EclectEcon

In the "Destructive Generation", the authors document a phenomenon that took root during the 60's, sometimes called the "counter-culture" movement. ...

Before that time, patriotism and pride in our democratic society was a given. The veterans of WW 2 came home with a very clear understanding of the value of democracy. During the 1960's, the war in Vietname corroded that understanding. This book documents the critical people and the mechanisms by which it became fashionable to openly call for the destruction of our way of life. As the authors document, there was no really clear plan for what was to happen after the state was destroyed. There was almost certainly a dimly understood Marxist idea that the State would wither away and everyone would live in a paradisal commune. However, the book shows that the will to bring down the state was there, including the idea of financing and encouraging the "real" revolutionaries in the Black Power movement to lead the way.

This may seem very far from Canada, but in literature students studied the "anti-hero". History as a course disappeared, and "Society, Challenge, and Change" took its place. This watered down sociology course examined contemporary problems like racism, and social inequality. The message was always the same. The dominant order was corrupt and the only answer was to subvert it. One of the required texts at Althouse [teacher's] College when I attended was "Teaching as a Subversive Activity" by Niel Postman. (By the way, he changed his mind and wrote a book many years later calling for a return to a more classical, structured education!)

The most refreshing aspect of the "Destructive Generation" is the ability of two intelligent people to change their minds in the face of contrary evidence. They thoroughly document how they came to understand that they, and many members of the baby boom generation were just plain wrong. However, most of the population has not changed its mind in the face of contrary evidence. It clings to the cliches of half baked and sometimes fully baked(!) Marxism which expresses itself now in a chronic Canadian leftism which assumes that anyone with power, wealth, education, or privilege is by definition exploiting somebody. That is why they are so willing to wear a hair shirt. Any disaster, whether terrorism or even the activities of a madman at Dawson college, has to be examined for evidence of persecution and oppression. These people believe that the only explanation for any kind of evil is that the poor wretch was made to feel so bad that the only possible thing to do was to bomb a restaurant or bus, or shoot students at random in a school. ...

There is a real need for Western Societies to begin to pick themselves up and stand up for the values which they have evolved and defended. This book by Horowitz and Collier gives a very clear idea of how the destructive ideas took root, which is the first step to weeding them out!