The War on Reason-Part 7
Post-modernism began its take-over of the universities in the late '50s and have had almost 70 years now to commandeer the liberal arts colleges. This is where they recruit and train their ranks of indoctrinated believers and send them out into every conceivable corner of our nation, including our profession.
I keep a diagram, which I will share with you, to help me keep things straight because the matrix we live in is such a mess.
Woke-Big-Pharma-Big-Finance-Infiltration.pdf (121 downloads )
In examining the diagram it has become clear to us that there are three major fronts upon which to fight this battle in which we find our profession and our nation:
1) a direct confrontation with the current academic model.
2) direct and immediate action through our practices, and
3) economic confrontation with every other aspect of our society that has been infected with the woke-mind virus through their SJW graduates.
The first front will be akin to cutting the head off the snake. It will be decisive, probably the quickest, and permanent. The second front is where you will have the most direct and immediate control as a counselor. That third front will be the largest and most difficult, requiring a larger "army" of informed citizenry, coordination and cooperation.
Rather than tell you what Kathleen and I will be doing I want to utilize the "Solutions" space below as an opportunity to sharpen critical thinking skills. You'll devise your battle plan from your own answers. So let's take a closer look and think about what we can do as counselors to affect change on all 3 fronts.
The Academic Front
Academia was infiltrated and corrupted first for a reason. From that staging area they can recruit, train, then extend their reach into the economic theatre that most of us have built our lives around. It's going to be incredibly difficult, but not impossible to rid our country of the infestation. We deal with the source of the infection (front #1) while simultaneously cleaning up the "thought pandemic" we're facing now on fronts 2 and 3.
The Problem(s): Liberal arts colleges (primarily) have eliminated professors with opposing viewpoints. Departments have eliminated the Socratic teaching method in favor of a blatant indoctrination of students, purposefully creating "little social justice warriors".
Ask Yourself: As an individual counselor, how can you ensure that the education that your kids/grandkids receive and/or that this generation receives, is a classic university-level education and not simply an over-priced indoctrination? Put your feedback in the comments section below.
The Counseling Profession Front
The infiltration into every aspect of our profession is deep. Every where you turn someone is preaching from the Woke handbook so, what I've done here is group problem issues in the interest of brevity.
The Problem #1: A percentage of our new counselors are coming from the Woke liberal arts colleges, staffing our counseling ranks with SJW adherents.
Ask Yourself: As a small business/practice owner, what do I owe these SJW adherents that are being pumped into the workforce? What do I owe any graduate with student-debt loan to repay? What do I owe my profession? Be specific and, again, put your thoughts in the Comments please and let's have this dialogue there.
The Problem #2: Insurance companies and EAPS are being pressured to follow DEI/ESG guidelines, continue to hire SJW adherents, and are increasingly insisting that you adhere to their social agenda.
Ask Yourself: Do I really need to deal with these companies? If I do, where do I draw the line? How will you send your message to these people? Head down to the Comments section and be specific.
The Problem #3: Our licensing boards are being staffed with SJW professors.
Ask Yourself: Who picks these people? What does the selection criteria look like? What can I do to be a part of the board selection process and affect the outcome? Comments?
The Problem #4: Our professional organizations have gone Woke and finding like-minded colleagues is getting harder.
The Solution: On this point I am going to make a shameless, self-serving and direct suggestion on what to do. Join a professional organization for mental health professionals that is entirely opposed to the Woke agenda and their strong-arm tactics; one that also promotes an anti-Big Pharma, pro-holistic approach to mental wellness. May I suggest you check out what AMHP has to offer?
If you have other thoughts on moving the needle of thought with the other professional associations, head on down to Comments and share those ideas with the rest of us, please.
The American Economic Front
The Problem: Have you noticed lately that almost all of the top corporations in America are espousing a Woke philosophy in their marketing efforts? Including the insurance and EAP companies I mentioned above!
Why is that? I'll tell you why then you tell me what we're going to do about it.
There are 3-4 major finance companies in America (Blackrock, State Street and 1-2 others) that call the shots and they've decided that there needs to be a "social equity" factor in the capitalist equation. To put that into effect they've created a new score called the ESG Score.
Those corporations that need to see their stock prices stay up, and that would be all of them, must score above a certain number or suffer financial consequences. That is why companies like Target, Anheuser-Busch, and Chick-Fil-A are pushing the Woke agenda. They're being held financial hostage by the financiers that control their stock prices. That's not to say that 100% of the management of those companies are not complicit in the adoption and presentation of the Woke agenda; the Target CEO is a prime example of a solid Kool-Aid drinker.
Thing is that if those stock prices go down the financiers get hurt, too. They're very much counting on the corporations to fall in and tow the line. In other words the financiers are safe as long as the corporations fulfill their fiduciary obligations to their stockholders and keep that stock price up. See how that works? So what can we do?
Ask Yourself: How can I best let my thoughts be known to these companies? What do these companies fear the most? What do they respect the most? How can I utilize the answers to those questions to affect social change?
Summary
I had a wonderfully brilliant "Problem/Suggested Solutions" blog post written for this final post in the series. But a certain someone who seems to be right more often than not convinced me that it needs to be a critical thinking piece even more than it needs to be a simple list of solutions, and she's right. I could have given you my/our suggested solutions for the problems listed above but then I'd be committing the same sin as the other pundits; telling you what to do. That's pretty much how we got to where we are as a profession, as a nation in the first place, isn't it? We've forgotten how to think for ourselves.
So, I apologize for my momentary lapse in leadership but I am beyond confident that given just a few minutes of thought in a quiet space that you will arrive at similar conclusions to the ones we've come up with, and possibly even better! Do share in the Comments section, there are no wrong answers.
We cannot win this battle as individuals on just one front. We must participate in all 3 fronts as an army of patriot counselors and consumers (big hint). You have to answer the questions outlined above for yourself and then you'll own them. So make a short list of ways you can make an impact on all 3 fronts then focus on making a splash with those tasks. That will be your contribution to the fight. Collectively we make up a formidable army they cannot overcome.
We got this.
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About the Author
Phillip's background has blessed him with a variety of interests, skills, and tools to get things done. He spent 25 years in the printing and marketing industry before meeting Kathleen Mills in 2015. They quickly figured out that they made a pretty good business team and, owing to Kathleen's story, embarked upon a mission that would see the creation of PracticeMentors.us and eventually the Association for Mental Health Professionals.
As difficult it is for me to navigate this lesson, so too it is difficult to digest a world counter to the principles and belief system which I practice in my therapy and in my life. My practice and life is based on the the principles of the US Constitution and my faith base practice. As I get older the eye of the needle gets smaller and smaller challenging to be the best therapist and man I can be.
My focus as a therapist is provide the therapy techniques that best help the client to achieve outcomes where they can best help themselves to find purpose, meaning and happiness in their lives.
In some trainings I have attended the routine is for each person in the training to introduce themselves by parsing their identity into the different categories of “intersectionalism”. In this way we would learn that Joe was a “cis-gendered white male” while John was a BIPOC Trans-male, etc. At first, I would reluctantly follow suit, but in the last intro session I attended when people started also adding things like “I live on stolen land” (referring to the fact that the land used to be part of an area occupied by a Native American tribe), I decided I would no longer participate in the game. The game is rigged so that if you are white-skinned you better find some way to self-flagellate in your introduction. I refuse to do that, and going forward, I will start my introduction by saying something along the following lines: “I am Sylvia Hill. I don’t see the world through the same lens and do not believe it is healthy to parse my identity out in that manner. So, I am Sylvia Hill. What you see is what you get.” Or at the very least my introduction will not include any DEI categories, i.e. “I’m Sylvia Hill. I’ve been a counselor for x years. I am divorced and have x children and x grandchildren”. As Joe Friday would say, “Just the facts, ma’am.” I like the first response better.
If I get pushback, it will be an indication that the tolerance for “diversity” everyone preaches applies to everything but diversity of thought.
Can somebody say, “Amen!”?
On the Academic Front, we need to strive to always be involved and speak out and raise children that do the same. My Mom was a public educator for 34 years and I was able to witness how she spoke the truth in love to all of her students from many different socio-economic, cultural and racial backgrounds. She made a difference in so many lives one life at a time by loving people and accepting them, but refusing to stay quiet when students or parents or administrators were giving in to worldly “norms” instead of standing for the truth. She raised all of her family to do the same. Now, my sister and her husband teach and coach and make a difference in the same way… fighting against “wordly woke” mentality in their communities and school systems. Their daughter attended The University of Texas and spoke up in class when professors pushed their agendas and, now, she too is a teacher and a coach. Their son Jase attended A&M and also spoke out and is now a teacher. My three children attend public high schools and one attended The University of Arkansas and then transferred to FIDM in California where she talked to me all the time about speaking up respectfully about her beliefs to professors and other students. She, like her Grandmother, has a way of making people feel loved and accepted without accepting what they believe or how they are choosing to live. We have to choose to be involved in our schools and universities as students, parents, and educators and show that we care about the people in it. People listen when they feel cared for, especially young people. They respond to how we make them feel and how we live our lives instead of what we preach at them. Children, teens, and young adults of this generations are inundated with information from Tik Tok and social media CONSTANTLY. They have an argument and an answer to anything we can tell them because they have “Learned it” on Tik Tok. The only way we can fight against that is to be the person in their life who is actually caring and listening and a living breathing example of the Truth and how that is the only way to true joy. The Academic front has 100% been affecting generations but I also think the new Tik Tok era is allowing each person’s “Truth” to not only become whatever they want it to be, but to find a whole community of people who agree with them.
(As I side note, I highly recommend David Jeremiah’s “The World of the End.” He addresses all of these issues, specifically the problem of “What is wrong will be considered right and what is right will be wrong” and how this will become more prominent. Better yet, he tells us how we can respond to these things that WILL happen.)
This leads me to how I believe I can make a change on the Counseling Front. I believe change occurs through the counseling relationship. If I can truly form a caring relationship in which I accept the person in front of me and strive to understand their point of view and let them feel heard, it will ultimately lead to vulnerabilty on their part. Once they feel safe to share their insecurities and self-doubt, their defenses come down and they are open to hearing the truth. One important thing I also adhere to is that I don’t accept the client’s terms of “normal.” In other words, if they are in an inappropriate relationship, if they are identifying as something other than what they are, or if they are in any way choosing to live in unreality, I do not join the client in that or excuse it. I listen, get to know them, validate their feelings, make sure they feel heard… and once a relationship of mutual respect and trust is built, I challenge their reality and whether or not it’s working for them. And then I remind myself daily, it’s not up to me to change them or convince them, it’s up to me to love and speak the truth in love. It is up to them whether they choose to live in reality and take responsibility for their own lives.
On the economic front, I can stay strong and steadfast in not financially supporting those companies that support a woke agenda. It seems like a small thing to do, but giving in on the “small” things will lead to becoming a part of the larger thinking.
Dang! Lookatchu, girl! Very well stated. I wish I’d penned that……
Gina, I love your thoughtful and well articulated response. You are right about the fact that we need to restart and grant permission to be able to be curious again, along with a healthy dose of skepticism when things come our way, so we can ask curious questions and a healthy dialogue with the people around us. We do this in respect and love. I believe many have lost this gift, but I do have hope that going forward, you, me and others can be brave in speaking what we believe is truth that is based in logic reasoning, real science and solid fact. Thank you for all you do! We hope to see you in October! 🙂 k~
On the academic front –
As a parent, I enrolled my kids in a private school in Midland called Midland Classical Academy. This is a private Christian school which operated on the socratic method of teaching. The students were not allowed to be passive learners. Each day, in every single class, the student is graded on their participation in the class lesson. The student was required to OWN their own education by being a participant & thinker rather than a passive learner that regurgitates what is dictated to them like in public schools. These students at this school are taught HOW TO THINK, not WHAT to think.
Albeit, not all families can afford to put their kids in a private school. And these parents are likely very busy holding down a job (or jobs) to support their families & oftentimes don’t have the luxury of being involved in the government that is our education system. The kids in these families need involved parents, parents that train their kids through conversation, teaching of values (biblical values included), life lessons by discussing the government & it’s natural tendency to abuse the people it governs, current issues discussed, encourage their kids to be independent & free thinkers,…. This all requires parents to be wise, knowledgeable, concerned for their kids, aware, parents who don’t buy every turd trying to be sold to them by the powers that be, to ask questions like “why do they want me to believe this,” “why are they coercing me to do this,” teach our kids that when we are being forced, coerced, threatened, intimidated, strong-armed, etc. into doing anything, it is abuse of power & likely not in our best interest & to really dig deeper into why these abusive tactics are being deployed & to distrust the abuser (this goes for individual relationships as well as our relationships with the entities (government or not) that are using these abusive tactics). Kids need parents who care about their kids & don’t dole out the responsibility of raising their kids to the governmental school system, daycares, the kids themselves, & devices. Unfortunately, there are so many kids who don’t have parents that hold this value system.
On the counseling front:
This has me thinking – maybe I need to contact my local college & university & see if I can worm my way into the academia field in an effort to dilute the field of wokeism.
On the economic front –
The youngest of my kids just entered young adulthood. All 3 of my kids are now young adults. There is a lot of talk in my house about making choices about what we support with our money. Like it or not, money talks. And nothing speaks more loudly or clearly than what we support with our money. If it means we must inconvenience our selves to not support a woke agenda, then I will make a point to inform my kids as to WHY I am making the decisions I am about no longer purchasing goods or services from an entity that is spewing a woke agenda. For example, there is a recent pushback against target. I want to know where this pushback was when Obama let men enter the women’s restrooms? Why wait til now to boycott target? I had my fill of wokeism a decade ago!!!! Target is not my only option. It has NOT even come close to being inconvenient to no longer shop at target for the past decade! I say let our money do our talking because all the talking in the world falls on deaf ears, but hit them in the pocketbook & you will get their attention
And that is exactly why, if the shtf, we’re all meeting in Midland! 😉