Managed truth: The great danger to our republic

Abstract

French social critic Frederic Bastiat (1801–1850) once said, “The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended.”[1] During much of the history of our republic, our intellectuals and those who digest these ideas for consumption by the general public did a poor job of defending the basic foundations of our freedom. Until the 60s, it was taken for granted that private property, absolute moral principles, and free enterprise were desirable. But while these things were based on a foregone conclusion, few were adequately prepared to defend these ideas against the modern liberal intellectual assault. Those intellectuals, such as Richard Weaver, M. E. Bradford, John East and Russell Kirk, who had an intimate understanding of human freedom, did not have access to the popular media or most university curricula. The left saw this as a great weakness to be exploited primarily by attacking these institutions in the universities and colleges, knowing it would capture the imaginations of our youth during their formative years. Parents trusted these institutions to inculcate these basic ideas of freedom – they were betrayed by these institutions of learning. But two events allowed the left to instill serious questions in our youth's minds concerning these foundations: the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. Both of these events were couched in terms not to correct social evils or perceived errors in our leaders’ judgment, but rather they were designed to attack the whole fabric of our social organization, especially our moral foundations, our economic system, and the rule of law based on natural law. As we shall see, this did not begin in the 60s, but in fact, began over two centuries before.