MIND CONTROL
Patriotism, hate and fear have long been government’s educational gifts to Americans
BY MIKE ZIGLER

Mike Zigler is editor of Liberty Watch: The Magazine. After serving as news editor at Las Vegas CityLife and editor-in-chief at the UNLV Rebel Yell, he currently directs internal communications on the Las Vegas Strip. Feel free to reach him at mikezigler@cox.net  Other stories by Mike Zigler

FreedomFest always serves as a time and place for me to feel ordinary. Everyone appears to have a cognitive grip on the real world and there’s plenty of civil discussion on Libertarian issues. Even more, it’s chock-full of seminars to invade with opinions in tow.

The festivities this year were held at Bally’s on the Strip, following the country’s July 4th celebration (of lost principles). I met plenty of worthwhile freedom-lovers. There was Mike Smithson, Speaker Bureau Coordinator for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition [LEAP]. His group fights the bogus War on Drugs. Incorporated more than five years ago, LEAP has grown from five founding police officers to a membership of more than 6,500. In total, 65 countries are represented by LEAP.

There were advisors, investors and natural-resource exploration companies. International banks, publishers and estate-planning companies also fancied FreedomFest. Material was plentiful in terms of Libertarian education — even on the subject of education. Take Moving Picture Institute, for example. I particularly enjoyed the message of the company’s premier film and primary FreedomFest promotion, Indoctrinate U.

American universities are considered great marketplaces of ideas. Young minds are free to think, speak and disagree. Or are they? Indoctrinate U explores just how free these free-thinkers are to digress from administrative agendas of higher education. What the filmmakers found was that any message that might intimidate the government-sponsored environment of education is not allowed. Yes, like joining a church, common thought must be in place and dissent (as well as money) must be checked at the door. 

Considered taboo by the masses, suppression of speech is not an acknowledged practice on campuses these days. Rather, administrators and their well-financed armies of university police claim to simply “cease harassment.” Just ask Nevadans for Sound Government. In 2004, this group sought signatures on UNLV’s campus (and at the DMV) to pursue a ballot measure to limit government spending. 

Apparently, signature gathering was a form of harassment, as members experienced First Amendment violations of the freedom to petition. One even went to jail.

In a litigious era when campuses, corporations and other bureaucracies promote "diversity" while pretending to defend individuality, these institutions create a whitewashed environment where adverse thought is not tolerated. Unfortunately, diversity serves as the big buzz word these days. Diversity of skin color. Diversity of ethnicity. But heaven forbid diversity of thought. What you think is harmful to your leaders, while what you are is beneficial to their quotas.

So what is the definition of harassment? Perhaps it’s the actions of anyone who speaks differently from a streamlined message. These days, if someone is offended by a statement, harassment has been exercised. 

Indoctrinate U was thought-provoking, however, it focused on the suppression of student speech. In Nevada, a parallel problem applied to the case of UNLV professor Hans Hoppe in 2004. 

A “diverse” student of this professor was offended when Hoppe explored the theory of time preferences. Hoppe explained that homosexuals tend to have a high time preference, meaning they spend more lavishly due to a preference to live in the now versus preserving for the future. For professing an economic theory, Hoppe was crucified by campus administrators.

Indoctrinate U is a slim slice of the indoctrination pie. Orchestrated, patriotic and politically driven thought begins much earlier. Higher education has a grip on suppressing individualism before it spreads to the masses. However, government-run primary and secondary schools, which welcome students as young as 5 years old, begin the American treadmill of mind control — and do a more effective job. When kids reach 18 years old (and choose not to enter the thought-control gulag of military service), college serves as just another less direct forum for nabbing minds that haven’t bought into the "American way."

Like the Cold War era, when demonizing the Soviet Union was the purpose during school nuclear-attack drills (as if a flimsy desk would save a child from a nuclear blast), these days students in Albany, New York can enjoy terror drills that prepare them for isolated and dramatic episodes of school shootings. Such drills engrave fear and hate in the minds of children — and more importantly a culture. The message: Always be wary, except of your ever-protective government.

Whether we like it or not, this has, for a long time, been our education and their politics.