Liberal Revision of History

The overriding problem with history textbooks used in public schools today is that so many left-wing pressure groups within the education establishment must approve the sensitivity and political correctness of the books that the end result is banal and insipid nonsense that leaves students with no comprehension of what makes the West and our freedoms and way of life unique.

The only concepts students are left after 12 years of public education are that (1) the West is racist, imperialistic, and socially unjust; and (2) anything exotic (outside the Western culture) is wonderful, fresh, and morally superior. They have no understanding for their own Western heritage and savor an uncritical, Pollyannish exuberance for exotic non-Western cultures.

A nation with this kind of collective amnesia with never be able to defend its values and way of life, which is fine with socialists opposed to our Western religious heritage, capitalism, and military power in defense of freedom and liberty, often the very same people writing the texts. Terrorists often know our history much better than we do. Quiz question: What was the significance of September 11, 1683 that noted Catholic historian Hilaire Belloc stated in 1938 in The Great Heresies was a "date that ought to be among the most famous in history?" Well, at least Osama Bin Laden knows his Western history.

For The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn, Diane Ravitch reviewed the most popular history textbooks widely used in public schools. Most textbooks follow what she terms the "cultural equivalence" narrative approach, which teaches gullible students that all cultures are equal:

All the world's civilizations were great and glorious, all produced grand artistic, cultural, and material achievements, and now the world is growing more global and interconnected. Some bad things happened in the past, but that was a long time ago and now the cultures of the world face common problems.

In keeping with the imperative of avoiding ethnocentrism, no culture is "primitive." The idea of progress has disappeared, because no culture is more or less advanced than any other. Even those that had no literacy and only meager technology are described as advanced, sophisticated, complex, and highly developed. These are comparative terms, but cultures are never compared to one another.

A variation on this goofy "all cultures are equal" theme is the more malevolent theme that the U.S. is a horrible country filled with injustice:

In a significant variation on the cultural equivalence theme, Houghtin Mifflin's world history text for middle school students, To See the World, implies that every world culture is wonderful except for the United States. It lauds every world culture as advanced, complex, and rich with artistic achievement, except for the United States. Readers learn that people in the United States confront such problems as discrimination, poverty, and pollution. Those who came to this country looking for freedom, the book says, found hardship and prejudice; the immigrants did all the hard work, but the settled population hated and feared them. Despite these many injustices, people kept trying to immigrate to the United States, but many were excluded because of their race or ethnicity. Compared to the other cultures in the world, the United States sounds like a frightening place. Why people keep trying to immigrate to this unwelcoming, mean-spirited culture is a puzzle.

Two examples of the false history most uneducated students (future liberals) will have been inculcated with by obscurant liberals in the public schools:

1) In school textbooks, Islam is promoted as a wonderful, exotic religion that "spread" (how?) throughout the southern and western Mediterranean Africa and east through Asia that produced a highly sophisticated, peaceful, tolerant civilization with scientific geniuses and wealth and prosperity for all until the wicked Crusades which ransacked with no provocation whatsoever a great civilization.

This history is patently false. The Crusades were the direct result of Islamic terrorist expansion that threatened numerous times our Western civilization. The religion's goals have not changed; however, our textbooks and mainstream media refuse to criticize this religion. Result: Stupid children who grow up to be Hollywood producers.

Father Mark Gruder, PhD, in a talk at Christendom College, has countered this false history. His speaking the truth is anathema in most college campuses today, who like to stay in the "cultural equivalence" and "every culture better than the West" la-la land. The Christendom College news article describes his talk:

"The mainstream media likes to paint a picture that Islam is peaceful and that it is just extremists who hold this point of view,” he continued. “But that simply is not true. While I was working on my Doctoral Dissertation, I spent a year in Egypt and other Muslim countries. During that time I got to see first-hand what the Muslim children were learning. And it was pretty enlightening! Parents would teach their children songs about killing the infidel—songs about death and destruction. Cars, with loud speakers attached, would drive through the streets repeating the message, ‘Let their woman be raped, their men be killed, and their children enslaved.’

“To be able to accurately judge a religion, we have to pay attention most importantly to what it teaches its children, not to what it says to the outside world,” Gruber said. “No progress will be made unless we speak to each other with self-respect and honesty. There is hope for peace, but we must face the facts and use common sense.”

Unfortunately, for far too many schoolchildren, they gain no common sense about history and cultures because they are ignorant of the facts, lack any foreign travel experience, and being uneducated, thanks to the "cultural equivalence" textbooks, have no understanding of the West or other cultures, just the gloomy cynicism of the West and cheerful, credulous, uncritical picture of foreign cultures and societies.

2) The glorious Aztec empire, a highly sophisticated civilization with great education and science (the same people who love Cuba love the Aztec empire, which like Cuba didn't have a particularly high regard for human rights), existed in Central America until the Catholic imperialists Hernan Cortez and his cruel crew demolished it, forcing the conversion of the Indians. Historian Warren Carroll tells it like it is, in a recent talk about the great Holy Roman Emperor Charles V:

This period as a whole is the most dramatic in the history of Christendom; it’s not surprising that Shakespeare lived during it,” Carroll quipped. “It was under Charles that Cortés and Magellan were sent,” Carroll said. “He sent Hernán Cortés to smash the Satanic Empire of Aztec Mexico, built on human sacrifice, making it a place which the Mother of God could visit, as she did in Guadalupe. It was Charles who sent Magellan and his men to make the first voyage around the world.”

This kind of open, honest, and true presentation of what makes the West and our heritage unique and the kind of values that led to democracy and human rights is not at all explored in the vast majority of schools and universities today. In fact, despite being among the foremost scholars in their fields, don't bet on Dr. Carroll or Father Gruder being invited to mainstream campuses any time soon.