A College Education
When George Orwell observed that there are things so stupid that only an intellectual would believe it, he wasn’t just whistling “Dixie.”
Ever since I went to college, I have known that, aside from those involved with math, science, engineering and medicine, professors were people who regarded themselves as intellectuals, meaning they knew a lot about a very little. They were people who could bore you for hours on end talking about Poland’s 19th century economy, Rembrandt’s brushstrokes or English madrigals.
When George Orwell observed that there are things so stupid that only an intellectual would believe it, he wasn’t just whistling “Dixie.”
If anything, things on college campuses have only gotten worse since he said it.
Yale’s School of Medicine invited New York-based psychiatrist Aruna Khilanani to deliver an online lecture. She told her online audience that she entertained fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any white person that got in her way, “burying their body and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away, relatively guiltless, with a bounce in my step. It would be like I did the world a f—ing favor.”
I wouldn’t say she would necessarily be the worst blind date I was ever on. But I would say that any patients who sign up to be treated by Ms. Khilanani need to have their heads examined.
Just for the record, Senate Democrats used the filibuster 300 times in 2020 as a means of opposing Trump’s agenda. But, suddenly, in 2021, Schumer and his stooges have decided that, along with math, science and proper English, the filibuster is racist.
Several weeks ago, before Trump’s announced visit to the border dictated that Kamala Harris run down there, she told Lester Holt that while it’s true she hadn’t been to the border, she also hadn’t been to Europe.
As non sequiturs go, it was a pip. After all, Joe Biden hadn’t announced months earlier that he was putting his V.P. in charge of Europe.
All these weeks later, nothing has changed. She has been to Texas for a photo op, but since El Paso is as close to the border problem as she got, she might as well have gone to Paris or Rome and at least scratched Europe off her bucket list.
Apparently, large portions of our population are so woke that captains of industry can say the most outrageous things and not have it damage their bottom line. If anything, one must assume that when someone like Nike’s CEO John Donahoe says “Nike is of China and for China,” he’s actually hyping sales of his overpriced, slave-made, sneakers.
It’s hard to believe that in the late-1930s, an American manufacturer could have said that “Widgets, Inc., is of Nazi Germany and for Nazi Germany” and not suffered any personal and financial consequences.
Just further proof of our nation’s moral decline.
Even more appalling was hearing the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley nattering on like a fledgling social worker about white rage and grasping the niceties of Critical Race Theory.
In spite of the uniform and the eight pounds of medals, he hardly came across like a leader of men. Actually, he came across like his first name should be Milley.
Ever since Bill Clinton became the Commander-in-Chief, it’s been my feeling that promotions in the officer class go to those who have shown the greatest capacity for brownnosing their military and political superiors. It’s folks like Gen. Milley who have convinced me I’ve been right all along.
Paul Rodriguez wrote to say that apparently Joe Biden seems determined to use his copy of the Constitution to line the bottom of his parrot’s cage.
He suggested I mention that the Constitution is not a list of suggestions but is actually federal law. I’m happy to oblige, but I’ve done the same with the Ten Commandments without affecting any change.
I keep thinking that after half a century in public office, Joe Biden must have read the U.S. Constitution at some point. But then he says, as he did during his speech blaming gun dealers for the soaring murder rate, that, even in the early days of this nation, Americans couldn’t buy cannons. That did send me scurrying back to the Constitution, but I didn’t see any mention of cannons.
I was taken aback when he said that if the American people ever decided to overthrow the government, even one that had gone totalitarian, we should keep in mind that it would be our leaders who had all the nukes.
I had grown accustomed to Russia, China and North Korea, being nuclear threats. This was the first time I realized that the federal government needed to be added to the list.
After I mentioned that I had a hard time swallowing some of the 13 pills I’ve been prescribed, one of my readers let me know that her late husband suffered from the same problem. His doctor suggested that he try bending his head down as he swallowed the pills. “Doing so elongates the esophagus. Please don’t sue me for practicing medicine if this doesn’t work for you.”
I replied: “Bending my head forward might elongate my esophagus, but it would seem to prevent swallowing. But don’t worry about my suing you. It would be my in-laws who would sue you after I croaked trying to swallow pills while standing on my head.”
While I was touched by all the cards and get-well emails I’ve received from you folks, the message that made me laugh the most came from Jackie Breedlove, who ventured that as happy as I was to be home, she assumed that the staff at the hospital were even happier to see me leave.
I assume she assumed correctly.
Bob Hunt passed along a list of the 10 worst Americans of the past eight decades. Some of the obvious names on the list, which I first saw about six or seven years ago, were the Clintons, Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy, LBJ, Barack Obama and Walter Cronkite.
Mr. Hunt wondered if I thought Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger belonged on the list.
I let him know I definitely did.
It was the two of them, both deep-dyed globalists, who did so much to bring China out of isolation and into what is foolishly referred to as the Community of Nations, which is not a community in which I’d choose to live.
We have seen the results of their half-witted attempt to be revered as statesmen. Fools always believe that totalitarian governments will behave decently if only given half a chance. They are as tragically naive as those like slap-happy Dianne Feinstein who believe that if the police are disarmed, criminals will follow their example and not use guns in the commission of their crimes.
Every so often, someone will ask me why I seem basically optimistic even though I spend most of my time discussing the failings of the world.
To tell you the truth, I don’t get it, either. Perhaps it’s the fact that in spite of the cancel culture and the censors of the Silicon Valley, I still get to write whatever I like.
Perhaps part of it is that I actually believe that in the end, good will overcome bad.
I suppose if I were to write a sequel to “The Story of My Life,” I would consider calling it “The Optimistic Cynic.”
You can email Burt directly at [email protected].
