Gee, "think for yourself"?
The Commonwealth continues to indulge in a perpetual whine-fest about how our “youths” (note the plural) can’t face the future without yet more government programs to wipe their collective noses. Education programs, job training programs, recreational facilities, a youth congress, and so on. For all our talk about free markets here, we don’t seem to have the foggiest notion of what they are.
Sure, some intelligent government planning can’t hurt, but we’re up against the prospect of entire generations dependent on cradle to grave checks from government, be it local or federal.
Japan’s visible and vocal concerns about crime here–much of it aimed at Japanese tourists– prove the obvious: the leap from a welfare state to a crime ridden ghetto state is but a small step. You can’t have one without the other.
Meanwhile–believe it or not–there are some people who have actually–gasp–done things for themselves and made a success of it. And so I offer a quintessential American success story, someone who made a name for himself (and probably a fortune, too) by doing things his way and by sticking to his guns. I refer to self-styled web journalist Matt Drudge, the guy who puts out the Drudge Report (www.DrudgeReport.com).
Is there a journalist left in the world who doesn’t check this report every day?
Drudge is the guy who broke the Monica Lewinsky story, which pretty much opened up the road to stardom for him. And opened it up for her too, come to think of it, though some of her openings had already received high level attention.
Drudge is a maverick, a self-styled journalist, a self-made man. In the land of the cubicle clones, such independent tendencies don’t go unpunished, and Drudge has attracted the ire of the crooked and entrenched news media, as well as the envy of a lot of people who just plain don’t have the kind of guts that he’s got.
And it should be noted that Drudge, like the world’s richest man Bill Gates, holds no college degree. He, like Gates, had an idea–a vision–and he followed it. So much for pedagogy.
Drudge has now made the leap from the cyber world to the real live world of print. His book, the “Drudge Manifesto,” will hit the stands soon. It’s already received a review in the Washington Post, which is an eyebrow raiser, given that the Post is one of the most snotty and elitist bastions of the fourth estate.
And, worry not, you won’t have to take the Post’s word for things. As soon as I get my grubby paws on Drudge’s book, I’ll drag my ocular organs over it and pen a screed for your benefit in this very space.
In the meantime, maybe our youth centers and schools and endless alphabet soup of government agencies should by an entire shipping container of Drudge Manifestos and hand them out along with CHC’s free condoms.
Attach a little card to the package: “If you can’t read, write, and think for yourself, then you’re really screwed.”
