January 12, 1997
Ebonics --
- A plague? No.
- A geometric shape? No.
- A new kind of computer? Nope.
- A language or dialect of English, spoken primarily by black Americans, the descendants of slaves forcibly imported from Africa in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries? I know that's what you thought, but the answer is still, NO.
- A device for extracting billions more dollars in education funds from the federal government? YES, now you have it!
All unuttered truths become poisonous.
... F. W. Nietzsche
"Slumkey forever!" roared the honest and independent.
"Slumkey forever!" echoed Mr. Pickwick, taking off his hat.
"No Fizkin!" roared the crowd.
"Certainly not!" shouted Mr. Pickwick.
"Hurrah!" And then there was another roaring, like that of a whole menagerie when the elephant has rung the bell for the cold meat.
"Who is Slumkey?" whispered Mr. Tupman.
"I don't know," replied Mr. Pickwick, in the same tone. "Hush. Don't ask any questions. It's always best on these occasions to do what the mob do."
"But suppose there are two mobs," suggested Mr. Snodgrass.
"Shout with the largest," replied Mr. Pickwick.
Volumes could not have said more.
... Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers
The human brain typically ends up looking very much like what it is fed. If you nourish it with the classics, reason, and morality, it will grow deep, strong, and good. If you allow the mind to gorge itself on television, it will know televisory truth and attitudes, but have a warped appreciation of the real world. If you fill the brain with rap music all day and night, it will reflect the values and attitudes of rappers towards work, women, and dope. If you dump socialist apologetics into it, it will become the mind of a parasite and a victim.
And if you stuff a mind with newspapers, what will look like? Of course, you got it right: a trash bin.
Good night, America.
Is you did you Latin yet?
... overheard from a high school student, ca. 1972
"There they go again!"
It has become a comic opera: each time the fires of one controversy are damped down, a new conflagration explodes. This is no accident. Every new right, every new issue and cause that Liberals propose is part of a program (which they call progress), not necessarily conscious and coordinated, but deliberate, to drive a wedge into the values of Americans, to assault a weakly-defended portion of the wall that protects the philosophical heart of American freedom and moral and intellectual standards.
So it is with this puerile claim about Ebonics (jive) being a distinct, inherited language that renders its native speakers unable to learn standard English. Barren of any trace of scholarly support, the case for bi-lingual English-Ebonics instruction is simply another insidious device for political outrage. It will pass, maybe without leaving a mark, only to be replaced by another, equally preposterous cause. Or, it will succeed in some measure, and our defense against the Statist doctrine of order and the philosophy of moral chaos will be proportionally weakened.
The important thing to understand is that these issues are tools. One searches in vain for the philosophical fabric that connects concern for Ebonics, old-growth forests, assisted suicide, homosexual marriage, the snail-darter, labor unions, and all the other junk in the Left's tatterdemalion grab-bag of causes. They are all ammunition for the Left in the war to defeat reason and install socialism. In this case, the Left cares less about black students' heads than about department heads. What the Left knows with certainty is that self-sufficiency and intellectual maturity are the enemies of their program. So, they mind the maxim: when your sword fails, pick up your ax.
...Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: and when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.
... John 2:13-16
Civility -- the very thought of Liberals demanding civility makes me want to froth. Civility is like peace: all tyrants want peace, so that they will be left alone to carry out their butcheries undisturbed. Naturally, the world's most brutal dictators all vigorously support a peace movement. And you know what? it works. People on the Left are so stupid or so treacherous that many of them have agitated on behalf of the dangerously absurd notions of unilateral disarmament, peace at any price, and moral parity between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The Left cheered and made excuses as cities burned, riots tore up the streets, and protesters threw blood on police and called the president a baby-killer. So why do these same people all of a sudden want civility? Just two months ago, they were characterizing their opponents as murdering the elderly, enriching themselves off the poor, and starving children. That creaky, old Stalinist and sanctimonious windbag, the dishonorable Member from Florida, Sam Gibbons, stood up in the House and called the Republican balanced budget proposal, mean: mean to children, the elderly, and the poor. (I suppose selling our children into the bondage of debt for the next fifty years, just to pay for your political phantasms, is not mean, Rep. Gibbons.) So, why ask for civility now?
The brain-dead city I live in (Dallas) has a matching brain-dead newspaper that last week printed a brain-dead editorial bemoaning how uncivil we are to one another, parroting the left-wing leadership like a chorus of useful idiots. Their solution to the "growing incivility" is to run an advertising campaign consisting in billboards placed around town bearing a single word, such as, "Caring," "Responsibility," "Trustworthiness," "Respect," "Citizenship," "Fairness," and so on, as a "reminder of our core values." Notice that no actual virtues were named, such as, Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude, Faith, Hope, and Charity; just derivative or para-virtues, like caring, respect, and citizenship: the watered-down milque-toast of an ad-man's morality. Standing up for what is right, honorable, truthful, and just, is missing from the list, because a citizenry that stood up for what is right would not put up with the city government we have, nor with the birdcage liner that calls itself The Dallas Morning News. (Actually, my bird won't tolerate it, either; he insists on back issues of The New Republic. And so, silly me, I give in.)
The salubrious belief that the political atmosphere requires a return to civility comes from those who are threatened by incivility, namely, the thieves in Congress, the crooks, dopers, and scoundrels in the White House, and most of all, the bumbling, well-intentioned architects of socialism, who desperately need to silence their critics. Civility will let them pretend in front of the cameras that transfer payments are not theft, that Social Security is not a swindle, that the first amendment wasn't really supposed to protect political speech, that gun control is not the thin edge of tyranny, that the IRS is nothing at all like Louis XVI's tax-collectors, that the proponents of socialism are not really the mortal enemies of freedom, that the Left is not actually looting the public treasury to enrich themselves and their causes, that Bill Clinton really cares about each and every one of us, etc., ad nauseam.
There not being any polite way to call someone a corrupt, lying traitor, civility will require us to be silent as the administration sells out our country's security and future on the world market just to line their pockets. Since such words as "chiseler" and "mountebank" are impolite, at best, civility will not permit us to characterize properly the administration's various financial plans, for instance, the Medicare so-called reform. And in view of the response that the term, "howling jackass," is likely to receive, civility means that we shall have to shut up in the face of this recent Ebonics nonsense, along with all the political correctness, the creeping environmental regulation idiocy, government oversight of every jot and tittle of our lives, the outrageous mismanagement of the executive branch, the vaulting ambition of the federal bench to reshape the Constitution into an instrument of social tyranny, the base corruption and thievery of the Congress, the elevation of perversion to a cherished social institution, and on, and on, and on...
I will give you incivility: Jesus, whipping the money-changers out of the Temple! (See Gospel.) Did He first sit down and discuss His feelings with them? Did He "dialogue" with them, as the saying is in today's idiotic diction? Did He negotiate, perhaps? Compromise? Submit the dispute to binding arbitration? Did He blame His outburst on His inner rage, later? No, he went out, fashioned a whip, and drove the self-servers out of the Temple by force, unapologetically. Was that civil? No, but then, there was something more important than civility at stake: principle, and the obligation He had (as do we all) to set things aright.
No, I will not keep silence. If that means that I am called uncivil, then I accept the accusation; I embrace it. If the press is saying that it is time to turn the heat down, that means that it is most likely time to turn the heat up another notch. Wickedness must be resisted, civility notwithstanding. Morality demands that one speak out against evil; truthfulness means contradicting lies; and virtue stands up for the rigorous application of the basic ethical standards of behavior, publicly and privately. The nomenclatura of American socialism want to enjoy their ill-gotten gains in peace, safe from the raucous outcries of their victims and opponents; and so they ask for civility, to shut us up. But I will not, for the sake of civility, refrain from criticism. And neither will you, I hope.
Oh, and by the way, if Gingrich and the Republicans want to get out of trouble on that college course business, just give back the money. That way, it never happened, see? It works for the DNC.
Last month's homily on the Vincent Foster affair resulted in a veritable shower of mail. In light of the interest in this subject, and particularly, of the strongly-held opinions expressed by some of my readers, I want to improve or reinforce two points in my argument. First, I did not express with sufficient emphasis my sense of debt to Hugh Sprunt for his work on the CIR; it is a monumental accomplishment, and if the inquiry into the Foster affair is ever re-opened by an official body, Mr. Sprunt will be due some of the credit. He has done us all a great service. Second, when I said, in reference to the widely held theory that Foster was murdered on orders emanating from the White House, that I did not believe it, I meant only that I did not believe it in the specific sense of "beyond a reasonable doubt." As a juror, based on the evidence brought to light so far, I would have to vote "not guilty."
My state of belief is not fixed on any of the available theories, save that I do believe the Fiske Report to stand refuted, thanks in no small measure to Mr. Sprunt. This does not mean that I am not suspicious, or that I think it impossible to develop a more complete case, or that the evidence does not merit further investigation. On the contrary, it needs to be looked into by an official body, one with the power to review the evidence with skepticism and to compel testimony. We need to know the truth behind the strange facts of this case, and we should insist that our government provide the appropriate forum, fully insulated from any forces that might corrupt it.
The Foster case is very compelling, and its details could easily swallow up this minuscule publication. So, for the moment, I will drop this fascinating issue, so that we may pass on to other, perhaps less amusing, but nevertheless, important issues of the day. But I may return to it in the future. Please, feel free to write to me about this or any other subject; my education is not over yet.
The superstition of science scoffs at the superstition of religion.
... J. A. Froude
All contents © Copyright 1995, 1996 by Redmon Barbry ¶ 4:35 PM
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