Origins of the Protester Mindset 2020

Replacing the morality and ethics emphasizing personal freedom and responsibility and family values were new programs designated as Moral Values Education. Educators argued that unless moral values are freely chosen by students, they are invalid. Now moral values are up to the student−not those of the family or community−"no right and no wrong". The protesters at Innisfail indeed had their own moral values, and clearly, they were not those of that community.

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Recent developments with Black Lives Matter and "Cancel Culture" have helped me to appreciate the struggles I saw with my son and daughter going through their 20s and 30s. They told me Canada was the product of colonialism. We must not be judgmental. All cultures are equally valid. Although both made good choices and worked hard to establish themselves in their businesses, it was not until they were in their 40s that they were finally able reconcile what they were taught at home with the social indoctrination they experienced outside the home. After some twenty years of moral struggles they have found moral comfort.

What we are seeing in the protests and cancel-culture mobs appears to be young people with the same moral struggles, but with an appalling expression of confusion, hate and bitterness. A recent report by RebelNews on a BLM protest in Innisfail, Alberta exposed the indoctrination mantras of the Black Lives Matter movement (BLMM). "White silence is violence." "For you to tell me you are not racist is racist." With these slogans, BLM invaded Innisvail, a small, peaceful town in Alberta of mostly retired people accusing them of racism and police brutality. They were unable to cite a single example.

Who are these people? How did they become so imbued with disgust and hate for Innisvail? Because they were a multiracial mob, their personal beliefs and outcomes could have nothing to do with any specific race or other identifiable group. Bitterness and hate were clear from the four-letter words and generally abusive language. The few who appeared to be a little more educated and civil, whatever their education, it apparently failed to enable them to recognize that they were in a quiet community that was devoid of "systemic racism" or police brutality.

With no idea about what they can do to make theirs and other lives better, these protesters consumed by anti-white beliefs and self-hate joined the mob to redeem themselves and give meaning to their lives. Adopting the victim culture and virtue-signaling reflected as much bitterness for their current outcomes as for their cause.

The parallel with my own children is striking. It is tragic that these protesters appear to have been unable to reconcile their apparent education and socialization with the values that enable individuals to rise above bitterness, self-hate and blaming others. No one denies that that there are racist individuals in every race and every country on the planet, but that the US and Canada are "systemically racist" is absurd.

To understand the power of this education and socialization of young people, a review of the evolution of the public education system reveals many answers. For nearly 100 years now, education has been influenced by the "Humanist" John Dewey who focused on the student's experience and not traditional instruction and learning. He emphasized the goals of social unity and the egalitarian and collectivist state. He rejected moral values derived from religions. Dewey's Neo-Hegelian idealism ideas developed the classroom as a laboratory for grooming generations of self-centered moral relativists (clearly influential with my children).

In The War Against the Family: A Parent Speaks Out, William Gairdner describes Dewey as a student of "the Wundtian redefinition of 'education' to mean feeding experiential data to a young brain and the nervous system, rather than the teaching of mental skills, led to the abdication of the traditional role of the teacher as educator. Its place was taken by the concept of the teacher as a guide in the socialization of the child." Gairdner also explains how 'education' policy in Canada and the US has been manipulated to please the ideologues in our society, mostly without the knowledge of the parent or taxpayer nor the knowledge of the average teacher. The average teacher he laments, "brave soul...likely marched into the profession eager to improve the world by educating children, unaware of the radical political assumptions behind much of the learning theory instilled during teacher training."

Replacing the morality and ethics emphasizing personal freedom and responsibility and family values were new programs designated as Moral Values Education. Educators argued that unless moral values are freely chosen by students, they are invalid. Now moral values are up to the student−not those of the family or community−"no right and no wrong". The protesters at Innisfail indeed had their own moral values, and clearly, they were not those of that community.

Reinforcing the protesters' "moral values" would have been the ubiquitous promotion of "self-esteem" and its unburdening of guilt if in conflict with the values of the family and community. How better to assure graduates lacking moral compass and sound social adjustment? Indeed, a recipe for delinquency and rebellion-in the form of protests like those widely witnessed today.

Adding to this progressivism in the classroom, students today are also reading deceptively rewritten accounts of history and voila-a breeding ground for hatred of who we are because of our [falsely interpreted] history. This can only ensure generations of graduates who believe their ancestors were evil colonialists who kept slaves and committed genocide. Ergo, our country is the product of systemic racism. We must take to the streets and condemn our country and prove we are not evil like our forefathers.

A "cancel-culture" protest was held by some 200 anti-colonialism protesters at City Park Kingston, Ontario. David Menzies of Rebel News describe them as more like "thugs". They were there to demand the removal of the statue of a "Father of Confederation" and our first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald statue. Menzies commented, "Oh, you didn't know? Apparently our first prime minister was a racist and a white supremacist and was obsessed with carrying out genocide." For questioning these-foulmouthed protesters why they were there--products of revisionist history-he was assaulted.

From the public education [indoctrination] over the last several decades we have successfully produced not informed and thoughtful graduates, but misfits and alienated individuals, or like my children, young adults struggling to reconcile the values of family and community versus the ideas of moral relativism and the egalitarian state.

A review of the BLM website reflects an organization dedicated replacement of the US republic with a Marxist utopia. Its three founders were all LGBTQ activists and supporters of Antifa. Spokesperson, Alicia Garva is an avowed Marxist who advocates strongly against heteronormative thinking and the nuclear family-the fundamental unit and the soul of human love and a caring community which underly Western Civilization.

The real tragedy at Innisfail and Kingston is the moral struggle and despair in the lives of these protesters. Their hearts are in the right place, but they are not equipped with the tools of truth and critical thinking to overcome their suffering, bitterness, alienation, and hopelessness derived from their "education". They lack moral compass and sound social adjustment. With no sense of the values that enabled Western Civilization to provide a moral and free society they have no idea about how to make theirs and other lives better.

Even with a loving family providing children with morality and community values, the outcome can be either confused young adults like my children or alienated and bitter individuals lacking any sense of family and community-the 2020 protesters. It is time for a complete overhaul of education and a return to teaching factually and thoughtfully with strong emphasis on love and family values. We can no longer afford to continue indoctrinating recruits for the BLM movement, cancel-culture and Antifa.

Gordon Miller is a retired business owner and management consultant In Ottawa, Canada.