It seems like just yesterday that I was riding back from the Piggly Wiggly after grocery shopping with my mother. Of course, it wasn’t yesterday. It was more like the summer of 1970. If memory serves me correctly, I was five years old.
While we were riding in our 1965 Pontiac Catalina, I heard a reporter on the radio say something about a war in Vietnam. I didn’t know we were in a war until I asked my mom if we were fighting the Germans again. That’s when I first heard that terrible word. “No, son, we are fighting the communists.” I asked her who these communists were and where they came from. She paused and said “No one really knows.”
Today things are different. We know who the communists are and where they come from. Most of them teach at American universities. We work hard every day to pay the taxes which, in turn, pay their salaries. Meanwhile, they work hard to subvert everything we do, everything we value, and everything we love.
Of course, they don’t call themselves communists. They prefer the term “socialist.” Whether they are pushing socialized medicine, decrying the privatization of social security, or trying to subordinate our foreign policy interests to those of the U.N., they give themselves away immediately.
The modern socialists also attack our Christian heritage with a zeal inspired by Marx’s mordent declaration that “religion is the opiate of the masses.” They know that capitalism can never fall as long as our nation retains that Christian heritage. As long as the socialist attack upon our economic system is rooted in social and moral upheaval, there can be no meaningful distinction between the economic and the social conservative. The two components of our conservative heritage simply cannot be divorced.
Hardly a day goes by without parents asking me for advice on how to protect their children from the harmful secular and socialist influences they will encounter in college. Today, I present a reading list, which should help any high school student understand the reality of socialism long before setting foot on a college campus. It will help abort any professor’s attempt to advance his agenda by rewriting socialism’s disgraceful history.
We the Living (1936) – This is the first and most autobiographical of all of Ayn Rand’s novels. It is also a good book for teenagers. So many young lives are destroyed before they have really begun in this gut-wrenching novel. For those who consider Rand to be arrogant and caustic, it is necessary to understand what she witnessed as a young woman in communist Russia. This book will make you appreciate all of the blessings we enjoy in this great country.
Anthem (1938) – I have recommended this book before (see last year’s summer reading list). It is a good starting place for teens who have an aversion to reading. At around 100 pages, it has a fast-moving plot. As a professor at a university dominated by identity politics, I see this novel as something more than grim prophesy. Rand captures 1984 ten years before Orwell. She explains the campus diversity movement 50 years before its onset.
The Fountainhead (1943) – Ellsworth Toohey is, in my opinion, the most memorable character from this famous Ayn Rand novel. Toohey was supposed to remind readers of Joseph Stalin. In the wake if the 2004 election, he reminds me of someone else. At around 700 pages, this novel may be a bit long for the average high school student. But, then again, many high school students were required to read it in the 1950s. Rand’s philosophy of objectivism really begins to take shape in this classic thriller.
The Road to Serfdom (1944) – After I published last year’s summer reading list, I was criticized for two omissions. One was “Orthodoxy” by G.K. Chesterton. The other was “The Road to Serfdom” by F.A. Hayek. Complaints regarding the latter exceeded complaints regarding the former by about two to one. Nothing more need be said.
Animal Farm (1946) – Maybe your high school student is having trouble in his English classes. Maybe that is, in part, due to his inability to pick up on symbolism. I flunked English four years in a row in high school, partly because of my inability to pick up on obvious literary symbols. Nonetheless, I picked up on everything in this great little novel. While this list is presented in chronological order, “Animal Farm” might be the best starting place among these ten books.
1984 (1948) – Over the next few years, how many students will get a daily dosage of “the two minutes hate” by professors who are still seething with anger after the defeat of John Kerry? And how many times will the Office of Diversity remind us of the opening pages of 1984 as it seeks to do exactly the opposite of what its name implies?
Witness (1952) – This is one of the most important books of the twentieth century. Before and after reading this book, parents should encourage their children to visit www.biography.com and search for the name “Alger Hiss.” What they read will demonstrate just how far in denial this nation still is regarding the Soviet infiltration of our government during the Cold War.
After 9/11, we can no longer afford such naivetÃ
.
Mike S. Adams was born in Columbus, Mississippi on October 30, 1964. While a student at Clear Lake High School in Houston, TX, his team won the state 5A soccer championship. Mike Adams graduated from C.L.H.S. in 1983 with a 1.8 GPA. Mike Adams was ranked 734 among a class of 740, largely as a result of flunking English all four years of high school. After obtaining an Associate's degree in psychology from San Jacinto College, Mike Adams moved on to Mississippi State University where he joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity. While living in the fraternity house, his GPA rose to 3.4, allowing him to finish his B.A., and then to pursue a Master's in Psychology. In 1990, Mike Adams turned down a chance to pursue a PhD in psychology from the University of Georgia, opting instead to remain at Mississippi State to study Sociology/Criminology. This decision was made entirely on the basis of his reluctance to quit his night job as member of a musical duo. Playing music in bars and at fraternity parties and weddings financed his education. Mike Adams also played for free beer.
.
Upon getting his doctorate in 1993, Adams, then an atheist and a Democrat, was hired by UNC-Wilmington to teach in the criminal justice program. A few years later, Adams abandoned his atheism and also became a Republican. He also nearly abandoned teaching when he took a one-year leave of absence to study law at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1998. After returning to teach at UNC-Wilmington, Adams won the Faculty Member of the Year award (issued by the Office of the Dean of Students) for the second time in 2000.
.
After his involvement in a well publicized free speech controversy in the wake of the 911 terror attacks, Adams became a vocal critic of the diversity movement in academia. After making appearances on shows like Hannity and Colmes, the O'Reilly Factor, and Scarborough Country, Adams was asked to write a column for Townhall.com.
.
Today Mike Adams enjoys the privilege of expressing himself both as a teacher and a writer. Mike Adams is also an avid hunter and reader of classic literature. Mike Adams published his first book, Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel, in 2004. His second book, Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts "Womyn" On Campus, was published in 2008.
- Kids Write Obama on Abortion; Obama Misplaces Them - Tuesday January 22, 2013 at 5:15 pm
- Stand For Life - Wednesday January 16, 2013 at 12:44 pm
- Fellowship in the Woodlands - Thursday January 3, 2013 at 1:23 pm
