"Systemic Racism" a false demon.

The June 25th print edition of the Detroit Free Press carried an oped by Suzette Hackney, Indianapolis Star columnist  who claimed that now is the time to crush "systemic racism."

We had "systemic racism" during the slavery years and again during the Jim Crow years. There is still some racism today but in no way is it 'systemic."

I reject the notion that every alleged instance of injustice by white cops to black suspects is caused by racism suggested in the phrases "we have all the facts we need" and "systemic racism." Really? I question that.

I watched that video many times of policeman Chauvin kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck. I looked for some clue that could indicate racist motive. I watched Chauvin's face for a hint of a smile that might reveal a racist pleasure. I saw and heard nothing. Kneeling on a suspect's neck while in handcuffs should be cause for punishment in my view. I can see kneeling to put cuffs on a suspect but not after he's been rendered harmless.

The whole thing looked very calm, calculated, deliberate as if the public were the intended audience. Chauvin knew he was being recorded and could not fail to know that it would cause riots if made public and probably the end of his police career. But why would he do that over a small time thief like Floyd? Self sacrifice for a higher goal? I saw no evidence of that or of racism. The coldness of it made no sense.

But these two men knew each other for some time. Was there any animosity between them? Grudges? Sure, it could have been rank racism on the part of Chauvin and I would like this question posed to him: What was your motive? But even then, we have to remember that a crime is in the action not the motive. Murder is murder regardless of motive.

I grew up in the Jim Crow era and I know there was much more racism then than there is now. The famous psychologist Eric Hoffer once said "Mass movements can rise and spread without the belief in a god, but never without a belief in a devil." I submit that Ms. Hackney is presenting a demon--"systemic racism"--to be destroyed. But destroying an evil is not the same as creating a good, especially when that evil is a manufactured one.

To defeat an evil like racism one must define it precisely. However, in America today we have a systemic attack on defining anything precisely: Progressive Education. It is a pedagogic philosophy that teaches students to think in the approximate, the almost, the close enough. Progressive Ed teaches this stuff in reading and math curriculum in our schools today. If 23 + 23 = 44, well that's close enough. If an appearance of racism can be postulated, well, that's good enough too, he's guilty. No more evidence needed ("We have all the facts we need.")

I don't think so. In my view we need to get government out of education. Today all young people are not being taught how to think conceptually, so all they have to guide their actions are their feelings. Feelings not controlled by thoughts are political and moral disasters.

What powers are behind the shutdowns?

Some thoughts I had a few weeks ago. Still relevant.

As far as I can see this virus seems to be more contagious than others but also seemingly less deadly. I don't believe the death numbers projected by the government in past months.. The government on 04/09 reduced their death projections significantly with the possibility of further reductions to come. It is known in the testing industry there are often things called false positives.   But even if it was as deadly as the seasonal flu, why close the economy?

I think that what we are seeing with this shutdown of our economy is a trial run by the political powers that be who are following the orders of the philosophical powers that be.

These philosophical powers are the university professors in the social sciences. They are the army of foot soldiers marching to the strategy of political Progressivism.

The generals are the professors following the philosophic strategy of postmodernism. For more on this I recommend this essay Postmodernism by Stephen Hicks.

 These generals of philosophy are taking notes. They want to see how many Americans are willing to surrender their rights, freedoms and cash for a little safety. They're learning.

Progressives also want to see who and how many are resisting this policy of partial house arrest. They're also learning who they can rely on to be their enforcers when next the Democrats regain all three branches of government and declare martial law to save us from climate change.

They have to like certain governors and mayors who have reflexively threatened to prosecute doctors and other medical professionals for not 'following orders.'

* Here is link Mr Hicks essay on Postmodernism.

Our Birthday

Today we celebrate the 4th of July because it was then in 1776 we declared our independence from the British monarchy of King George. But it wasn't just the King that we were free from. It was freedom from tyranny, the rule by force of some men over the lives of others.

The founders had a new idea for creating a "more perfect union." It was to create a government that gets its just powers from the consent of the governed, an idea so radical it is still not understood as clearly as it should be today.

It was the concept of inalienable individual rights that made such a society possible. Even this concept of rights is also poorly understood today. Some people--and some politicians-- think a right is a right to things before before one earns them, like a right to a job or health care.

The right to life does not mean the government must provide us with the food, clothing and shelter we need. It means only that we are free to provide these things for ourselves with only one requirement: that we refrain from violating the same rights of everyone else.

In such a free market system the government does have a role. It is that of a protector of rights thus it must have a presence like that of a patrolman who is there to be summoned if a citizen's rights are violated.

It is a system where people are free to make a dollar servicing the wants and needs of other people. What a great win-win, life promoting, happiness creating system that is!

But this system is under attack because its principles are not being taught in our schools anymore. Our young people are finding it difficult to love and respect a nation they know nothing about and whose history has been reoriented to focus on most of her mistakes and not her accomplishments.

We have turned over to government our roads and bridges to maintain at their leisure, our children's education for it to decide what our kids will be taught and not taught. We let the government control our health care so the Gavin Newsomes, (California) Gretchen Whitmers (Michigan) and Andrew Cuomos (New York) et al, can decide what is good and bad for us and force it on us with the force of law.

Benjamin Franklin when asked what kind of society he and the founders were creating said: "A  Republic, if you can keep it."

Well we are in danger of losing it. Look how many so-called educated people today think we are supposed to be a democracy. So today let's thank the founders and resolve to take back our marketplace from the government and keep that freedom for future generations.