Sept. 16, 1996

For the past 35 to 40 years, otherwise-unrelated elements of our society have allied themselves in a common cause. Forces in education, medicine, government bureaucracy, the entertainment industry, big business and the "New Age" philosophy movement have banded together, sometimes intentionally, more often by happenstance, for one purpose: to change the way America — and the world — think.

This movement stems from the radical behaviorist teachings of B.F. Skinner, who held that the concept of "free will" is false, and that all human beings are, to some degree or another, controlled by others. It was his view that scientists were best-qualified to exercise this control.

His views were quite unpopular at the time — America was, after all, waging the Cold War against the Communist menaces of Russia and China, and any theory advocating "total control" of society was anathema.

Nonetheless, his teachings found followers. Those disciples realized his view of a Utopian society could not be implemented overnight — nor, with any degree of success, in American society as it existed. The thinking of society had to be changed from the ground up, through methods which could remain effectively undetected:

• Through the educational system;

• Through the medical and mental-health professions;

• Through a partnership with greedy capitalists, eager to exploit markets around the globe without fear of political, ethnic or racial instability destroying profits in far-off lands;

• Through the development of cumbersome government bureaucracy, which — once in place — would become more and more difficult to dislodge, and would in itself breed more and more dependency on those same institutions;

• Through the marvelous new medium of television and expanded communication, using the entertainment industry and news media to disseminate the Utopian propaganda. Orwell’s "Doublespeak" has proven prophetic.

We can see this hidden movement at work every day in America and the world: the liberalized educational movement and "Outcome-Based" education; the prolific explosion in the number of psychiatrists, psychologists and other "mind-healers;" the "Political Correctness" which now perverts virtually every public utterance or written paragraph; the sudden development by huge multi-national corporations of a "conscience," and the disaster caused by an American social-welfare system which has effectively predestined millions of a new generation to be forever enslaved to the federal government.

The end goal of all groups is the same: to bring about a Utopian society to benefit all of mankind — a society in which, of course, their particular group is among the very few wielders of real power. It will be a society where the scientists, educators, government bureaucrats, corporations and artists reign supreme over the great unwashed masses of ill-educated, "mind-diseased," subservient people.

There is no real "organization" to this movement; since it is based on cooperation and interdependency, its proponents see no need for a "leadership." There are no clandestine, back-door meetings in which revolutionary fervor is preached. As such, it is a movement which will be hard to stop.

Fortunately, the Utopians have made a critical mistake: they have underestimated their enemy. They have abandoned subtlety.

In its haste to implement Outcome-Based Education and OBE’s associated social agenda, the Texas Education Agency has attempted to circumvent the very clear directives of our elected lawmakers and the Governor as regards the direction of education in this state. The TEA has foolishly assumed that parents — and voters — have grown complacent enough to allow such a takeover.

In that, TEA has made a fatal error. People are seeing through the "review" process it is staging for the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. We are not stupid; we recognize blatant propaganda when we see it.

Some have suggested the TEKS need to be rewritten. I would suggest that someone other than the TEA do the rewriting.