The Eric Metaxas Show - Pete Hegseth & David Goodwin

Episode Date: May 12, 2022

Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin, authors of "Battle for the American Mind," are in the studio to examine public education and how we went from God-centered learning to state-run indoctrination.

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. A Texas show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Oh, hello. Welcome. We're going to be doing a show, and we'd love you to watch or to listen in if you feel like it. You can watch us, by the way. We're on Rumble. We are. And what's today, Wednesday? Well, I want to say, folks, if you don't get the newsletter, we send out all kinds of stuff,

ericmataxis.com. A couple of things we have to cover here. First of all, for most of both hours today, we're talking to Pete Hegseth from Fox and Friends on the weekend. Most of you know him as a shallow TV talking head. He is brilliant. Princeton, Harvard, and he has written. a book with a with a with a with a a co-writer the two of them um they had a classical christian school

foundation whom we've interviewed before they've written a book that gets to the heart of how america has how american education has been hijacked you don't want to miss it this is you're going to get an education because you need to understand this so both hours today pete hageseth uh and at the end of hour two today we're talking to the international head of c s about the situation in Ukraine, you got to hear it. You got to hear it from him because he's over there. He's actually in Zurich, Switzerland. He's going to be calling in.

Tomorrow, Catherine Engelbrecht, ladies and gentlemen, if you've seen the film 2000 Mules, you know, the hero of the story is this amazing woman, Catherine Engelbrecht. She is with True the Vote. They have been canceled. People have hacked into it. They've hacked into the 2000 Mules website. Everyone is trying to suppress the story.

What does that tell you? Yeah. Now, by the way, I'm supposed to give a disclaimer. Yes, you are. When I was invited to be a part of the film, they said, we'll give you like a piece of the back end. Now, if you know Hollywood, you know you never see that, whatever. You know, it's just like 0.000, but they do it, I guess, because they don't want to actually give you a check. That's right.

So I'm supposed to tell you that. Yeah. And we'll all have a big party if I get an $80 check someday. But actually, and I, you know, people know this, right? I believe so strongly in this. Obviously, not only am I not doing it for the possibility of getting a small check down the line, but I would do anything to get the word out on this, folks. This is our report.

public is at stake, and I don't say this lightly. And a lot of people think, I know that tons of people who read my Bonhofer book and read the book, they just think I've gone nuts and I'm into these conspiracy theories. Well, I'm the same person I was, you know, 10, 20 years ago. And all I care about is knowing what's true and honoring God with my life. And I feel that if we're not willing to stick our necks out with things like this, maybe lose some friends, maybe lose some of our reputation. So what? I care about my reputation with God. And that's why I'm talking. about this film. And if you want to know how bad things have gotten in our society and our culture, I looked up in the dictionary the word truth and it said, see conspiracy theory. Yeah.

Okay, we're going to score that as a joke. It's actually funny, but it's also sickeningly true. So I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I'm doing both over here. But it's, but that's, I mean, look, well, that's part of the joy, Albin of having you around. It's like, we know that we have to talk about these things. But we also know that we have to joke because otherwise we'll go crazy. Yeah, exactly. You can get down. But I was going to say, get down tonight. 2,000 mules is something that I just hope everyone will see. And I say to people, you know, if you get a copy of it, lend it out to groups. I wish everybody would, you know, pay three cents to see it. Just give it to so many people. The point is to get the word out. The point is to save America. Dinesh put in millions of dollars to create this film. But I want to tell you, as the word is getting out, people, I think there are a lot of people that didn't, they didn't believe that it could be real or they didn't believe that they could be convinced.

Well, I've been convinced from the beginning for many reasons. I think the real difficulty is communicating it to people so that they can see it as well and they don't just dismiss you as a nut. you know, feel free to dismiss me. And go to SalemNow.com. That's where you will see that film. And also whose children are they? That's another thing coming up. They're talking about education right now, the next two guests.

And this dovetails right off of that. That is exactly correct. Whose Children Are They is another film available at SalemNow.com. Now that film does deal with exactly what we're going to be talking about for the next two hours with Pete Hegseth. I got to tell you, if you don't think we're in a war, we're in a war. We're in a dark time. The good news is people are waking up, that films are being made, stories are being told. By God's grace, this program is still in existence, and we can talk freely about this without anybody cancelling us. So tomorrow we've got Catherine Englebrecht talking about

2000 mules. But speaking also of suppressing information, this is how you know. something's really dangerous is when they do anything to suppress it. You will not believe the story tomorrow. I promise you. Phelam McAleer with his wife, Anne McAnne, they have made this film Hunter Biden's laptop, my son, Hunter. Someone who is on the side of Hunter Biden went across the ocean to Serbia, where they're filming this to infiltrate the film set.

There was an article about this yesterday. Phelham is in New York City, and we're going to be talking to him about this tomorrow. This is scary. I want to tell you, bluntly, this is scary, scary stuff, and we want you to know about it. When people want to suppress information, you think that the presidency is at stake. If Joe Biden is implicated when this information comes out, the fact that they're making this movie. So it is really dark, and I want to ask you. you all, please pray that the truth comes out in America with regard to the election,

with regard to the Hunter Biden laptop, with regard to the extraordinary corruption in our government in these three-letter agencies. I've got to tell you, I'm going to be in South Carolina tomorrow. I'm speaking at Erskine College at their commencement on Saturday and at a wonderful event at Erskine College that anybody, if you can get there, go to my website, Ericmataxis.com, it gives you the information. I hope people will come. I was just in Pennsylvania.

It's just a joy to connect with you on the road, folks, to meet you, to sign books, to take pictures. I get very encouraged meeting those of you who care about what we're doing. I also want to remind you, this is, I'm so excited. about this. I don't know what you need to do to get to New York, or maybe you know somebody in New York, but the event we have, May 31st, this is the day after Memorial Day. Start your summer right. Come to a Socrates in the city event in New York City. You can stay at the Union League Club if you'd like to stay overnight. If you know somebody who's in New York City, buy them a ticket. This is

history. 50 years ago, Charlie Duke walked on the moon. He's going to tell that story. He's a man of profound Christian faith. He's going to talk about his faith. So if you know somebody who doesn't really care about God. This would be a great event to send them to because it's going to be fascinating on every level, but they will hear that the most important thing to this 86-year-old man, and has been, for the better part of the last 50 years, has been his faith in Jesus. Kind of amazing. So go to Socratesandthecity.com. You can email us if necessary, if you have questions. Yeah. And if you have your moon rock with you, come on in. He'll sign it. Yeah, he'll sign the moon rocks. Yeah. So sign the moon rocks. Or a pet rock.

I'll sign the pet rock. That's right. So I want to say Socrates and the city.com, it's exciting. If you don't know about Socratesandcity.com, go to Socratesandcity.com and watch our other videos. We've interviewed tons of people from, I don't know, Peter Thiel, Malcolm Gladwell, and, you know, C.S. Louis. Actually, no. But a lot of people who talk about C.S. Louis. And I got to tell you, the other day, I think I said this, that when I was at Moralago, when I had the picture with the president taken.

Yes. I told you what he said, right? Yeah. He takes my hand and he says, I keep watching your show. I don't know. I don't know why I keep watching it, but I just keep watching your show. And it was classic Trump, like sort of insulting and flattering at the same time, truth telling, New York truth telling.

I keep watching show, but I don't know why. It was absolutely classic Trump. Evidently, he's watching the show. I don't know. Anyway, we'll be right back. Folks today, really, really exciting. Stick around. We'll be right back.

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Go there. Oh, hello. I didn't see you. Folks, I am really excited right now because we're talking about. about something in this hour, and I hope in the next hour as well, that's at the heart of my concerns for the nation, for the culture, for the world, something called education. I have in front of me a brand new book called Battle for the American Mind, uprooting a century of miseducation. The authors are in the studio. Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin. Welcome.

Thank you, Eric. Now, I know both of you, sort of, because, but from different worlds. Mr. Fox and Friends on the weekends, or am I confusing you with another Pete Higgs? No, you're right. You're right. And we met in multiple iterations over the years. I was going to say here and there. But the problem is when you see somebody on TV, you don't remember, did I actually meet them? Or did I just see them on YouTube or something like that? But David Goodwin, you are the head of the Association of Classical Christian Schools. Yes. I'm a devotee and fan of classical Christian education and of homeschooling, and I am thrilled to see you again, and thank you for writing a book, because we need to talk about this. So where do we start? First of all, I think most people want to know, hey, how did Pete Hegseth meet David Goodwin?

How did you come to write a book together? Well, I met David Goodwin. You mentioned Fox and Friends in happenstance through that. I was at a diner in rural North Carolina talking about the news of the day as we do on the morning show. And a family approached me, two cute little girls in uniforms. And a woman pulled me aside and said, you know, what do you know about classical Christian education? Because we were talking about it. And we got to talk in. And she said, you got to meet this guy, David Goodwin.

And she put us in touch. And I had kids that had been in classical Christians, so I was familiar with it. But I didn't understand the larger movement. And we just got to know each other. and he shared some early manuscripts that he was working on of research that he had done. And I kept reading it saying, this is amazing. Everybody's got to know this.

This is the key right here. And over months and then years, we kind of joined forces and swapped notes, and then we decided to embark on a Fox Nation film called Miseducation of America, which is where, and then this book also came out of that project as well. So it is a genuine partnership of two people coming at the same.

issue with passion, and David is the expert. He's the man. Well, I think, you know, as things unravel at the speed of light, people are waking up. And, you know, there's a famous scripture, Romans 828. You don't have to believe in the Bible. Just pretend Ben Franklin said it. It says, all things work together for good, for those that love the Lord and are called according to his purposes. In other words, even when things are in a nightmare where you have cultural Marxism being shoved down our throats and all that. The good news for us in America is that it's waking people up who otherwise would have remained asleep. They're thinking, wait, wait, wait, what? You're teaching my kids, what? I had no idea. Because, you know, in 1975, when I was in fourth

grade, it was not, you know. So this is good. And then, of course, people want to know, all right, now what do we do? Now where do we send our kids? We know we're not sending them to those schools, unless we get on the board and fix that. But I do love the idea that in this book, you tell us how we got here. So let's start. I mean, do we go to John Dewey? Do we go before John Dewey?

How did we get to a point? Let me just say this. In America, we're free. So we say, we're going to educate our kids. We're going to have a one-room schoolhouse. I've got to plow the fields. My wife's got stuff to do. So we're going to hire a school teacher,

and we're going to get them to teach the kids in the neighborhood. And they're going to teach exactly what we want them to teach, obviously. They're the experts, but we're not going to let them teach things that we think are wrong. And that's, you know, how we got public education, quote unquote. When did that go crazy and wrong? Well, certainly you mentioned some of the star players, John Dewey, early part of the 20th century. That was the epiphany I had, as I researched the book originally, was that this, doesn't date back to the 1960s, which most of us think. That's when you see the manifestation of it.

It dates to an earlier time, right, between 1915 and 1930, when the progressives actually built the school system that we now know in America. Okay, and that is true of everything. Now, there's not just education. Like, we think, oh, the 60s. Well, the 60s is when it bore fruit, but you can trace all of these things back. Most of the things that we know are wrong, which end up being anti-American and cultural markets. They did begin originally in that time, whether you're talking about progressivism in the Protestant churches or whatever. All of this stuff, the seeds were planted then by some key players. So tell us about that. Well, what was really surprising to me was that I went to the library on this quest to find one particular quote on education in the New Republic in about 1915. and I thought it would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

I mean, how many education articles are there in a political magazine around the turn of the century? It was unbelievable. They were writing about it every week. And these are people who are dealing with unions and the protests of the time and the anarchists. I mean, they had everything in the magazine, but every week, John Dewey, or every two weeks, I think it published every two weeks, They had John Dewey or some other major educational character figuring,

how are we going to change the educational system in America? And that's when I started to realize that there was more of a story here than just this single quote on the plasticity of the child. It's the long march to the institutions. And of course, you know, most people are too busy to pay attention to what's going on behind the scenes, to what the global elites of 1915 are planning for our children and grandchildren and so on and so forth. So what was, in other words, what was their fundamental issue? Now, if you say to John Dewey, what's your problem with American education? Now, this, why was he writing articles talking about this?

That's, you know, what was his beef with American? Well, the reveal in the book, I think the thing that Pete and I, this was really a collaboration. So he works probably post-1930, and I work pre-1930 in most of the book. But the reveal in the book is that it's not what they, it's not some indebted. indoctrination that they put into the schools, it was something they took out of the schools, which we call in the book the Western Christian Pidea, or the way in which children are raised to... As a Greek, I know that it's pronounced bedia. But no, seriously, that's fascinating. It was if you pull out God, if you pull out, you know, the Judeo-Christian, those Western ideas,

it instantly devolves to cultural Marxism, French Revolution, whatever you want to call it. But they saw that this was the enemy. They didn't want to invoke that revolution right away, though. They knew they couldn't. So as David puts it, it's like a precious artifact that's on a pressure plate. They knew if they're removing God, they had to replace it with the forgery in that moment. And what's stunning for patriots and conservatives today is what they replaced it with was with the flag and with the pledge. They replaced it with nationalism and patriotism. So God was subtly removed and they discussed this in the New Republic openly. We have to get rid of God. That's the linchpin and the foundation of free thought and free thinking in America.

But we can't, if we, parents and communities will revolt if we, so that's where Sunday school comes from on a theological side. That's where pullout periods came from in public school. But they replaced it with a new pledge of allegiance that didn't say under God written by Francis Bellamy. This is, I mean, this is where people have to just be really clear. Evil is, is, extraordinarily subtle. There's, right? So most people say they pay this with a flag, well, that's good. Yes, it's not as good as God.

And then the flag will be replaced with something else. Bingo. And we won't see it because sleight of hand, flag is good, I guess, right? So that is amazing. But what was the animus of folks like, do we against God in the West? And of those, where did that come from that they were dedicated to getting rid of Western values and principles? Well, Dewey was a primary signer on the humanist manifesto, as you probably know. And that sounds like an okay thing, right?

Humanist manifesto. But what it really was was an atheist manifesto. Of course. It was man is going to become the new God. And that is what they were set out to do. That was the mission that they set out for. And as Pete pointed out, they had to take it through the path of, well, let's make America the God for a while. And then Pete picks up in the book, and, you know, the destination that they ultimately ended at was the cultural Marxist Pidea.

Yeah, they moved from a progressive once they had opened the vacuum by removing God. And they were atheists. They were effectively atheists. And there was a belief that man was perfectible. And the human condition threw enough. And where did that idea come from, ye shall be as gods? Who said that again? Oscar Wilde? Oh, no, Satan. Sorry, it was Satan. It's kind of amazing how you have reality

and then you have anything else. In other words, no matter how you go away from God's reality, it always ends up being the same lies over and over in different guises. But how fascinating that, you know, the idea of the perfectability of man, this utopianist impulse, you see it in the Tower of Babel, you see it in the French Revolution, you see it now. It's over and over and over again. And one of the reasons I was excited to talk to you guys is to educate people that there's nothing new. There's God's reality and truth. And then there's however you try to get away from it, it always ends up being the same thing ultimately. So we've got plenty time to discuss this, folks. The book is Battle for the American Mind. Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin, we'll be right

back. In case you haven't been paying attention, the Biden administration has caused a financial crisis and they have no clue how to fix it. Oil prices have skyrocketed. Oil prices have sky rocketed, and when oil prices go up, the cost of transportation and shipping spikes, leading the prices of goods to rise. And when we're already seeing record inflation, that's the last thing we need. Our economy is in trouble, and you need to take steps to protect yourself. If all your money is tied up in stocks, bonds, and traditional markets, you are vulnerable. Gold is one of the best ways to protect your retirement. No matter what happens, you own your gold. It is real, it is physical, it's always been valuable since the dawn of time. Legacy precious metals is the company

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Now, David, you're the head of the Association of Classical Christian Schools, so you're like a brainy guy. Pete is just like a talking head on Fox and Friends. We know he has nothing to say if it's not on a teleprompter. Pete, how did you get involved in this? I've always learned to join forces with people smarter than me. That's the key to success. Andy's humble, which makes me hate him even more.

You went to Princeton. You went to Harvard Kennedy School of Government. What did you major in at Princeton? politics. You did? I did. Political philosophy as sort of a degree of that. But I'll tell you, what, I've learned in this project how much I didn't learn. I didn't learn any of this stuff. My kids are in classical Christian schools, and all I say every day is, why can't I go back to school and learn these things? Okay, you're singing my song. I have said this over and over in the last couple of decades. Like I learned something. I wrote a book called, called If You Can Keep It, Franklin's famous line. And because of Oz Guinness, whose book I had read, I understood things. And all I could think of is, how did I not get this?

I didn't get any of this. So you, obviously, going to these elite schools, which, like Yale, I mean, they don't teach you this stuff. None of it. They teach you John Dewey on steroids, I guess. And they teach you now the latest manifestations of the Frankfurt School and critical theory, which is now we now see as critical race theory and we talk about every day. But it was just the water in which we swam. You know, I took social studies, right?

We all took social studies. Who invented social studies? Yeah, why is it not history? Why is it social studies? We can't get into that. We can't get into that. Don't talk about it. I didn't know where that all came from.

David had done the research and then I was able to lay it upon the environment in which we live right now and realize we all got a progressive education. Yeah. Almost everyone watching guaranteed got a progressive education that was started by atheists, advanced by Marxists, who had their own agenda, and it all happened subtly. And a lot of us think we aren't infected, but we are. And so you have to dig under the ruins of what used to exist. And that's what David did in this project. This is the way education, our founders were educated, how free people in republics actually perpetuate themselves.

Why don't we do that, as opposed to what we're doing now? I have to say, too, people need to understand that if you don't get this stuff, if you don't really understand this, you really can't combat it because you don't know. This is why I think so many people are cowards. I mean, so many Republicans are cowards. They don't really understand it and they're kind of afraid of being questioned. So they just go like, well, what do I need to say so that you don't come after me? I'll just say whatever you want me to say, because they don't really understand what is happening. And so what you're talking about when you talk about John Dewey signing the atheist humanist manifesto. We need to understand there's a worldview. It is an atheistic worldview. It is at war with the biblical worldview. And we couldn't have America without the biblical worldview. You don't need to be a Christian to be an American, but you need to understand, historically speaking, you do not get American-style self-government without, you know, the Israel covenant of the Old Testament, whatever. It's just not, you know, you can talk all day you want about, you know, that you're a system and people kind of throw this stuff out there, but it's historical fact, isn't it? I mean,

you can't really argue with it, but you can ignore it. Well, you know, in the book we talk about the liberal arts and how they were originally developed by the Greeks to enable a republic or a democracy. And we, in this day and age, we think it's just a natural thing. One of the things Pete talks about in the book is his time, you know, Pete's a veteran and he talks about his time in Afghanistan and the differences that you see in the Pidea of the different parts of the world. And we're taking for granted this critical thing, this liberal art tradition where people are trained to think for themselves and be independently minded. That's the key.

And let's be honest. Okay, we're talking about freedom, right? And so if you're teaching somebody to think for themselves, it means you have an innate assumption that you can trust people to find this thing. called truth if they're honest. But if you don't believe that, then you have to do propaganda. Or you're exactly right about that. Or you make an excuse, which is, well, we're entering an industrialized economy now. Not everyone needs those skills. So we'll have an elite few who think about things like philosophy, but the rest of you really just need to learn a hard skill.

And we see that still today in the idea of STEM education. STEM's fine, but that becomes the focus as opposed to an understanding. It's one step away from metal shop, okay? No, but I mean, that's kind of how I see it. It's like you can learn to think or you can get a trade. And if the trade is science, it's like more of a highfalutin trade, but it's still, you need to be taught how to think. Everyone does. Correct. So it's a wise welder as opposed to a woke welder, which you have now. I mean, everyone deserves the ability to think critically. Right. And as David points out, that was a no more useful thing for a farmer or a blacksmith in the founding generation than it is today for someone else.

But if freedom of a republic is what's at stake and the ability to think through the propaganda, they don't, they want more people educated that way as opposed to liberate it. I'm just so glad you wrote this book, Battle for the American Mind. Do you, so where do you start in the book? What is it? Well, we start with the problem identification. I mean, people, we start with the COVID-16-19 moment. So here we are in Zoom classrooms and you're watching what your kids are.

learning and suddenly the 1619 project and CRT and gender obfuscation is right there in front of you. How did this happen? And meet people where they're at and then start to walk backwards of, well, here's precisely how it happened. Okay. And again, we've got to remind people what a blessing. The nightmare of COVID turned out to be because if it hadn't been for that nightmare and the overreach of the radical left, most parents would never have known. Decades pass and you don't know.

suddenly millions of parents woke up and said, whoa, wait a minute, hold on. All right, we'll be right back talking to the authors of Battle for the American Mind, Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin. Hey there, folks, Eric Mataxis here. I know you know how much I love Mike Lindell and my pillow. Well, Mike Lindell and my pillow right now are offering a Bogho extravaganza. Bogo, buy one, get one. Bogos extravaganza on multiple MyPillow products. Now is the time to join the millions of Americans who've changed the quality of their sleep with My Pillo.

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You'll also receive Mike's book absolutely free. You won't believe it. It's amazing. 800-9783057 or Mypillow.com. Use the code, Eric. Folks, welcome back. We're talking to the authors of Battle for the American Mind, uprooting a century of miseducation, Pete Hegseth, and David Goodwin.

So we're talking about what amounts to a conspiracy to subvert the Western Judeo-Christian tradition baked into the heart of the United States of America, and there's no denying it. People like Dewey, they were on a crusade, and they have, up till now, succeeded. Yes, they have. And you know what?

They didn't know what the destination would be, per se. They just knew where the destination was away from. So it was always progress away from the Western Christian Pidea, the biblical roots of our and free-thinking roots of the nexus of Athens, in Jerusalem. They wanted to move away from that. That was progress. So you say conspiracy, that's not a wrong term. We use plot or heist because they passed it off to the next group of radical thinkers who carried the ball down the field based on how much God and other basic values have been stripped away. So enter the Frankfurt School, enter critical theory, which where

did it land? A hundred blocks from here at Columbia University at the teachers college. And these are Marxists who fled Hitler while our boys are fighting over in Europe in World War II, and they are greeted with open arms with their radical views soon to infuse into the teachers college. And within a couple of decades, one-third of teachers in America at elite schools had been taught by the critical theorists of the Frankfurt School. So how do you get critical race theory in your Zoom classroom? It is in the curriculum and the pedagogy of how the entire educational industrial complex works. And when you unravel it all, it goes back to those early efforts. and each step at which we lay out, you know, the unions, which used to be conservative teacher associations

that handed out scripture to teachers to use in the classroom captured by the unions. Well, then the unions create the Department of Education and it gave away to Jimmy Carter. And at each step, as you said, conservatives and patriots, we were busy winning world wars and fighting enemies and trying to keep the free market. And the classroom and the social change side, we let the left. Well, that's all, but that's always the case, right? you get, and this is why conservatives who only are all about the free market, I want to say, you're idiots, because you won't have a free market if you don't address this other stuff.

Like if you make a god of the free market, you might as well worship the devil now, because it's all going to go away. And they did take their, Christians and conservatives took their eyes off of these various balls. And over the decades, I mean, it's fascinating to me because, you know, when we talk about people like Dewey, these are crusaders, and we can demonize them, but we can also give them credit in the sense that they actually believed in this stuff and they were doing what they thought was right, but they were wise about it. And they took their time. And

over time, as you're saying, these ideas that are fundamentally un-American, fundamentally unbiblical. All of these ideas slowly made their way in so that now we live in a world where he said, well, how did this happen? Like it happened overnight. We're teaching critical race theory and we're teaching transgender madness and whatever. How did this happen? Well, it didn't happen overnight. Not even close. Not even close. And that's why we're here to first break down the common assumption that it was the 60s. I came into this project with that. David, when he first researched, did, when you realize it's a lot longer project than that, our prayer for this book is that what it does is the first step to recovery is identifying the depth of your problem. And so we've got

parents so courageously protesting at school boards. And that's great. But that's like charging a fortified machine gun nest with Nerf guns. You know, we salute your efforts, but we're going to bury you all. And my mom did the same thing in the 80s and 90s at my public elementary school. She protested a new values-free curriculum. I don't even know what it is, but it's the precursor to Common Core and the precursor to social and emotional learning. I didn't have it. And some parents stood up. She pulled me out. But guess what happened? Forsake Elementary School kept teaching it. Nothing changed. Nothing changed. So we advocate for in the book a retreat and an insurgency of Christians to say we need our own schools that uncover this hidden form of education, classical Christian, so that we can take back the culture. Because hoping we're going to change your school board, it's polishing the brass on the Titanic. Wow. Well, I mean, I think we need to do everything, but I think that there are people, the numbers of people pulling their kids out of public schools, or even, let's face it, there are a lot of, quote, unquote, Christian schools or quote unquote Catholic schools that are themselves half woke or half blind to this. They're certainly not on the good side. But I think parents are waking up. I think the homeschool numbers are exploding around the country. People are saying, like, there's no way I could do a worse job than they're just.

doing to my kids. At least I won't teach my kids Marxism. Let's talk a minute about Marxism, right? Because I think, you know, I was always raised. It was an economic thing, right? It's like the haves, the have-nots. But now we realize that it's a philosophy that basically divides people one way or the other. However, we can divide people and create resentment. And so now it's cultural Marxism. Now it says if I'm transgender or I'm lesbian or I'm a woman or I'm, whatever group I can identify with that can say we're oppressed and we're against our oppressors. So the names and categories have been changed. But it's the same context and it was brought in by the Frankfurt School. You mentioned Gramsci, Marcosa. These people in the 40s, whenever that was, they brought Marxist philosophy,

which is atheist philosophy. It's not neutral. It's seriously atheist philosophy. They brought it in to the universities. And William F. Buckley, when he was at Yale in the late 40s, he saw this. Now imagine, in the late 40s, he writes a book called God and Man at Yale, uncovering all this stuff. That was the late 40s. So by the time I was there in the 80s, political correctness had already swamped the campus or whatever.

Now, of course, it's pure madness. But it's amazing to me that we're not teaching the evils of cultural Marxism. Most people don't know what the Frankfurt School is. Most people don't even know how to react because they don't know, they still don't know what's happening. One of the things that Pete and I were both surprised at is that, you know, I did my kernel of research in the early part of this. And of course, I know classical Christian education. Pete did most of the work in the 20th century. And the puzzle pieces fit together like they were hand in glove.

to the mixed metaphors a bit. But it was unbelievable. Dewey's at Columbia until about 1930. The Frankfurt School shows up in about 34, 35. You see this develop, you see the cultural revolution, talk about cultural Marxism in Maoist China in the late 1960s, where he realizes that you cannot make economic Marxism work without cultural revolution.

And it just, the whole thing flows together. I think what the book does is provide a sweeping narrative of the 20th century to show us how we got where we are. And then, of course, it prescribes a solution. We try to simplify it. You know, it goes from Western Christian Paidea to the American Progressive Paidea, which lasts all the way up to basically 9-11. So think of the collective response we were able to have at 9-11, even with a progressive Paidia. Yes. Now we're about to have a culturally Marxist Paidia.

What in the world could we respond to internally and extra? We're going to go to another break. We've got plenty more. Don't go away. Folks, before we continue the conversation today, in our two, we've got way more with Pete Hegsef and David Goodwin. And then we're going to be talking from Zurich, Switzerland. He is the head of CSI International talking about what is happening in Ukraine with the refugees. I just love to talk to people who are directly involved.

It's a profoundly Christian organization. Yeah, and you could go to Metaxus talk.com right now, and you can donate. In fact, you ought to go to Metaxus. There's a lot of stuff you ought to do. I hate to put it on you, man. Yeah. Amen. But go to metaxis talk.com and you'll see the banner.

I also want to say I have a piece at the stream. I've been getting emails from a lot of people. Yeah. Because I read something in Christianity today some weeks ago that so shocked me. It's no different. I'm writing about this in my next book, Letter to the American Church, how the comparison of where many in the church are in America today to where many were.

in the church in Germany in the 30s, it is horrifying. The parallels are astonishing. And in this article in Christianity today, Russell Moore essentially does what the German pastors did in the 30s, before they had any clue where it was leading, but they're sort of demonizing a certain group or certain groups. They're the problem, and we all know they're the problem. And the parallel is chilling. So I write about it in my upcoming book, but I write about it. You can read about it at stream.org. It's an article. that I wrote rebutting what Russell Moore wrote

in the pages of Christianity today. I still can't believe he wrote it. I can't believe they published it. What I wrote about it, as I said, a lot of people are emailing me and thanking me for writing it. But I could not not write it. It was just, I said, I have to respond.

A couple of other quick bits of business. Do not forget, Socrates in the city, May 31st. If you know anybody who can get to New York City on May 31st, Tuesday night, Union League Club. We haven't done this in a long time. The man who walked on the moon 50 years ago is going to be sharing his faith. He's going to be sharing his story. I have to tell you, I am almost frightened at the level of excitement that I'm bringing to this.

May 31st, go to Socrates in the city.com. And also we want to welcome to Salem, Officer Tatum. You've heard of the famous Officer Tatum. We salute you. Larry Elder is moving over to Epic Times. and so his spot at Salem was open and we got Officer Tatum. Unbelievable. He was on the plane with me going to Mar-a-Lago.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I flew in those circles last week. And it was just kind of so cool to see him and his wife and kid. So for joining the faculty as Sebastian Gorka was there too. That's right. So welcome. Welcome to Officer Tatum.

And speaking of Salem, we want to say if you go to Salem now.com, There's a number of films there. You know, if you're looking for something decent to watch, it ain't easy. And so we try to help you by saying go to SalemNow.com. 2000 Mules is there. As you know, I'm in it. And I am very excited about America knowing what happened. It's going to change.

You're going to see history. I'm going to be really blunt. You're going to see history this year because this, it's taken a long time, but this information is getting out. what Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin write about with education, it's getting out. What happened in the election is getting out. The Hunter Biden laptop and the tremendous corruption of Joe Biden and a lot of these three-star agencies in America, the deep state, it is horrifying, but we're facing it. We're uncovering it.

It's getting out. So I want to encourage you to get the word out about 2,000. Can I just do? Yep. And can I do a quick congratulations to my first? parents who have been married 76 years. Of course, they both passed away many years ago, but they were loving and wonderful parents. So to Albina and Anthony Seder, congratulations on 76 years of marriage. That is, you know what? That is so beautiful. Thank you, Lord, for these men and women who stay together

through the years. Yeah, your parents as well. And bless their children for my folks. Oh, my goodness. All right. We'll be right back.