AntiPC

The left and the media (isn’t that redundant) likes to paraphrase President Eisenhower’s farewell address summarizing the speech as “beware of the military industrial complex”, which he did say as quoted in part below:

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

What is never quoted is the prescient next few sentences of the speech:

“Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.”

Did you get that? Let me repeat the really important part again:

“The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.”

Can anyone cite an instance where government money in academe and research has resulted in something horrific or otherwise destructive to the country (and in some cases, the world)? Say, would train car loads of government funny money in academic research possibly have something to do with the new religion of global warming (now called global climate change)? Would all of those fine, upstanding professors actually cook the books for the purpose of keeping the cash pouring in? We know the data is false and that the models are wrong (too many variables ignored), and we know that the gloom and doom preaching has reached a state not seen since medieval Europe when the Catholic church punished anyone who disagreed with their view of the world and the universe (anyone notice all the politico, academics and media drones calling for punishment of “climate change deniers”…sound vaguely familiar?).

So follow the money to Gore’s "climate" cabal and the river of government money and you will realize that it is all about money and control, not the health of the planet. On that note, given the catastrophic history of this little orb, there is absolutely nothing we can do to threaten the planet – it will continue on with or without us and it will continue to change and get hit with cosmic junk for billions more years.

But I digress. The GW scam is only one example of government cash gone wild. Eisenhower was wise enough to see where the government-academic complex was headed and he tried to warn us. I think his government-academic complex warning was more dire than the much quoted “military-industrial complex” statements (the military is but one source of cash flowing into academe). He may have been basing the warning on what he saw developing in the US but also what he saw perpetrated by German and Japanese “scientists” at the behest of, and with the funding of their governments during WW II….