Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Conservative Self-Education, Part 1

I've been playing around with this idea for some time. That, for the Republic to continue, there must be an educated citizenry. A people will not chose that path that is harder, without knowing why.

That's why it's so important to MIS-inform students about their 'rights', while failing to teach them about actual Rights, guaranteed under the Constitution. For too many ignorant people, 'rights' are what you call favoritism that goes in THEIR direction.

I'm starting this series with a broad background update on today's current atmosphere in national government. It's a good start, as it introduces some concepts that most people have no clue were important.

One of those concepts being the Jacobins. Those were the fierce and partisan 'activists' of the French Revolution. Whose bloody, quasi-legal slaughter, confiscation, and terrorism of the French People ultimately culminated in their being ejected from power - permanently.

Britannica Online has an entry for them that could have been written by the Left (and probably was). It's similar to the Victor Hugo story Les Miserables, which suggests that the right-minded and principled early idealists were co-opted by those forces of Robespierre, who were solely responsible for the abuses of the Revolutionary Government.

One thing Britannica got right - like many activists, the Jacobins didn't soil their hands with actual fighting (and personal risk), but waited until the power vacuum after the fighters took over government operations. At that point, the Jacobins, like the Bolsheviks, stepped in and ousted the revolutionary group.

Then, imposed their Reign of Terror, a period so bloody and ruthless that the name still survives.
The Reign of Terror (5 September 1793 – 28 July 1794),[1] also known as The Terror (French: la Terreur), was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between two rival political factions, the Girondins and The Mountain, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the revolution". The death toll ranged in the tens of thousands, with 16,594 executed by guillotine (2,639 in Paris),[2]and another 25,000 in summary executions across France.[3]
 BTW, try using Infogalactic, an alternative to Wikipedia. You can get it automatically by installing this Chrome app. By doing so, you avoid the SJW/Leftist crap on Wikipedia.

Other topics I'm interested in (with a focus on helping poorly educated public school captives escape their conditioning and indoctrination) include:

  • Just how revolutionary was the American Revolution?
  • Who were the Founding Fathers, and what were their aims?
  • The Documents
    • Committees of Correspondence
    • Declaration of Independence
    • Articles of Confederation
    • The Federalist Papers
    • Constitution
      • Bill of Rights
  • 19th Century
    • Pro- and Anti-Slavery Points of View
    • Court Cases that changed the law
    • The Progressive Era
      • The Role of Women in Progressive Circles
  • 20th Century
    • Ya' Say Ya' Want a Revolution - the Role of Immigration
    • Woodrow Wilson - First Fascist, Racist in Charge
      • Prohibition
      • The Red Scare
    • Harding, Coolidge, Hoover
    • The FDR Years
    • Post-WWII
Feel free to add suggestions in the comments.

For those wondering - I'm still working (slowly) on the Leftism 4 Beginners book. I may end up merging some of these posts into it; still working on it.

6 comments:

boron said...

I don't often offer suggestions, but this seems to be a great idea (when fully compiled) for parents who would like to teach their children about the founding of the United States

Francis W. Porretto said...

Linda: a great, freedom-loving historian has already done much of the work for us. Perhaps we could plot out a Webinar based on Dr. Carson's books. (I have the first five volumes and am ordering the sixth one as we speak.) You're the teacher among us, so I defer to your expertise as regards how to approach such a project.

Tracy Coyle said...

I have a suggestion:

On Liberty, John Stuart Mill

The absolute best line in the essay: "...the individual is sovereign."

Which is the distinction between Classical Conservative and Classical Liberal (IMO).

S Richard said...

I will suggest , Secession, revolution or right, previous to 1861?

Linda Fox said...

Fran, I'll follow up on that link today.

The thing is, most of the work in writing about those times has already been. What is needed is bundling that curriculum, plus video/links into a usable set of lesson plans/background for the parent/teacher to deliver to the student.

I may start working on that over the next few months.

Tracy Coyle said...

Two opposite timeline suggestions:

The Natural Law: A Study in Legal and Social History and Philosophy by Heinrich A. Rommen

The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America: Since 1945 by George H. Nash

The first gives at least one look at the early foundations of liberty and individualism. The second will delve into the 'fusion' that WAS represented by the three legs of Political Conservatism over the last 30 years - and why it is (maybe?) breaking down.