Some time ago, an anonymous individual -- perhaps a "one time visitor" to MeanMesa -- submitted a subscription to Hillsdale College for the monthly publication of the college, "Imprimis." The "complete anonymity" of this benefactor of ours who took the time and made the effort to accomplish this task may, in fact, not actually been as "complete" as it first appeared. The "snail mail" mailing address of MeanMesa's Galactic Headquarters was also furnished to the, uh, Hillsdale College publishers, suggesting that this otherwise robust "blanket of anonymity" may have had a few "thread bare" patches in it.
Oh well, as Una Mae would say, "No one's cut up and bleeding."
However, this little jewel carries within it a few subtle undercurrents of less than scholarly, literary excess, that is, "undercurrents" which might, in a more frank literary arena, be considered little more than an odorous flood of "trailer park talking points." Notably, in this case, those "undercurrents" are very craftily (in fact if there is, actually, such a condition, we might go so far as to deem their insertion "remarkably craftily") juxtaposed among the material words of this superficially scholarly writing.
All these critical comments would mean nothing to a MeanMesa visitor if the actual content of the article were not also presented here. Consequently, what follows is precisely that presentation, copied from the HIllsdale College's Imprimis information site.
The conceptual justification of all this attention would be shallow indeed if it were the intention of MeanMesa to simply ridicule the efforts of this one case. Instead, the facts are that it is the intention of MeanMesa to present this case as something of an example in hopes that visitors who consider it will become even more objectively perceptive when they might encounter other, similar "Captain's Lizards in the grass."
There are plenty.
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Let's take a look at the first few paragraphs of this latest Imprimis offering. (Full text here )
About Imprimis
Imprimis is the free monthly speech digest of Hillsdale College and is dedicated to educating citizens and promoting civil and religious liberty by covering cultural, economic, political and educational issues of enduring significance. The content of Imprimis is drawn from speeches delivered to Hillsdale College-hosted events, both on-campus and off-campus. First published in 1972, Imprimis is one of the most widely circulated opinion publications in the nation with over 1.9 million subscribers.
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November 2010 Larry P. Arnn President, Hillsdale College |
Outline of a Platform for Constitutional Government
Larry P. Arnn, the twelfth president of Hillsdale College, received his B.A. from Arkansas State University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in government from the Claremont Graduate School. From 1977 to 1980, he also studied at the London School of Economics and at Worcester College, Oxford University, where he served as director of research for Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill. From 1985 until his appointment as president of Hillsdale College in 2000, he was president of the Claremont Institute, an education and research organization based in Southern California. In 1996, he was the founding chairman of the California Civil Rights Initiative, the voter-approved ballot initiative that prohibited racial preferences in state employment, education, and contracting. He sits on the board of directors of several organizations, including the Heritage Foundation and the Claremont Institute. He is the author of Liberty and Learning: The Evolution of American Education.
The following is largely adapted from remarks delivered on September 17, 2010, at the dedication of Hillsdale College’s Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C.
TODAY IS THE 223RD anniversary of the submission of the Constitution of the United States for ratification. It is the greatest governing document in human history. And on this day we dedicate our Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship near Capitol Hill here in Washington. Let me explain briefly why we are launching this center. The reason has to do with the times in which we live, and it has to do with the purposes of Hillsdale College.
The times are pretty easy to estimate. I’ll just mention two things about them that are astonishing and fearful. The first is that we have managed, in about the last 30 years of relative peace and unprecedented prosperity, to pile up a debt that rivals the one we piled up while winning the Second World War, the most disastrous and largest war in human history. And this debt is of a different character. The Second World War was going to end at some point, and we were either going to win and go back to living and working and pay off the debt—which is what happened—or else we were going to lose and then the debt would never be paid. In contrast, our debt today has become the ordinary way our government and our country operate. As my father, a schoolteacher in Arkansas and a wise man, used to say, it is the kind of debt that means it really doesn’t matter how rich we’ve become, because we can waste money faster.
The second sign of the times that I’ll mention is this: We have now a figure in the American government called the regulatory czar. Not only is it shameful and wrong for anybody in America to let himself be called that, he takes the title seriously. Indeed, he writes that some people should be allowed to regulate speech rights—to redistribute them, much as the government redistributes wealth—in the name of what he and his political allies regard as fairness. His is a far different kind of argument about speech than the one our Founders made, which was that speech is an individual right. His argument not only opposes the prohibition the founders placed in the First Amendment, which says that “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech,” it rejects the understanding of human nature that grounds the very idea of constitutionalism. James Madison summarized that understanding when he wrote in Federalist 51 that because men are not angels, they need government, but that government must be controlled and limited for the same reason. Because those in our government are men rather than angels, we must not allow them the kind of power that this regulatory czar desires and claims.
There needs to be an argument about whether Madison and the founders are right or this bureaucratic czar and his allies are right with regard to civil liberties, just as there needs to be an argument about whether our nation should keep piling up unsustainable debt. There is going to be an argument about these and other big questions in this city in coming years, and the Kirby Center will have a hand in that argument.
What then of the purposes of Hillsdale College? Those purposes do not change. The College was built in 1844. Just yesterday we had a meeting of our Board of Trustees, and we began that meeting, as we begin every meeting, by reading from the College’s Articles of Association. Those articles commit us to two things. The first is “sound learning,” learning in the liberal arts. This is the kind of learning that lets us answer such questions as: What do we mean by “the laws of nature and of nature’s God”? Who is this God? What is He like? What is man? What is he like? What do we mean by “nature”? These are the ultimate questions. They are the questions in virtue of which ultimately all of our choices are made. And it just so happens that human beings, ever since they have been writing things down, have been writing beautiful things about these questions, things collected in old books. The founders of our country, like the founders of Hillsdale College, thought that if we were to be able to read the Declaration of Independence, and follow its arguments, we would need to read some of these old books. We have always read them at our College. We are not only devoted, we are chained to the reading of them. They are in our core curriculum. There is no escaping them at Hillsdale.
So that’s one thing about the College. And the second is, as they say in the Bible, like unto it. The College is devoted in the first sentence of its Articles of Association to the principles of “civil and religious liberty.” These principles are America’s gift to the world. We are all of us products of that gift. We are not sons of dukes and earls—or of czars. We are Americans because of this gift. And signs are lately that Americans do not much want to give it up. This is a very hopeful thing.
Hillsdale College has always taught the Constitution and has always fought for it. Our teaching of it is intense, difficult, challenging. As for fighting, we are famous in modern times for a decade-long lawsuit against the federal government, and for the fact that we refuse to take money from that government. It is expensive these days, indeed increasingly so, for a college not to take federal money. But we believe that the price of taking it is dearer still.
No one should think, however, that in refusing money from the modern bureaucratic form of government that exists in this city today, we have forgotten our loyalty to the constitutional form that flourished here for so long.
There is only one way to return to living under the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the institutions of the Constitution. We must come to love those things again. And if we love them, then we will serve them. But we cannot love them until we understand them. And we cannot understand them until we know them. So the first step is to study them and teach them, and Hillsdale College comes to Washington meaning to do that. We aim to create an atmosphere in this city of the study and knowledge and understanding and love of the principles of America.
For one last "editorial" note before we begin to boil Dr. Arnn's essay "down to the bones," you may be interested in knowing a little more about Hillsdale College and its "educational project," the Kirby Center. Hillsdale itself is in the green woods of rural Michigan. The Kirby Center is in Washington, DC. The Google provides a very revealing "About Us" site for each one.
Hillsdale College - http://www.hillsdale.edu/about/default.asp
The Kirby Center - http://www.hillsdale.edu/kirbycenter/about/
Now, to the details noted in (orange highlight) President Arnn's paper. MeanMesa's position on each of these follows.
We have now a figure in the American government called the regulatory czar. Not only is it shameful and wrong for anybody in America to let himself be called that, he (1) takes the title seriously. Indeed, he writes that some people should be allowed to regulate speech rights—to redistribute them, much as the government redistributes wealth(2) —in the name of what he and his political allies regard as fairness(3). His is a far different kind of argument about speech than the one our Founders made, which was that speech is an individual right. His argument not only opposes the prohibition the founders placed in the First Amendment, which says that “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech,” it rejects the understanding of human nature that grounds the very idea of constitutionalism. James Madison summarized that understanding when he wrote in Federalist 51 that because men are not angels, they need government, but that government must be controlled and limited for the same reason. Because those in our government are men rather than angels, we must not allow them the kind of power that this regulatory czar desires and claims(4).
There needs to be an argument about whether Madison and the founders are right or this bureaucratic czar(5) and his allies are right with regard to civil liberties, just as there needs to be an argument about whether our nation should keep piling up unsustainable debt.(6)
1. The implication here is, of course, that President Obama is the "regulatory czar." Even after the recent violence done to the economy, Dr. Arnn's patrons must find themselves somewhat miffed at the idea of regulating bankers, hedge fund executives and Wall Street brokers.
2. Dr. Arnn's comparative extension of the process of "redistributing speech rights" to the process of "redistributing wealth" is an interesting one. This is precisely the basis of the Supreme Court's recent ruling in the Citizens United case. That decision defined the expenditure of corporate money to control the residents of the Senate and House as a valid form of "free speech," protected under the freedom of speech provision in First Amendment to our Constitution. As for "redistributing wealth," this is a process which has now been completed. The richest .5% of Americans now control wealth equal to that of the lowest 50% of Americans.
3. The choice of the word "fairness" is of interest here. The reference is to the deeply hated and feared (by those with aThis is the kind of learning that lets us answer such questions as: What do we mean by “the laws of nature and of nature’s God”? Who is this God? What is He like? What is man? What is he like? What do we mean by “nature”? These are the ultimate questions. They are the questions in virtue of which ultimately all of our choices are made.n interest other than fairness) "fairness doctrine" which might have required the use of public air waves to serve some public interest.
4. Here, Dr. Arnn refers to our legally elected President directly with the term "regulatory czar." (MeanMesa suspects that the term "regulatory czar" could have, in more private gatherings, been replaced with the term "Negro.")
5. The person Dr. Arnn cites as "this bureaucratic czar" refers to the President of the United States.
6. The threatening phrase "keep piling up unsustainable debt" is an interesting one. If the role of the "bureaucratic czar" is to be called into question with respect to the "unsustainable debt," does this imply that the most recent alternative to the present "bureaucratic czar" was somehow not responsible for most of the "unsustainable debt?" Dr. Arnn must be "banking on the hope" that the "critical thinkers" among the "1,900,000 recipients" of his essay have done absolutely no research on the question whatsoever. MeanMesa's proposition is that it would actually be quite difficult to never encounter the facts concerning the actual origin of the "unsustainable debt."
The second of the highlighted sections.
This is the kind of learning that lets us answer such questions as: What do we mean by “the laws of nature and of nature’s God”? Who is this God? What is He like? What is man? What is he like? What do we mean by “nature”? These are the ultimate questions. They are the questions in virtue of which ultimately all of our choices are made.(7)
7.This section of Dr. Arnn's essay is prefaced with reference to Hillsdale College as a liberal arts college. The following text is an interesting mixture of deific determinism, the nature of man and the political "choices" which will be defined by such "virtue" and will derive from such an authoritarian, supernatural amalgam. Here, Dr. Arnn, perhaps over generously, describes such an education as a "liberal arts education," suggesting that he may have not received the memo that all things "liberal" are vile.
And the second is, as they say in the Bible, like unto it. The College is devoted in the first sentence of its Articles of Association to the principles of “civil and religious liberty.” These principles are America’s gift to the world. We are all of us products of that gift.(8)
8. The emboldened version of "religious liberty" President Arnn cites in this statement empowers him to mix "religious" implications with political ad hominems into a new, heady version of "civil liberty."
This tragedy is not a lament on the invocation of his Constitutional rights to free speech so much as the implied authority of his words, the lack of logical support for the subtle claims he makes and the quiet suggestion that those claims are made legitimate by "religious liberty" rather than issues derived from a separated church and state.
We must come to love those things again. And if we love them, then we will serve them. But we cannot love them until we understand them. And we cannot understand them until we know them.(9)
9. Is President Arnn suggesting that rational, common sense Americans support the "principles of the Declaration of Independence and the institutions of the Constitution" because they "love" them? Worse, is the "love" of such ideals the exclusive condition of "serving them?" The "principles of the Declaration of Independence and the institutions of the Constitution" are designed to serve us! These represent an undeniably important "asset" we as citizens enjoy under the definition of the Constitution as a "social contract."
As Americans of course we can "love" our country. As for our Constitution, we support and defend it because we love ourselves! MeanMesa is not impressed with Dr. Arnn's version's final claim that "we cannot understand them until we know them." At this point, President Arnn's message becomes simply too creepy.
So, is MeanMesa "beating up" on Hillsdale's Imprimis unfairly? Hardly. In fact, although both HIllsdale College and Imprimis deserve all this battering for the drivel on its pages, this case is only the tip of the ice burg. Not only does the heavily soiled Imprimis deserve this treatment, every similar case of endless, repetitive, twisted "word salad" deserves it just as much.
The wrenching thought of hundreds of young students trapped in this Goebbel's style merry-go-round year after year when they should have been receiving some sort of actual education is troubling, indeed. The fate of these little "torpedoes" into the future has been utterly and completely sacrificed by the cynicism of men such as the good Doctor.
The future of the students -- and of the country -- has been selfishly sacrificed on this Limbaugh-like altar, gleefully exploited to guarantee the continuing viability of this sick little, pseudo-Christian tantrum while, in the constant "meantime," the whole rancid affair pipes the empty tune of "True Americans."
Here, MeanMesa must apologize for the hard facts of reality confronting us. Poisonous messages of precisely the same ilk as these words from Dr. Arnn are literally gushing out of blogs, print and air waves alike. In every case we are responsible for "noticing" the stench before we contentedly "open our mouths wide" to blindly consume it.
Post posting post script: We understand that this "detail grinding" post has gone on way too far for convenient reading. However, the point to be made here is not sufficiently visible without a "blow-by-blow" analysis. If it were an easy point to make, it wouldn't appear on Short Current Essays.
