ZGram - 1/26/2002 - "Discarding Truth"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

Copyright (c) 2001 - Ingrid A. Rimland

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

January 26, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

A friend sent this to me with these words:

"This is a good article that describes the creeps that testified against
Ernst in his trials - so-called 'scholars.' Its from Newsmax.com if you are
interested."

[START]

Discarding Truth

Paul Craig Roberts

Jan. 16, 2002

   There have always been liars, but until recent years liars were rare
among scientists and scholars. The only agenda scientists and scholars had
was truth. They didn't always succeed in finding truth, but it was their
goal.

 In recent years, we have seen the advent of a new breed of scientist and
scholar to whom ideological or political agendas are more important than
truth. Hoping to close two national forests, government scientists planted
evidence that the forests were inhabited by an endangered species of lynx.

 The scientists' dishonesty undermined a three-year study and confirmed
suspicions that some government scientists fake studies in order to control
environmental policy. Only highly politicized scientists would behave in
ways that endanger the authority of science.

 Scholars, too, have become enamored with causes that are more important to
them than truth. According to news reports, Emory University historian
Michael Bellesiles apparently believes so strongly in gun control that he
invented a history for the purpose of undermining the Constitution's Second
Amendment, the right of citizens to own guns.

 Bellesiles' politically correct book, "Arming America," was awarded the
Bancroft Prize, a prestigious award for historians. But scholars examining
the work say that Bellesides' conclusions are based on made-up and
nonexistent sources.

 Bellesides argues that gun ownership was so rare among early Americans,
even on the frontiers, that no one would have cared enough about the right
to give it constitutional protection. He claims to have studied many wills
and to have found scant evidence of guns being bequeathed to heirs.

 When skeptical scholars checked his sources, they found he claimed to have
studied wills of people in colonial Rhode Island known to have died without
wills. He also claims to have studied probate records in San Francisco for
the years 1849-59. The city's librarians, however, say no such records
exist. They were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.

 The appearance on the scene of scientists and scholars who betray the
public's trust in their integrity in order to advance ideological agendas
is frightening. It means that the enculturation of scientists and scholars
is failing in the graduate schools where they are trained.

 When the canons of scholarly objectivity become widely abandoned, truth
ceases to guide decisions. Public policy outcomes and court cases depend on
which side has the best propaganda and can more effectively demonize or
vilify the other party. Education becomes the propaganda of the group that
controls the schools.

 Indeed, education is already being pried loose from any relation to truth.
Marxists denied the existence of any truth by claiming that "truth" was
nothing but the expression of class interests - a claim that allowed
Marxists to ignore facts that undermined their arguments.

 Class Marxism has given way to Cultural Marxism, which claims truth is
just an expression of race interest, gender interest and sexual
orientation. According to these multiculturalists, there is a different
"truth" for men and women, heterosexuals and homosexuals, blacks and
whites, able-bodied and disabled.

 All these "truths" are claimed to be equally valid. Therefore, there is no
valid basis for defending American culture from an influx of Third World
cultures. Anyone who complains about the transformation of America into a
Tower of Babel is dismissed as racist or xenophobic.

 Cultural Marxism has achieved a dominant position in American education.
Consequently, there is a breakdown in enculturation. An appreciation of
Western civilization is not being passed on even to native-born whites
attending the best universities.

 Before our very eyes, history is being transformed into politically
correct fantasy. Everyone knows the photograph of the three white firemen
who raised an American flag on Sept. 11 on the rubble of the World Trade
Center. A 19-foot bronze statue of the photo has been commissioned for the
site - but first the race of the firefighters had to be changed.

 A statue true to fact is "insensitive" and "divisive." A clay model shows
one white, one black and one Hispanic.

 Firefighters are complaining that a historical event has been turned into
a politically correct event. Carlo Casoria, who lost his firefighter son in
the rubble, said, "They're rewriting history in order to achieve political
correctness." The multicultural reply is: "The artistic expression of
diversity [s]hould supersede any concern over factual correctness."

 Multicultural diversity has made such a hash of truth that the U.S. cannot
truthfully represent in a public monument the defiant response, burned in
every American's memory, to al-Qaeda's successful attack on the World Trade
Center.

 Is the next step to put us in re-education camps and erase our memories?
Or are the universities already doing that?

[END]

=====

 Dr. Roberts' latest book, "The Tyranny of Good Intentions," has just been
released by Prima Publishers.

=====

Thought for the Day:

"Not one person attacking WWII revisionists has ever truthfully stated the
revisionist position."

-- The Iron Webmaster, 367