalism, then, has not truly freed the individual from all outside influences, or controls, or restraints on his identity, because such a thing can never be done. It atomized man only to absorb him into a new collective; a universal collective in which in the name of liberating the individual from the group-based discrimination of the past, all groups must be abolished except the one universal group which now provides the identity of the liberal New Man, and to prevent their reemergence, all individual distinctions and differences must be abolished. In the name of personal uniqueness we all become the same; a doublethink that recalls the most frightening portions of George Orwell’s classic 1984, now read by the elites of our society as a handbook rather than a warning.

Andrew writes:

The author mentioned “GSA” – it stands for “Gay-Straight Alliance,” and is supposedly a support group to show solidarity of straights and gays. 

I was asked to post a flier for a GSA event in my room (public high school) and I politely declined, saying I didn’t believe that schools should promote anything sexually oriented. l always treat all my students the same, gay or straight, but I am honest with them as far as my beliefs go.

Buck O. writes:

I don’t mean this to sound like “I can top that!,” but I’m two decades older than Jesse Powell, so the changes from my point of reference are even starker. I knew not one open homosexual in a student body that was solid white. Now it is 27 percent white and 10 percent black, and is celebrated repeatedly as a multicultural mecca. One third of the students are learning to speak English. The notorious Dar al-Hijrah, home base to many of the 9/11 nineteen, and where the recently killed Anwar al-Awlaki preached, is just across the street. Many of the surrounding neighborhoods are scary and dangerous places after dark and the others are hyper neighborhood-watchful. It was a wonderful place in the 60s. Driving through the center of town now, feels just like a border crossing.

Alissa writes:

Mr.Powell writes:

I came away with the strong impression that the emerging generation of adults has so little foundation on which to build their future lives. 

How about sending children to private religious schools or possibly homeschooling them? I plan to do that for my future children. I’ve turned 19 this year but I’ve been apprehensive of sending my future children to any school (recently the news of my country has been displaying programs favouring feminism, environmentalism, secularism and libertarianism). Globalization is advancing liberal infection and disbelief in God worldwide.

Mr. Powell writes:

It might be worth pointing out that my old high school was actually more non-white when I attended it than it is today; it is today more than 50 percent white while when I attended it whites were a plurality but not the majority. Busing for purposes of racial integration was used when I went to the school but now the student population more reflects the area the school is in. Another thing is that the principals at the school were men in my era but in the past 10 years or so the principals have been mostly women. 

On a somewhat related note, I visited my local Occupy Wall Street protest that has set up camp near where I live and I happened to come by when they were doing their General Assembly meeting. The assembly went on and on about how they don’t discriminate, that they would not tolerate any sort of discrimination or oppression towards anyone based on race, sex, age, social standing, disability, religion or lack thereof, and any other category they could think of. Someone did mention however that no single religion should be mentioned in any of their statements as including one religion would imply disrespect for the other religions unless all religions were listed exhaustively. Of course if a religion itself taught intolerance or discrimination on any basis then presumably such religious beliefs would not be tolerated according to their own credo. Listening to this apparently most fundamental “value” of equality being expressed and repeated again and again reminded me of what the students in the high school class stated as being their own political beliefs. It seemed like this extreme fetishizing of “equality” was something widespread in the culture showing up not only among high school students but also in the Occupy Wall Street protest. 

An amusing anecdote of what extreme “equality” means in real life among the Occupy Wall Street folks is that apparently being non-white gives one permission to heckle, make fun of, or bully the other protestors. In the crowd I saw I’d say about 80% of the protestors were white. There were three people however acting belligerently even though they seemed to be fellow protesters. One was an angry black man very aggressively yelling at a white woman who was significantly shorter than he was and quite petite. He was yelling at her “You are not showing me empathy! You have not shown me empathy!”. His voice very definitely sounded threatening to my ears. In another case a large man, maybe dark skinned Samoan or something, was making grunting animal like noises and garbling unintelligible word like noises. He was doing this right next to a white female speaker while she was preaching against the sin of racism and the importance of rejecting white supremacy. Hard to tell what the grunter had in mind with his antics but I think the idea was that in reality the white speaker thought he was subhuman or an animal and so he was going to oblige her by acting like one. The third disrupter was an Asian man who was heckling the assembly for being way too slow and behaving in a mindless child like fashion and arguing endlessly over silly stuff. 

All three protestors who acted in a belligerent disruptive manner were non-white men even though there were many more white men in the crowd than non-white men. My conclusion is that the non-white men felt protected from criticism due to their “oppressed” racial status, any attack on them might be an expression of racism after all, and this empowered them to attack, belittle, and intimidate the other group members with impunity. Even in the land of extreme and meticulous “equality” some are more equal or “oppressed” than others.

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