Glenn Beck Promotes Socialism to West Point Cadets
On his show last Friday, Glenn Beck did something quite unusual for a guy who makes his living scaring people into thinking that America is on the road to communism -- he promoted an idea straight out of the Paris Commune of 1871, an idea considered by the Commune to be a necessary stepping stone in the transition from capitalism to socialism to communism. And, to make it even more special, Beck did this before a studio audience of West Point cadets and faculty members.Beck and his philosophy are straight out of Marx and Stalin in many ways. Instead of a government collective, beck would have everyone work as obedient and grateful pawns for the corporate collective. The corporations write legislation, tell the lowly peon workers what to do and how to live their lives, have the wage earners right to sue for damages taken away. Marx would be proud that a guy who claims to be against collectivism is doing such a good job of selling it. beck is not only selling collectivism is good at convincing people that corporate collectivism and a powerless nation of workers is patriotic.
Now, the fact that West Point allowed a group of uniformed academy cadets and faculty to be used as props by Beck is a serious matter in itself, and I'll get to that in a minute, but Beck, in his zeal to slam Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, unknowingly promoting a core step towards socialism is just way too ironic to pass up. And what is this step towards socialism that Beck, in all his ignorance, was so enthusiastically promoting? That government employees and officials should never be paid more than what the average citizen earns.
In a 1911 speech about the Paris Commune -- a movement lauded by Marx as "heroic," and said by Lenin to have been "a practical step that was more important than hundreds of programmes and arguments" --Lenin pointed out the Commune's (and apparently now Glenn Beck's) position on government salaries: "And, as if to emphasize its character as a truly democratic, proletarian government, the Commune decreed that the salaries of all administrative and government officials, irrespective of rank, should not exceed the normal wages of a worker ..." I think maybe that crack research team (or research team on crack) that Beck is always boasting about should have done a bit more research for this show.
Now, back to the other issue with this episode of Beck -- the utter impropriety of West Point allowing Beck to use West Point cadets and faculty members for his studio audience.
According to CPT Olivia Nunn of West Point's Public Affairs office, the cadets and faculty members, all from the academy's Systems Engineering Department, were visiting the studios of FOX News as an academic exercise "to watch how news productions are done from beginning to end." The cadets appeared on several other FOX News shows on Thursday, answering questions about why they decided to join the military and their experience at West Point, and the faculty members answered questions about teaching there. All of this was perfectly appropriate. But then, on Friday, they appeared on Beck, which was completely inappropriate. Military personnel in uniform cannot engage in any activity that gives the appearance of supporting any political, religious, or ideological movement.
There is no question that, more than anything else, what Glenn Beck's show consistently promotes would be classified as an "ideological movement," fitting the dictionary definition of "ideology" to a tee: "a system of ideas and ideals, esp. one that forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy." Whatever the specific topic of any given Beck episode -- whether it's history, religion, politics, or just picking someone to bash for weeks on end -- all are clearly tied into the promotion of this ideology in one way or another. How can a studio audience full of uniformed West Point cadets and military officer faculty members clapping for Beck's overtly partisan rant against Congress not be seen as engaging in an activity that gives the appearance of military support for Beck's "ideological movement?"
As I wrote in a previous post about the problem of Glenn Beck's show being aired on the American Forces Network, and the complaints received by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) about televisions in PXs, gyms, and other facilities on military installations being regularly tuned in to Beck, Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) -- "Contempt toward officials" -- states: "Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct."
But on Beck's show last Friday, during which Beck spewed his typical contempt towards members of Congress, we had eighteen future Army officers, under the guidance of five faculty members -- four majors and a lieutenant colonel -- clapping on national television for statements that they, as military officers, could be court-martialed for uttering themselves.
As seen in the video above, in addition to being contemptuous towards Congress as a whole, Beck, of course, singled out Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in his rant about members of Congress whose wealth has increased during the time they've been in Congress, even though, according to Roll Call's 50 Richest Members of Congress list, Pelosi is only at number 13. But the wealthiest member of the House of Representatives is a republican -- Darrell Issa of California, whose minimum net worth for 2009, according to Roll Call, was more than seven times the net worth of Pelosi. And Harry Reid? Well, he didn't even make the top 50. But these pesky facts didn't stop Beck from insinuating that there's something suspicious about Pelosi and Reid having money. Exactly what Beck is implying isn't clear, but his intent certainly is -- plant the notion in his audience's heads that Pelosi and Reid have somehow gotten rich as a result of serving in Congress.
