Ignorant Berkeley Liberals

If you are forced to listen to a liberal for more than two minutes, you will learn how intellectually superior they are.  They will tell you that they are better educated and smarter than any mouth breathing conservative. 

Many are indeed educated beyond high school .  I long ago learned one of the most important lessons in life and that lesson was learned outside the hallowed halls of academia.  That lesson is that education means nothing by itself.  In other words, even the best of education is wasted on people who simply have no common sense.  It is wasted on people who, for all their letters after their name, cannot connect the dots between two concepts or end up connecting the wrong dots.  Knowing how to read and write, do quantum physics and the molecular structure of a virus are all nice things to know and might save humanity someday.  But a college education ain't always what it's cracked up to be.  I admit, I don't have a college degree.  You won't see me in a courtroom playing Clarence Darrow or in a hospital doing brain surgery.  Despite my lack of a sheepskin from some "institute of higher learning" (that phrase always makes me laugh), I know how to connect a dot or two.  I understand cause and effect.

In Berkeley, CA, the average resident has more education than I will probably ever have.  I'm sure that many of them are responsible for many things in our lives that make them easier and more enjoyable.  There's a lot of smart folks in Berkeley.  It's the home of UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Hall of Science, Space Sciences Laboratory, and Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.  There's some really smart folks running around that town and yet, for all that high octane intelligence, they cannot connect the dots between their freedom to go to school or to do their research and the fact that a strong, well trained, disciplined and professional military force stands watch in order that they might have that freedom.

When they look at someone in a military uniform, they don't see someone with courage, a deep understanding of what it means to be an American.  They don't see someone who has a sense of duty and honor.  They see something else.  They equate someone in a uniform with some of the more baser and disgusting elements of society.

In Berkeley, they are trying to make it as hard to open a recruiting office as it is to open a porn shop.

In response to a Marine Corps recruiting office established in Berkeley last year, local activists are trying to make it more difficult for future recruiting centers to open in the city.

If passed by a majority of Berkeley voters, a proposed initiative would require military recruiting offices and private military companies in Berkeley to first acquire a special use permit.

To obtain this permit, a business must hold public hearings and a public comment period.

If the initiative passes, recruitment offices could not be opened within 600 feet of residential districts, public parks, public health clinics, public libraries, schools or churches.

And yes, they do equate it with a porn shop.

The author of the initiative, Berkeley-based lawyer Sharon Adams, modeled the initiative after current zoning law that restricts the location of adult-oriented businesses.

"In the same way that many communities limit the location of pornographic stores, that's the same way we feel about the military recruiting stations," said PhoeBe sorgen, an initiative proponent (emphasis added)  and a member of the city's Peace and Justice Commission. "Teenagers that really want to find them will be able to seek them out and find them, but we don't want them in our face."

You see, for as smart as these people claim to be, they are as ignorant of the military as I am of quantum mechanics.  The difference is you don't need a PhD in physics to understand the cause and effect relationship between the military and freedom.  They see the individual military members and think they are the war mongers.  They see them as violent, evil and corrupt.  They see the military as evil right wing death squads who revel in torture and blood.  They are blind.

They have absolutely no concept of a civilian controlled military. To them, a military uniform is representative of fascism and most of them wouldn't know a fascist if one goose-stepped up to them and slapped them.

I could sit here and type pages about the military, foreign policy and how it relates to the individual soldier, the politicians and society.  On the other hand, I can sum a lot of it up with this:

It's the soldier, not the reporter who has given us
Freedom of the Press.
It's the soldier, not the poet, who has given us
Freedom of Speech.
It's the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the
Freedom to Demonstrate.
It's the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the
Right to a Fair Trial.
It's the soldier who salutes the flag, serves under the flag and
whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who gives the protestor the right to burn the flag.
~Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, USMC

For all their degrees, this simple piece of prose was somehow left out of their education.

The men and women of the United States Military stand guard so they can be ignorant.

Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin

VW

Comments

[The Caricatured]

This is where an education could have helped you, in the study of philosophy. You attempt here to reduce those against the opening of recruitment institutions as seeing the recruits themselves as evil. The is a gross oversimplification of an entire group of people, namely those you are analyzing (if we can call it that) in Berkeley. According to you, those "wide-eyed" liberals, "see the individual military members and think they are the war mongers. They see them as violent, evil and corrupt. They see the military as evil right wing death squads who revel in torture and blood. They are blind." You go on to add that a person doesn't "need a PhD in physics to understand the cause and effect relationship between the military and freedom."

I cannot speak for all, but I would imagine that a greater majority of those opposed to the limiting of recruitment centers see the situation as one where blame may be placed on those that send military personnel to war (those in power who do the sending), and to fight the wrong wars for the wrong reasons, wars where those who are being recruited by the score go and die, over 4,000 of our boys and girls have already left us. You are free to have a debate with any liberal about whether the Bush Administration has fought the wrong war and whether he has lied numerous times to sell that war, whether profiteering is actually behind Bush's talk of liberating countries that he invades, but to reduce all liberals to having the opinions you sketched above is a caricature of the highest order. Any intro to philosophy class would show you its grotesque misrepresentation of another group's views can't and doesn't hold water...doesn't count as "connecting any dots" at all except the ones you fancy for yourself as rigorous. In other words, you beat up on a straw man.

[Violence Worker]

You seem to think that my lack of a degree implies that I have not read anything more intellectually stimulating than a comic book. They do see the military as evil. One need only to see the graffiti left at the current marine recruiting office where they call the recruiter a war monger and call the military assassins.

Treating a recruiting office like a porn shop is NOT addressing national policy. I would bet good money that even if we were not involved in a war, these people would be doing the same thing.

If you don't believe that, then you are as blind as they are.

The left as an inherent dislike and distrust of the military in this country and they have a history of saying so.

I don't believe I misrepresented the majority of their views in the least.

Connect those dots.

VW

[BobF]

You also must go back to your studies of Communism in PME Classes. Remember that in a Communistic society, it was the highly educated that ruled and would be accorded special privileges. That's one of the reasons the higher levels academia embraced Communistic philosophies.

[Just another Republican]

Well I like how its all well and good for The Caricatured to guess Berkley's elite's meaning but its "caricature of the highest order" when VW does it.

The difference is, VW provided proof, where as The Caricatured had to use the phrase "but I would imagine"

[The Caricatured]

Right, because VW's "proof" consisted of interviewing every single liberal in Berkeley. What a crock!

[Violence Worker]

OK Genius, I didn't interview every liberal in Berkely. I can't do that. I have a real job. But I can make educated generalizations based upon certain things. First, Berkely and environs tend to be very far left of center. Second, they have a history of liberal activism. and third, unless the newspaper was irresponsible or biased to the right (which in some liberal minds would equate to the same thing), the newspaper did not indicate that they talked to anyone who was against this measure.

Connect the dots.

The real issue besides your strawman of my generalization is their attempt to regulate recruiters like a porn shop.

Do you support such actions?

VW

[The Caricatured]

Do I support such actions?

No. I believe that to treat recruiters in the same way as we would regulate porn shops is far too extreme.

On the other hand, I do believe that this war has been badly mismanaged [and lied about], and that we need to start to shift our focus. Those on the left that you cite above are trying to shift our focus, but they just are going about things in the wrong way.

You undoubtedly will not agree, but I believe that the standpoint that "we need to shift our focus" is far more central than the two extremes in the spirit of your post [your point of view, or the right's versus the Recruiter's Office As Porn Shop point of view]. Sometimes the military needs a break to replenish, or to attack the true threats. I imagine we will have a fundamental disagreement as to whether Iraq is the true threat [I hope we would not disagree about this! but...se la vie], and therefore I will now bow out of this discussion.

[WMD_Maker]

The left and the MSM have so degraded amreica to the point that someone who actually in an industry where evil physical labor is done (construction, plumbing, manufacturing) is stupid and worthless. To them if you dont have a degree you know nothing. In my industry there used to be a position called a drafter. Usually a kid out of high school who would make drawings from a designer or engineers sketch or layout. Now the same positon of responsibility requires a BS degree even tho the actual responsibility hasnt changed. I do have to admit that most of the new BS degreed engrs are no smarter or better prepared than the kid out of HS was 20 yrs ago.

A BS in business is worthless unless you want to work at McDonalds. Its getting to the point that an MBA is worthless too, now it gets you a starting position not an advanced position.
A liberal arts degree is for those who have the money to waste because the only job you can get with one of those will take you 5 yrs to pay for 1 yr of school. So 4 yrs of school makes 20 yrs to pay for school. Nice career!!!

[Violence Worker]

First off Caricatured, this post was not about the war. Second, I'm glad that you don't agree with many of the folks out in Berkeley.

In any case, thank you for your comments.

WMD: The whole educational system in the US has been dumbed down. College used to mean something and now that a degree is so common, it's almost worthless. My step-son has a masters degree and he is finding that if he wants to teach at the college level, he must have his doctorate.

VW

[BobF]

The daughter of a good friend got her Masters in child psychology a few years back and started with a school system for $33,000 per year. When this friend wrote to tell me of her daughters job, she was ecstatic. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I paid for my son's 3-week truck driving school and he started out at $38,000 per year. This year he made almost $50,000.

I'm all for college and higher education but you don't always need to to be successful.

[MOGS]

A college degree has been reduced from "higher education" to little more than job credentialing

I find it hard to believe that most of the paid work out there actually requires a four year degree to conduct effectively.

Am I saying that college degrees are the right only of a priveleged few? Hell no, but I am saying that we ought to reassess just what the hell those 4 years and tens of thousands of dollars are _for_

Truth be told, I tend to trust people with VoTech and associate's degrees more than anything else these days - they have pieces of paper that can generally prove they can _actually DO something_, as opposed to type a lot, talk a lot, and regurgitate a lot.

Most of us can't even EXPLAIN the simple principles behind our technology (making it effectively magic), can't do simple math and quantitative analysis that used to be the province of junior high school students, can't name more than two or three presidents, but boy, our self esteem is high, we know all about diversity, and feel good for accomplishing precisely nothing.

We can't change our own oil, change a tire, put up drywall, can barely change a light bulb, but boy, we can sure think....

we can run up millions of dollars in personal debt, and not know how to live within our means, but somehow have all these fancy degrees.

Yeah, I got a beak with the modern education system, a system which seems to teach people precisely how to _do_ not much of anything.

I live near a Big Ten school - I ain't all that impressed. Yeah, I have a bachelor's degree, and I just started a master's program too, but I can also tell you that I'm going to seek out some training in how to weld.

Much like Pidge, I need to know that I can DO SOMETHING, in addition to use my vast and cool intellect...

If there were any classes that would have saved me some serious pain and suffering through trial and error, a decent home economics and basic automotive class would have done wonders for my teens and my twenties even, and obviously for millions of others, if the news is to be remotely believed.