What You Learn About the Government in School is Propaganda

I've been listening to a lot of Tom Woods' work on my iPod recently.  Even though I've heard this talk before, it still sounds fresh.  After hearing an historical talk like this, I am saddened and amazed at how abysmal our system has become.  The things we learn about US history are simply wrong.  The disturbing part is that because it is "in the textbook" or "everybody knows that"  - the adults in the room do no research, and, even more disturbing, refuse to look into the things they are teaching the young people in their charge.

The reason why the lecture below is called "Why You've Never Heard of the Great Depression of 1920" is because we are taught that FDR 'saved' the country from economic ruin by way of the New Deal.  The opposite is true, however.  The Great Depression was the first time that the government decided to roll up its sleeves and "do something".  Even a surface analysis of this topic doesn't look favorably on FDR and the New Deal.  If Roosevelt 'saved' the country and cured it from depression - why did it take so long?  There were other depressions, 1920 to be exact, and the government of the US did nothing.  As a matter of fact, the government LOWERED spending and taxes.  The Federal Reserve did nothing, as it was forbidden to participate in open market operations until 1922.  This chapter of history is simply forgotten - down the memory hole.  No one mentions it, and if they do, they gloss over the topic because it goes against the shibboleths that 'everybody knows'.  Why is this so?  Because it doesn't fit the paradigm of 'The State can solve all things, and if it weren't for our Wise Overlords, we'd be dirty and miserable - victims of the Free Market'.   In the old days, this would be called propaganda - now it's called Public Relations.  Nothing Woods brings up is unable to be found with a little digging.  As an experiment, tell an adult that you think that FDR saved the country from nothing and he should have let the market solve the problem.  You'll find an angry and frustrated person in front of you.

Basically, what your local public school has become is a mouthpiece for government propaganda.  An event like the depression of 1920, the lack of action by Pres. Harding and the federal government simply cannot be discussed as it won't make you a wide eyed drone worshipping at the feet of The State.  Anything relating to the free market, free market capitalism, rugged individualism or the gold standard is not taught, or openly mocked.   Woods displays this in this easily researched speech.  Your local schoolteacher cannot understand these events, as the textbook doesn't cover them adequately, if at all.  Anything that bodes favorably on the government and State Worship is pushed, and Real History and the strong individuals who created it are maligned.

Rather than stay stuck in the comic book version of history you had in 7th grade, learn from one of the great voices of the Libertarian Movement.