Changing Society Through the Minds of Our Next Generation by Loretta Baughan
Brainwashing? Perhaps that isn’t a very PC term, but to those whose radical ideals would never be accepted by the mainstream, freedom-loving, Constitutional true believers, "give me liberty or give me death", red-white-and-blue Americans... focusing their efforts on our youth and using brainwashing - or coercive persuasion, as some prefer - is an option.
Techniques commonly seen, especially when targeting youth, is to establish the organization as a type of father figure. Dissenting views are not allowed. Ridicule and peer pressure are often encouraged to help shape opinion to support the group’s agenda. Slang or buzz words are repetitively impressed upon the recruits through the groups dogma - soon becoming a part of the members’ own vocabulary. Meetings and rallies create a sense of belonging... a sense of purpose... a sense of who they are. The organization vilifies the opposition through misinformation, by focusing blame and playing on the sympathies and emotions of their members. A demand for purity and confession of past sins is often required of members. The group’s beliefs are reinforced through propaganda. Disturbing... isn’t it?
Changing society through the minds of our next generation is not a new idea. It’s a technique as old as the inquisition. Throughout history, regimes such as Hitler and pre World War II Japan, the Soviet Union, People’s Republic of China and North Korea have used brainwashing techniques to control their populations. Following the Korean War, it was revealed that the Chinese conducted mind control experiments on US prisoners of war - later depicted in the 1962 movie, The Manchurian Candidate. Likewise, various cults - Moonies, Jonestown, Skinheads, Symbionese Liberation Army, Manson Family - and more recently, proponents of the so-called global warming crisis, which is based entirely on junk science designed to create a false sense of impending doom, have also used brainwashing techniques in an effort to alter people’s attitudes and beliefs through manipulation and deceit.
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"PETA has infiltrated our public schools, offering free lesson plans to teachers in every school, from coast to coast, under the guise of "humane education". These lesson plans do not teach, but rather, they indoctrinate our children and condition them to become the next generation of AR fanatics."
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Add to that list animal extremist groups who follow the beliefs that humans should not own animals, breed animals or use them in any way. Generally speaking, they have not been particularly successful at convincing mainstream America to join their cult. So groups like PETA have their sights on our children. PETA has infiltrated our public schools, offering free lesson plans to teachers in every school, from coast to coast, under the guise of "humane education". These lesson plans do not teach, but rather, they indoctrinate our children and condition them to become the next generation of AR fanatics.
One such "lesson plan" was created by a PETA group called Just Choices. The lesson, The Road to Social Justice,
equates racism, sexism and speciesism. It serves to elevate the so-called "animal protection movement" with the environmental movement and the civil rights movement. The lessons attempt to create the image that Peter Singer is as noble as Rosa Parks or Ghandi.
Who is Peter Singer?
That’s an interesting question. He’s a professor of bioethics at Princeton University’s Center for Human Values. He’s also authored numerous books - including one titled Animal Liberation (1975), considered by some to be the bible of the AR movement, which is recommended reading on a Just Choices worksheet... alongside Harriet Beecher Stowe’s "Uncle Tom’s Cabin".
Singer holds a highly controversial view that animals have the same moral standing as humans. He doesn’t believe that moral consideration should be based on the ability to reason or talk, but rather, if the being can suffer. According to his beliefs, unborn children and most impaired people are "non-persons" and rate a lower moral status than an ape. His radical dogma is disturbingly similar to the Nazi belief of "life unworthy of life".
The Just Choices Changing Minds, Changing Times worksheets are splashed with famous quotations from Helen Keller, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln and other great Americans as a means of legitimizing the AR ideals of "buy cruelty-free products", "buy animal-free clothing" and "eat vegetarian foods". Students watch a "social justice" video depicting a kid who interns with an AR group then "educates" - read recruits - other kids to the cause. Another decides to give up meat and become a vegetarian. A worksheet encourages students to write their own "personal commitment statement" along with a plan to fulfill their pledge.
Just because these groups provide free lesson plans, doesn't mean that teachers and schools should accept and use them. There is no true educational value in this lesson plan, but rather, it is a thinly disguised recruitment tool for the animal extremists organizations. I have to conclude that those teachers who choose to use such material are either demonstrating extremely poor judgment... or they are actively promoting that radical viewpoint - AR propaganda - especially if they are not balancing it by giving equal time to opposing viewpoints. Are they presenting information from the American Kennel Club, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Pheasants Forever or Trout Unlimited? How about Georgia Pacific, National Cattleman’s Beef Association, Pendleton Woolen Mills - or any of dozens of other conservation or industry based groups?
If not, these teachers are indoctrinating... not teaching.
As concerned parents, community members and Americans who support our right to own and breed pets we need to speak out. If you believe in the rights of pig farmers, dairy producers, poultry raisers, cattle ranchers - as well as homesteaders raising their own meat, restaurants being able to serve whatever they please and our right to eat meat, we need to speak out. Sheep, goat, llama, alpaca and rabbit wool producers - trappers and furriers, as well as leather manufacturing are threatened by the animal extremists agenda. Preserving our traditional rights to continue to hunt, fish, participate in hunt tests, field trials, agility, obedience and even within the show ring is at stake. If we wish to see our children and grandchildren have the right to enjoy the circus or rodeo, participate in 4-H animal projects and visit a zoo - we need to take action.
Those who believe that scientists should continue to be allowed to conduct medical research using animals for the betterment of humanity need to step forward.
We need to get involved to insure that our local schools reflect the values of our communities. Find out if your schools are teaching "humane education". If they are, speak to the teachers involved, the school administration and school board members about removing it from the curriculum and replacing such drivel with pro-animal educational programs that reflect mainstream America’s values.
Curriculum Lesson Plans and Educational Materials
- American Kennel Club Public Education - elementary and middle school children
- Cattlemen’s Beef Board and NCBA - basics on beef, nutrition, preschool-12
- Ducks Unlimited Educators - wetlands education grades 4-12
- Fur Council of Canada - trapping, history, all ages
- Fur Trade and Hudson’s Bay Co - exploring the fur trade, grades 5-8
- Georgia-Pacific Education in Nature - grades 4-5
- National Archery in the Schools Program - sport of archery, grades 4-12
- National Pork Board - pork 4 kids
- National Wild Turkey Federation Jakes Program - grades K-12
- North Carolina Assoc. for Biomedical Research - Rx for science literacy, grades K-12
- Pendleton Woolen Mills - educational materials, wool fibers in the making
- Pheasants Forever
- Project Wild - teach K-12 about the biology and ecology of elk
- Quality Deer Management Association - biodiversity issues, Living With Deer, grades 7-12
- Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation - conservation education for middle school children
- Weyerhaeuser - environmental education
Conservation Camp Programs and Activities
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Editor's note: Judging from some email I've received, it appears that there are some educators teaching in our public school system who have forgotten many of the vital principles that this great nation was founded on such as: the right to enjoy the pursuit of happiness, the right to free speech and the right to bear arms. These teachers may claim to believe in free speech - but only as long as it doesn't involve viewpoints opposing their own.
This article - and others I've written - are about preserving our right to hunt and fish, to eat meat, eggs and dairy products, to wear leather or fur, to enjoy horseback riding, to visit a circus or zoo or rodeo - to own a pet and breed it if we choose. I believe that researchers should be able to use animals in their quest for life-saving drugs, therapies and surgeries. These are all traditional, mainstream beliefs and attitudes that reflect the values of most communities in the United States. Animal rights organizations such as PETA, HSUS, and others, as well as some activist teachers, want to take these choices and freedoms away from people simply because these activities don't agree with their radical anti-animal viewpoint.
To the students who read this, if your teacher tries to ridicule you for a viewpoint contrary to theirs, report it to your parents, the school principal, administrators, school board, and if necessary, to local news media. Teaching should always be about helping students learn -- not indoctrinating them with the teacher's viewpoints.
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Loretta Baughan is the founder, editor and publisher of Spaniel Journal. She is an award winning professional photographer, webdesigner and owner of
the Autumnskye, LLC kennel. She raises, trains and hunts her English springer spaniels. She is a member of the Tilden Valley English Springer Spaniel Club. Loretta resides
in northern Wisconsin, with her husband, Steve, and their three children.
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