The White House web site has published the text of the speech Obama intends to give to public school students nationwide tomorrow.
I find nothing blatantly offensive in Obama’s remarks. Frankly, after the outcry (and hastily revised accompanying classroom materials), it would surprise me if I did. (I do find it interesting that the speech was only available 24 hours in advance, and suspect substantial revision has occurred.)
There is plenty of fun to be had with Obama’s omnipresence and its remarkable resemblance to how the leaders of totalitarian states behave, but Mark Steyn has already slapped that one over the wall. (Go read that piece. It’s a scream. I hope I can have a drink with Mr. Steyn one day.)
The speech does, however, drip with the creeping statism I suspected it would. It’s important to do well in school, because Your Government needs you:
You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
Got that? I want you take responsibility for your education, students, because you must serve the collective effectively.
Now even given that some of these stated aspirations are rather political, do I have a serious problem with them per se? I do not. I do wish, however, that the dreams of the individual, and the rewards of their fulfillment, received the same rhetorical treatment, rather than a cursory mention.
The free pursuit of self-interest is the greatest engine for progress there is. It is okay to desire the trappings of security, comfort, and fun, and it is okay to be happy when you receive them as a result of your hard work.
Of course, I’m becoming a fringe lunatic anymore for thinking that way. We all know that good things come from government giving them to us, not from government staying out of our way so we can get them ourselves.
Near the close, we get this gem:
Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn.
Obama casually equating himself with me, Lea, and our sons’ teachers, in terms of their/our respective roles in our sons’ educations, is preposterous and thoroughly disingenuous. I really don’t care for the President of the United States, no matter who s/he is, to pretend to have any sort of individual relationship with my child.
Were our boys of high school age and able to think more critically, we might look at this speech together. Tomorrow, our kindergartener and second-grader will pass. (Aaron’s teacher is skipping it altogether; we haven’t heard from Nathan’s teacher, but he’ll be going to school with an “I’m skipping the speech” note tomorrow in case he needs it.)
__________
“I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.” — Ronald Reagan
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“The free pursuit of self-interest is the greatest engine for progress there is.” So we should admire and applaud the AIG CEOs, the lobbyists and politicians in bed with Goldman Sachs, the guys who repackaged bad depts and sold it ten times over…I mean, they are clearly the kings of self-interest and took all their fellow citizens allowed due to a giant wallop of self-interest. What about the war-profiteering guys at Halliburton? Does selling the pentagon paper plates at $28 per qualify as self-interest? I think it does, and so I disagree that self-interest is the greatest engine for progress…I think too much self-interest is a recipe for self-destruction. I think a balance of self-interest with selflessness is a much better recipe for progress.
As for our country/government needing the current generation of students to study and study hard, all you have to do is realize that China has more honors students than the U.S.A has students to realize the truth in that…all you have to do is look at the current state of the Ares I rocket…China’s going to the moon, and we can’t get back there because we can no longer make the math work…in that respect, I fully agree that our country/government needs the help of a new generation of students that rank higher than thirty-something in the industrialized world…these kids are going to be working in missile defense, CIA, NSA one day…if all they know is rap lyrics and Xbox, where will that leave our country? In the dust, I imagine. And the dust is already starting to taste pretty yucky right now. But, that’s just my opinion…respectfully submitted for your consideration 🙂 Flame suit’s on, so feel free to tear it apart…enjoying reading all the viewpoints here, no offense taken at rebuttals.
JoeC: I suspect you and I differ profoundly on what “selflessness” is, and where it comes from. (Hint: I think it NEVER, EVER, EVER comes from the government confiscating from one and giving to another.)
The decline in education, and the results of that decline in education re: our ability to compete in the world, has been steady over the last 4 decades, which, coincidentally, are the 4 decades where government has been most involved with education.
Bo: Maybe we do disagree; While I don’t think a dictatorship confiscating from one and giving to another constitutes selflessness, I do think a society that decides to contribute a portion of their wealth for the betterment of all does constitute a bit of selflessness. But, for me it all goes back to pure capitalism versus pure socialism, and why I prefer a balance of both: Pure capitalism leads to more situations like an unregulated Wall St. run amuck, as we’ve just experienced a bit of. Pure socialism takes away any incentive to work or make things better. But a good balance tends to offer the best of both, in my opinion. And that’s why I disagreed with the “free pursuit of self-interest” you and Rand talk about 🙂 (I did like the book, just disagreed with some of her philosophy) I’m more in favor of a “regulated pursuit of self-interest.”
JoeC: Right now, our government takes from one and gives to another. (Are your taxes voluntary? Mine aren’t.)
I’ll even assume for the sake of argument that a substantial majority of the country is fine with the current taxation system, and move to effectiveness. How much spent on the war on poverty? Is poverty gone? How much spent on the war on drugs? Are drugs gone?
How much spent on education? What’s the current state of it? On what basis could I possibly get excited about a larger federal role?
Our government owes us an environment in which we can succeed. It does not owe us the success itself.
I like the idea of sending Jake to school, letting him listen for about two seconds, then stand up and start screaming at the top of his lungs over and over, “LIAR! YOU”RE A LIAR!!! YOU”RE ALL LYING TO ME!!! LIES! LIES! LIES!!! ARRRRRGH!”
I have no basis to believe that any of this is a lie from the President, but I do think it’d be funny and probably a free trip home. That’s me, always thinking…
The speech is vanilla as it can be. I think it’d get better response if Pikachu or Miley Cyrus was reading it.
BamaDan: LOL at the picture you have painted…
There is nothing blatantly offensive in the speech. I said as much. My acute problem with it is best exemplified by the two passages I quoted, and that being the (mild) case, it’s easy to argue I’d have been better off leaving it alone.
But I also said I suspected substantial revision (and man, I’d love for someone or another to run off to The Washington Post with confirmation of that). I think the nature of the accompanying classroom materials (pre-revision) is a good indicator that this was supposed to be a bigger (ideological) deal than it’s ultimately turning out to be.
You know the fable about the frog and the scorpion crossing the river, I assume.
Nathan’s teacher didn’t show it either.