I am certain we can all come up with more to add, but John Hawkins of Townhall.com has gathered a list. Here are his top ten:
1) Our Congress passes bills that run into the thousands of pages; then we’re surprised that the bills are full of loopholes, set asides for lobbyists and toxic clauses no one seemed to know about.
2) We’ve replaced telling the difference between right and wrong with legalisms; then we’re surprised that people are always looking for loopholes and technicalities to get out of fulfilling their obligations.
3) Feminists denigrate men, tell them to behave more like women and are offended by chivalry; then they’re surprised to find that our society has been inundated by passive, wimpy beta males.
4) Congress hasn’t produced a budget in more than 3 years, most of the big bills don’t go through the normal committee process, and parliamentary maneuvers are used to block debate and keep Republicans from offering amendments to bills; then we’re surprised when we have gridlock, filibusters and massive fights over the debt limit.
5) We allow politicians to work as highly paid lobbyists after they leave Congress; then we’re surprised when they give favorable treatment to companies they hope will make them wealthy after they leave Congress.
6) We demonize big business, pile on the regulations, raise taxes on job creators and treat successful people like the enemy; then we’re surprised that the economy’s not growing.
7) Our first priority when it comes to schools is catering to the teachers’ unions, not educating our kids; then we’re surprised at the poor quality of public education in our country.
8) We allow communists, terrorists, and people who hate America to be public university professors in this country; then we’re surprised when our college students graduate without understanding how this country works and what made it great in the first place.
9) We celebrate victimhood; then we’re surprised to see people faking hate crimes.
10) We have abundant oil supplies on our own soil that we don’t drill; then we’re surprised that gas prices are so high.
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Thomas Sowell expands on #7 and #8:
Many years ago, as a young man, I read a very interesting book about the rise of the Communists to power in China. In the last chapter, the author tried to explain why and how this had happened.
Among the factors he cited were the country’s educators. That struck me as odd, and not very plausible, at the time. But the passing years have made that seem less and less odd, and more and more plausible. Today, I see our own educators playing a similar role in creating a mindset that undermines American society.
Schools were once thought of as places where a society’s knowledge and experience were passed on to the younger generation. But, about a hundred years ago, Professor John Dewey of Columbia University came up with a very different conception of education — one that has spread through American schools of education, and even influenced education in countries overseas.
John Dewey saw the role of the teacher, not as a transmitter of a society’s culture to the young, but as an agent of change — someone strategically placed, with an opportunity to condition students to want a different kind of society.
A century later, we are seeing schools across America indoctrinating students to believe in all sorts of politically correct notions. The history that is taught in too many of our schools is a history that emphasizes everything that has gone bad, or can be made to look bad, in America — and that gives little, if any, attention to the great achievements of this country.
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