Haven’t Gotten the Memo? It’s Coming

Haven’t Gotten the Memo? It’s Coming

Published in Marietta Daily Journal (GA) May 27, 2023

It’s sad when an individual knows little or nothing about his or her parents and family background. If one doesn’t know from where or from whom he or she came, then one doesn’t really know who he or she is.

            At the personal level, ignorance of one’s origins is sorrowful, but at the national level it is downright dangerous. An individual with uncertain parentage can survive by making friends and creating a family of friends, but a nation must have far more connections such as a considerable measure of common culture: common values, traditions, and a body of known facts about its founding. If not, tribalism reigns.

            The diversity/global gospel is driving America to tribalism. Thus, the constant verbal warfare on television “news” and our ubiquitous division. Genuine diversity is one thing, but using the term diversity as a Trojan horse is another.  Indoctrination of every ideology under the sun will eventually mean death to America. Diverse means unlike. The question is how much unlikeness can we take without committing cultural suicide?

            That question has nothing to do with race or one’s national origin. From the start America has always been a nation of nations. The question has to do with ideology. As Wall Street Journal columnist Gerard Baker recently put it, “We in the West are in the grip of an ideology that disowns our genius, denounces our success, disdains merit, elevates victimhood, embraces self-loathing, and enforces it all in a web of authoritarian rules.” We in the West are also yielding to the cry that science is subjective, gender is a spectrum, and that universities must aggressively pursue diversity, equity, and inclusion. Forget intellectual growth.

            Ponder Baker’s statement above. Count the times you have seen members of Congress on television claiming victimhood, denouncing capitalism, putting America down, or clamoring for reparations for a sin none of us have ever committed.

            Our problem is our prevailing forgetfulness and the silence of those who actually haven’t forgotten. Forgotten is 1776 and knowledge of what the American Revolution was all about. We’ve forgotten that Western Civilization, birthed by the ancient Greeks, cradled more than is realized by the Romans and perpetuated by the British, is the foundation upon which America rests. Alas, we’ve forgotten that there’s no civilization without civility.

              Recall Jesse Jackson’s famous appearance at Stanford University in 1992. Leading a crowd of protestors at Stanford, he chanted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Western Civ has got to go.” Jackson and his clamorers were protesting Stanford’s “Western Culture and Humanities” emphasis, the university’s effort to beef up its Western Civilization curriculum. Actually Jackson was ahead of his time. Using the term long before it was cool, Jackson argued to Stanford administrators that Western Culture was not “diverse” enough. Of course Stanford did what universities and corporations do best. They caved. Forsaking their broad constituency and caving to the few who screamed the loudest, literally, Stanford’s administration changed their “Western Culture” program to “Our Many Cultures.”  That 1992 moment of cowardice was the beginning of what we have today: denial of a cultural identity and surrender to loud progressive voices who  wish to give the nation a make-over with their soft tyranny, one that would bring tears to Jefferson, Madison, and every other framer. Soft tyranny never stays soft for very long. Reread Constitutional Amendments I, II, IV, VI, and X and see if you think they have been infringed or ignored.

            Yes, the memos are being sent out, not just from universities to students, telling them how they must view this, that, and the other, but from corporations as well. But from Fox Corporation? Yep! And CVS, Kohls, Target, and you name it. Don’t forget banks. Even Goldman Sachs, that lion of global investment banking, has joined the growing line of cultural revolutionaries. Goldman’s memo to its employees calls for “rainbow pronouns” such as “ze,” “zir,” and “zemself.” God help us when such foolishness reigns.

            In recent decades Western tradition, particularly its Judeo-Christian underpinnings, has been targeted by memos. Its philosophical cornerstone is under assault. Sexuality, science in general, jurisprudence, higher education, and now the youngest of elementary school children are all affected by the handed down memos: “This is how we will from now on address each other.” “Here are words you must not use.”  “Show respect for LGBQT.” Etc.

            The memo wheel is well greased. If you work for a corporation, an educational institution, or the federal government, your memo is coming. I beg you to resist. And please tell your kids and grandkids who and what they are: they are – for right now – the envy of millions around the world who risk their lives to get to America.