The conclusion of the Fort Hood
murder trial, the New York City Mayoral Race, and Medical Marijuana, three
seemingly unrelated recent news stories do have a common thread. They all
illustrate the power of ideology to create a fantasy world divorced from
reality.
Many years ago when I was a
teacher at a small college in Connecticut, a fellow history faculty member was
working on his PhD dissertation in the field of modern Chinese history. The subject of his dissertation was an
examination of the newspapers and periodicals read in China during the time of
Chairman Mao, the Communist dictator.
In his studies he found that
periodicals read by ordinary Chinese contained largely factual articles about
life in America of about the same kind that could be seen in then popular
American magazines like Life and the Saturday Evening Post. On the other hand,
the journals read by the Communist party leadership and intelligentsia
contained the most blatant propaganda and outrageous lies. Apparently, the
party leadership believed that it was only necessary to brainwash themselves in
order to achieve their goals. It was only through their own ideology that they
would see the rest of the world.
In similar fashion the American
political, intellectual and cultural elites have been brainwashing themselves
for years. The main print source has been the esteemed New York Times with the
influential Washington Post running second. Other large city newspapers especially
in blue states usually adhere to the party line.
Let’s look at these recent
stories. The Army officer who killed 12 soldiers and one civilian while
wounding many more at Fort Hood in 2009 was finally convicted of murder last
week. From the outset it was clear that he was an Islamist fanatic but the NY
Times steadfastly followed the lead of the Department of Defense in calling his
rampage an act of “workplace violence” instead of an act of Moslem terror. Why?
The mayoral race in New York City
is also providing examples of political ideology at work. Not one candidate in
the Democrat primary will dare to support the so-called “stop and frisk” policy
that the NYPD has used so successfully over the past few years to make the City
one of the safest of the Nation’s largest cities. Despite the facts and the
overwhelming evidence a NY judge has ruled that the policy involves “racial
profiling” and is therefore unconstitutional. In the name of civil liberty the
judge has overruled a policy that has led to the confiscation of thousands of
illegal guns and kept many thousands more off the streets. Statistics also show
that thousands of lives have been saved as the murder rate has dropped
dramatically. Most of these lives have been saved in the black and Hispanic
areas where violent crime is most prevalent. None of the mayoral candidates
will support Mayor Bloomberg’s appeal of the judge’s decision. What is the
objection?
The mayoral race also demonstrates
another aspect of the prevailing ideology. A self admitted sexual exhibitionist had the lead
until recently when repeated acts of exposure have finally caused his
ratings to dwindle. Still, he advertises himself as the one candidate tough
enough to save the city. Since the time of President Bill Clinton’s affair with
Monica Lewinsky it has been a staple of the prevailing ideology that someone’s
private life has nothing to do with his or her ability to lead and govern. This
didn’t help former Presidential candidate John Edwards when he cheated on his
wife but New York Democrats like Anthony Weiner and Elliot Spitzer are
apparently ok. For myself, I could never understand why voters would trust a
man to care for them when they have cheated on their wives. Typically, in these cases the wives are asked to stand by their man in the interest of the greater good. Only an ideology
completely divorced from reality can explain it.
Liberal Connecticut also supplies
another good example of ideology triumphant over reality. The State is in the
process of implementing a recently passed medical marijuana law. My local
newspaper has championed this cause and headlined the case of an elderly woman
whose eye disease has been seemingly helped by marijuana. Never mind the fact
that granny would have to smoke a joint every hour on the hour to match the
effect of surgery for her glaucoma, what about the other obvious dangers.
Marijuana is a much more potent carcinogen than cigarette smoke. One joint is
the equivalent of 20 cigarettes when it comes to cancer. Nevertheless, the
current ideology holds cigarette smoking in contempt but marijuana is the
choice of many intellectuals and entertainers. Cigarette smoking is banned
virtually everywhere but popular entertainers can show up on TV openly
endorsing recreational pot smoking in the same way that entertainers of old did
for cigarettes and alcohol. Realistically, smoking marijuana is much more
dangerous than smoking cigarettes.
Only ideological brainwashing can
make someone abhor the use of cigarettes but cheer the use of marijuana. After
all, cigarettes are made by big bad tobacco companies while marijuana is grown
by the common man. I am not in favor of banning Marijuana but if Justin Bieber were to show up on SNL smoking an ordinary cigarette, just imagine the public outcry.
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