RUSH: Here’s Mary in Lincoln Park, New Jersey, great to have you on the program. Hello.
CALLER: Well, I thank you for having me. Long-time listener, first-time caller.
RUSH: Thank you very much.
CALLER: I was listening to you before saying how the libs get kids when they’re young and in college, and we’re not in pop culture. You know, I’ve been listening to you since I was 10 years old. I’m now 32. And they’ve never gotten to me. You know, I went to college; I graduated. I had to deal with all these crazy professors pushing their agenda on me, you know, and I just listened to my family, and they instilled those values in me, and it’s never changed. I’ve never wavered.
RUSH: Well, you know, that sometimes works, but a lot of kids rebel against their parents just to do it.
CALLER: I did rebel, too, in my own ways. But in my moral values and, you know, what I see what’s going on with the country after 9/11? Those are my values, and that’s what I stuck to.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: And no one changed me.
RUSH: Well, I know what you’re saying. If you have a really strong family, and if your mother and father are not afraid to tell you what’s right and wrong, then you can resist what’s gonna happen to you in education. I did. I rebelled though, just like you did, but my rebellion was not against what my parents believed politically. You know, I wanted to be part of what they were part of. I wanted to be quote/unquote in “the establishment” in the sixties and seventies.
What I rebelled against was, you know, going to college as a must to have a future. But I didn’t rebel against their morality; I didn’t rebel against their politics; I didn’t rebel against their definitions of right and wrong, but I every kid rebels in one way or the other. I don’t deny really strong parental figures can overcome later efforts by others — professors and friends, peers — to change people’s political points of view. However, it’s a fine line, because a powerful, unafraid parent…
A parent unafraid to tell a child what’s right and wrong — unafraid with no moral relativism whatsoever, “This is it” — runs the risk of being an autocrat as a parent, and kids will rebel against that. really, it can go either way. There’s no way of predicting it. In your case, your strong family insured you, gave you boundaries against whatever assaults you got later on. But there’s no predictive to that.
Sometimes what worked for you causes kids to hate their parents for a while.
I appreciate the call, Mary.
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RUSH: Sherry in Tampa, Florida. You’re next, EIB Network, hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush.
RUSH: Hey.
CALLER: Hey. Well, I have an eighth grade problem. My son come home last night, and he said they were talking about global warming.
RUSH: Uh-oh.
CALLER: Yeah, and he said, “That’s not really true.” The teacher said, “Well, how do you know?” And he said, “Well, my parents said so,” and the teacher said, “Your parents don’t know what they’re talking about.” We teach our kids to listen to their teachers and they do know what they’re talking about. I said, “Well, son, you listen to Rush. You love Rush.” He always talks about it, and he said, “Rush doesn’t know what he’s talking about, either.” So I don’t really know how to combat that at all. I don’t know what to tell him about who knows that they’re talking about.
RUSH: Yes, you do.
CALLER: I know.
RUSH: You’re like my parents. You want your kid to respect the teachers. I understand that.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: But you need to take him aside, and without talking about the teachers and if you don’t want him to disrespect them, without putting them down, just tell him the truth about global warming. The teachers don’t know. Well, you can’t say that.
CALLER: I told him they were trying to politicize it.
RUSH: No, don’t do that. Well, the kid —
CALLER: Well, he doesn’t understand.
RUSH: Yeah, he doesn’t understand. Just tell him on this the teachers are trying but that they’re wrong. They’re trying to do what’s right, but they’re wrong. I know you want to hold onto that respect-for-the-teachers thing.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: My parents did too.
CALLER: It’s public school.
RUSH: But don’t let them prevail on this. This is fundamental. Remember now, this is not global warming these people are teaching your kid. This is big government statism disguised as global warming. Tell him that. Tell him what the global warming thing really is. It’s not about global warming. Make him understand that. Make it a project. You can do it. I have every confidence that you can do it.