Dewey, Hegel, and Modern Education

“The school is primarily a social institution. Education being a social process, the school is simply that form of community life in which all those agencies are concentrated that will be most effective in bringing the child to share in the inherited resources of the race, and to use his own powers for social ends. Education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.”

John Dewey
My Pedagogic Creed

1.) In order to interpret this correctly the reader must understand that Dewey was a Hegelian in his philosophy. Hegelians believed that the State is the idea of universal Spirit in the external manifestation of human Will and that the universal Spirit was God becoming. Hegel said,

“The State is the absolute reality and the individual himself has objective existence, truth and morality only in his capacity as a member of the State.”

Simply put, for Hegel and later his disciple Dewey, the State was God. This is important to understand for Dewey’s education is not child centered but state centered. We see this in the quote above with the repeated references to the word “social” serving as the adjective for the subsequent noun. For Dewey, the Hegelian, “social institution”, “social processes” and “social ends” means “state institution,” “state processes,” and “state ends.”

This is where the gulf of misunderstanding between modern parents and the educational system begins. Parents believe a child goes to school to learn skills to use in the adult world, but Dewey states specifically that education is “not a preparation for future living.” The Dewey educational system does not accept the role of developing a child’s talents but, contrarily, only to prepare the child to function as a unit in an organic whole — in blunt terms a cog in a wheel of an organic society. Whereas many Americans have moral values rooted in the individual, the value of the school system are rooted in the Hegelian concept of the State as the absolute.

That Dewey is channeling Hegel can be seen by yet another quote from Dewey,

“Education consists either in the ability to use one’s powers in a social direction or else in ability to share in the experience of others and thus widen the individual conscienceness to that of the race”

In each case the individual is lost in either the left wing Hegelian collective of the State (i.e. — social direction) or the right wing Hegelian collective of the race.

The point to be taken in all this is that modern education is geared towards training the child to be a cog in the machinery of a State that has become so overarching that the society, and every individual in it, is identified with the State. When children go to school they are being trained against Christianity which opposes the State as God.

2.) When Dewey says that “education is a process of living” he means to communicate that education is to the end of molding little people into the stream of societal consciousness. Students, in modern education, are not trained to think critically, or prepare for future living, they are trained in how to be good citizens. In contemporary education public schooling has the teleology of creating Borg. It does not have the teleology of training independent thinkers.

The New Proletariat & The Obama Presidency

The question of who would be the chosen people to destroy the old world was answered by Marx as “the proletariat.” However, Herbert Marcuse complained that “the proletariat (working class) had become a support for the system,” and Jean Paul Sartre observed, “what is a proletariat if it is not revolutionary? And it is, indeed, not Revolutionary.” In light of the “compromise” of the former proletariat Marcuse advocated reconstituting the proletariat in a different direction. Instead of depending on the working class to be the “revolutionary bringing shock troops” a different proletariat would be formed that would be comprised of disenchanted minorities, filled with Marxist envy, having been convinced that the Christian WASP bourgeoisie had done them wrong. This core minority proletariat would be joined by students, academia, feminists, and the pervert class to form the new proletariat that would take down the remnants of the old Christian order. This group of people (most of them no more than useful idiots) will be those used by the cultural Marxists to accomplish their long march through the institutions.

It is this new proletariat that Obama is trying to form into a coalition that can propel him to election in 2012. The deception of 2008 will not work again and so Obama has forsaken the white middle working class completely and is seeking to ride the new proletariat to power. You see this new proletariat at every turn. On MSNBC you see it in guys like Joe Williams, Martin Bahsir, Tour’e and Melissa Harris,

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/07/04/melissa_harris_perry_talks_slavery_imperialism_in_segment_on_july_4th.html

Indeed MSNBC should be viewed with the understanding that it is the informational water carrier for the “anti-Christian new Proletariat.

The current Obama administration can not be understood apart from this filter. From Eric Holder’s decision to not prosecute the new Black Panthers for voter intimidation, to the gun running of “Fast and Furious,” to Obama’s early indicting of the “Cambridge cops who acted stupidly,” to Obama’s comments that “If I had a son he would look like Trayvon Martin,” to the usage of ACORN as a political vehicle, to the Obama administrations taking Arizona to court for their immigration policies, to Obama granting amnesty to about 1 million illegal aliens, to the passage of Obama-care, to Obama appointing the “wise Latina” Sotomayor and the Lesbian Kagan to the SCOTUS, all of this is about empowering the new proletariat to overthrow the remnants of WASP culture and people. In point of fact the citizen who can not or will not understand the dynamic of the new proletariat in this country will not and can not understand the Obama Presidency.

Through The Centuries, From The Greeks & The Incas, To Today, Wherever You Find Socialism You Find,

Throughout history where ever you find Socialism, there you find at least these four phenomenon.

1.) Abolition of Private Property

This includes not only material wealth but also includes immaterial wealth such as our lineage, heritage, and family identity. As there is no private property there is no private property wherein you have a sense of ownership of anything or anyone moving back into the past, or forward into the future. This denial of private property therefore means the individual is cut off from their past and their future. The purpose of this is so the individual can only define themselves in keeping with the State who owns them.

2.) Abolition of Family

Wherever you find the success of Socialism there you find the break down of both the extended and nuclear family in favor of a atomistic social structure that does not allow the family to congeal into a unit that identifies itself vis a vis the State. The destruction of the family is done by a immorality that fractures the family bonds and so redefines the import of stable family structures.

3.) Communality or Equality

Socialism always aims a integrating all into the void. It builds a social order that is a machine and so while it may allow for different cogs to exist in the machine all the cogs are equal and are easily replaced by other trained cogs. Equality applies to the two areas we’ve already mentioned. Equality is striven after in private property among all citizens (except the elite) and all perverted types of family ordering is seen as “equally” valuable.

On the communality factor commonality of wives is often a feature in Socialism as well as commonality of living quarters. Think Kibbutz in terms of living. Think Hippie love ins in terms of commonality of women.

4.) Abolition of all religions that compete with the religion of Socialist Humanism

Socialism is the anti-religion religion. Socialism insists that it is not a religion while attacking religion in general as being a blight upon humanity. As it attacks religion in general it subtly advances itself as the anti-religion religion

God’s 10 Words As His Character & Satan’s Antipodal Character

By way of opening this morning I want us to consider how Scripture portrays the violation of the 10 commandments as being Characteristic of the Devil. Scripture teaches us that God’s Law-Word is the Character of God so we should not be surprised that in are enemy the Devil we find a person whose Character is defined as being the antithesis of what God’s Law-Word establishes.

I open with this because I want us to understand that we either live as Children of God who walk increasingly in His character or we walk as Children of the Devil who walk increasingly in His character. The more we refuse to reflect Christ, who was the incarnation of God’s Law, the more we reflect the Devil who is the antithesis of God’s law.

In the words of the old Bob Dylan song …

“You’re gonna have to serve somebody. Now it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord but you’re going to have to serve somebody.”

1st Word

God said, “Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods before me

The Devil aspired

Isaiah 14:13 You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;[a]
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’

2nd Word

God said, “Thou shalt not bow down to worship false gods”

Contrary to God’s explicit word Satan tempted Jesus to fall down and worship him.

Matthew 4:8-9 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

3rd Word

God said, “Do not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain”

We learn in Job that Satan’s goal in his affliction of Job was to have Job curse God

Job 1:11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”

Further, we find the Devil taking God’s name in vain when he quotes Scripture to Jesus during Jesus temptation. He cites God’s words for his own twisted end, using God’s words to undo God’s authority.

4th Word

5th Word

6th Word

God said, “Thou Shalt Not Kill”

In Scripture we find the Devil as,

John 6:10 — The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

John 8:44 — “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies

7th word

8th Word

God said, “Thou Shalt Not Steal”

In the parable of the sower it is said of Satan that he steals away the word sown

Elsewhere Jesus said of Satan

John 10:10 — The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Some scholars identify “The Thief” here as “The Devil,” while others identify “the Thief” as the Pharisees but as the Pharisees were directly identified as acting in ways consistent with their Father the Devil, it comes much to the same thing.

Further the whole story of Scripture casts Satan as the one who would steal God’s Glory.

9th Word

God said, “Thou Shalt not bear False Witness

But it is said of Satan

John 8:44 — “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies

10th Word

God said, “Thou Shalt Not Covet”

As we learned earlier on the 1st Commandment, Satan coveted God’s position as God

And we learn that the Sin that he plied in our First parents was coveting.

Fruit in the Garden … the desire to be as God

————-

This opening up of Scripture examines how it is that we reveal ourselves to be either Children of God or children of the Devil. If we are God’s people we will desire to walk in God’s character and confess before God and bring accusation against ourselves when we do not walk in God’s character.

However, it also opens up again our need as Christians for Christ and His Righteousness. We hear God’s law and we see God’s character in His law and we understand the requirement to conform to that character without fault or with the slightest deviation. And when we are honest with ourselves we understand that we must have a obedience to God’s character that comes from outside of us because even on those days we are most obedient in walking in God’s character we also see that it is not good enough. We are, with the Apostle Paul, the Chief of Sinners. And so while we esteem God’s law, we also look to the one who is our Law keeping righteousness that is acceptable before God, our Lord Jesus Christ who is to us our Wisdom, Righteousness and Sanctification.

And so the Law teaches us not only the Character of God that we are to walk in as God’s people, but it also teaches us that Christ’s perfect walk as God’s Covenantal Head for His people is that which we must hold fast to at all times as our only acceptability before God.

Similarly, when we look at Scripture we see the Character of Satan which is the antipode of God’s character and we understand that because we are Children of God, by the work of Christ alone, we are

22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

You see, as Christians we are to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God. And where do we learn of the likeness of God that we are to put on?

In Jesus Christ who was the incarnation of God’s ten Words.

And so we are the elect ones, who out of God’s sheer mercy and grace are covered in Christ and so being covered in Christ, and always being acceptable to the Father, we seek ourselves, as led by the Holy Spirit, to be miniature incarnations of God’s law word, increasingly conforming to Christ.

Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to have no God but God.
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to not bow down to and serve false gods
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to esteem the name of the Lord our God in vain
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to honor the Sabbath
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to honor our Parents
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to esteem life
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to remain chaste our whole lives
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to promote the advantage of our neighbor in every instance
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to be truth tellers
Like our Elder Brother Christ, it is our delight to be content with what God has appointed unto us

I John 3:8 teaches that Christ came to destroy the works of the Devil. In His death for sinners Christ destroys the accusatory work of the Devil who would bring charges (Romans 8:33) against the Saints. There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And in the resurrection life that Christ freely gives to us (Romans 6) Christ destroys the works of the devil in our lives and makes us increasingly walking exemplifiers of God’s character so that we are an attraction to those who are called of God and reviled by those who are of their Father the Devil.

The Church is to be the Character of God. A living embodiment of the reality that the strong man has been bound and God’s people have been set free to walk in newness of life.

Here we see the hope of global Reformation. When God is pleased to grant Reformation, we can expect to see the continuing defeat of Satan’s character at every turn and the establishment of God’s character in its place.

Socialism & The War Against Distinctions … Sundry Quotes

Capitalism developed the ever more inhuman polarization of the sexes. The cult of making distinctions, which serves only for oppression, is now being swept away by awareness of resemblance and identity.

M. Walser
Uber die neusten Stimmungen im Westen
In: Kursbuch, Bd. 20, 1970, S. 19-41.

”What will be the attitude of communism to existing nationalities?

The nationalities of the peoples associating themselves in accordance with the principle of community will be compelled to mingle with each other as a result of this association and hereby to dissolve themselves, just as the various estate and class distinctions must disappear through the abolition of their basis, private property.”

~ Frederick Engels in “The Principles of Communism”, 1847

“The equality of races and nations is one of the most important elements of the moral strength and might of the Soviet state. Soviet anthropology develops the one correct concept, that all the races of mankind are biologically equal. The genuinely materialist conception of the origin of man and of races serves the struggle against racism, against all idealist, mystic conceptions of man, his past, present and future.”

—Mikhail Nesturkh, Soviet anthropologist, 1959
“The Origin of Man” (Moscow)Mikhail Nesturkh, Soviet anthropologist, 1959:

This from Igor Shafareivich’s “Socialist Phenomenon”

“But with almost perverse consistency, most of the projections of Marxism have been proven incorrect. A better percentage of correct predictions could probably have by making random guesses…. we limit ourselves to three (examples) in order to underscore the typical and in most cases fundamental nature of the errors: the truth proved to be not merely different but in fact the opposite to that which had been predicted.

a.) The national question: ‘National differences and antagonistic interests among various peoples are already vanishing more and more and more thanks to the development of the bourgeoisie, to freedom of commerce, to the world market, to uniformity in the mode of production and in the corresponding conditions of life. The supremacy of the proletariat will accelerate the disappearances of differences.’

(BLMc commentary on Shafarevich quote) — So, we see the Marxists have always believed that due to their scientific Marxism Nationalities would be eclipsed. Marxist theory anticipates the end of ethnic and racial distinctions. As the worker (proletariat) comes to the fore National differences disappear. It is difficult to comprehend that in the Marxist believing of this, they would not have done all they could to bring this consequence about.