Learning Behavior
by R.C. Sproul Jr.

Patriotism is a learned behavior, sort of. It is learned in the sense that it is not something innate. It's not as though we are born with a deep love of sin, and a deep love of our country. But it's not learned in the sense that such is something we study. Rather it is something that comes to us through a host of unconscious mechanisms. It comes on us, but in the same way that the flu virus comes upon us. Only it is more debilitating.

Among the issues in the school wars is the issue on history. On the left are a host of historical revisionists who use the discipline as a means to insert their liberal assumptions into the heads of the little tykes. There is a more passive version of this, and a more aggressive. The more passive is the mere ignoring of our history. Here students are taught all anyone could possibly want to know about George Washington Carver, all the while learning nothing at all about George Washington. The more aggressive will tell us about George Washington, but it's all bad news. The kids are warned not to be like George, because of all his right wing views.

"Conservatives," of course, object to this kind of propaganda. No, they insist on the same old propaganda that they got when they were in school. They want the tykes to learn about what a bunch of saints our founding fathers were. They want them to genuflect anytime one of the approved heroes' names is mentioned. The left wants a daily litany of repentance for all politically incorrect crimes; the right wants all the children to proclaim their faith to the state.

My concern, as usual, is not so much with the lunny left. I'd rather have children learn to be suspicious of the state for all the wrong reasons, than love their country for all the wrong reasons. Rather my concern is with the truth that we respond to the important matter of how we view our country without thinking. We feel, and feel strongly, but we do not do so deliberately. And when the right plays into this, it creates slaves, rather than lovers of freedom. When we adopt the tools of the left, we find ourselves sliding their way in a hurry.

I noticed this phenomena years ago when I held the conviction that one ought not to vote. I reached that conviction (which I have since jettisoned) because of my belief in the power of the vote. I didn't vote because I took the power of the vote more seriously than those who did vote. I couldn't make myself vote for Republicans because I would fee responsible for what they did. The Social Security tax increase that Reagan passed, that would be my fault. The Americans with Disabilities Act, that would end up on me if I voted for Georg Bush. Those Supreme Court justices appointed by those men who refuse to protect the unborn would have been placed there by me. I take seriously those bumper stickers that read, "Don't Blame Us, We Voted For Jeff Davis." But what struck me, as I sought to persuade others of this point of view, was the almost robotic response: "You must vote. You have a duty to vote." It often came out like some magic mantra. And when I asked why I had to vote, I got a repeat of the mantra. "It is your duty." It was rather scary. There was no evidence brought forth as to where this duty came from, no verses quoted to demonstrate that God requires this. There was only the repetition of the thesis.

My theory was that these folks had been brainwashed. And I still believe it. The same thing continues to happen when I challenge the notion of pledging allegiance to the flag. What struck me there first was the assumption by my friends that I had the burden in this argument. Somehow people opposite me in this debate seemed to think that I had to prove that we shouldn't do it (which I was happy to do), rather than their duty to defend this solemn vow they wanted me to take. It seems natural to us to swear allegiance to a flag, and the non-existent republic for which it stands but only because we've all done it so many times. It seems normal because they made us do it every day when we were too little to argue about it.

Suppose that every child in the country, every day of the week patted their head and rubbed their tummy. Don't you think that we'd still all do it as adults? Wouldn't people look at you funny if you suggested that such wasn't necessary? Don't you think such would be frightening? Suppose that all our land was taxed to apy for having this done. I'm not suggesting that horrible things would happen if we all rubbed our tummies and patted our heads. Heck, maybe some good would come out of it, fewer full headed men to make me envious. But when we are brainwashed we ought not to be so concerned with the content.

This is how governments operate. We are in the throes of an Orwellian nightmare, but dreaming through a Huxleyan dose of soma. It is much more efficient to gild a cage than it is to reinforce its doors. And so much harder to persuade the birds to flee their captivity. Especially when the birds are trained to sing on cue, like Pavlov's dogs, that they are in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

If you want to be free you must be deliberate. You must search out the unspoken, and too often unexamined assumptions that frame the course of your thinking on these issues with appropriate fear and loathing over a state that would was the brains of its littlest citizens. And if you don't want to be free, do nothing, and think nothing. If the government wants your opinion, they'll give it to you.