Jeffrey Lord has a terrific article at American Spectator titled ‘Hillary and The Cult of ‘Best and Brightest’.  It really is a must read, but a key component of the piece is a reference to the book by David Halberstam The Best and the Brightest.

In fact, this … musing is only the modern version of exactly what David Halberstam described in The Best and The Brightest over three decades ago. The Best and The Brightest, of course, was the famous 1970s bestseller by the late New York Times reporter David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize winner. Halberstam chronicled the tragic tale of those liberal policymakers of the 1960s who were “modern, activist, contemporary men -- the best and the brightest -- who came to Washington to build us a Camelot and left behind them a country divided by war, torn by dissent.” He described these people, men with names like Robert McNamara, McGeorge Bundy, William P. Bundy, Dean Rusk, and of course Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, as men of “brilliance and hubris and [a] sense of themselves” who “manipulated the public, the Congress and the press from the start… told half-truths” whose “predictions turned out to be hopelessly inaccurate.”

Sound familiar in the context of current events?  Some of the names have changed, but the basic thread of arrogance and unwillingness to even discuss alternatives (“the science is settled”) remains.  What amazed me most was that he was discussing the Kennedy administration in less than glowing terms.  A New York Times reporter being critical of a popular, young, charming and charismatic Democrat office holder?  I don’t see any evidence of that sort of thing from the New York Times of today, nor any of the “usual suspects”, or as they are more commonly known, the mainstream media.

In mulling the idea that disagreement with the administration or any of its rabid supporters is greeted with threats if not attacks by the administration (consider the IRS targeting scandal, or the impounding of imported woods owned by Gibson Guitar company and a settlement costing Gibson $300,000), I realized that all these people have a single factor in common.  They are either professors at the more renowned universities in the United States or have been students at such universities.

One need only a few moments thought before concluding that the reason such people seem to find common cause with Che Guevara, Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin, and other totalitarian dictators for the past 100 years is that they feel comfortable with others of the same mindset.  And who could possibly be more authoritarian and dictatorial, more resistant to any and all resistance to their will, than teachers?  No wonder the schools of our country have shifted from education to indoctrination.  Ruling by diktat is accepted practice in our school system.  Makes no difference how idiotic the diktat might actually be, it is a Rule!  Common sense be damned!

As an example of the “It’s a Rule!” mentality and the totalitarian mindset that enforces those Rules, please consider the case of the young teenage girl forced to stand outdoors in sub-zero temperatures recently until she suffered frostbite. A fire alarm had gone off, forcing evacuation of the school, and the "rules" stated that no student could sit in a teacher's car. There was apparently only a single teacher who thought this was idiotic, and at least offered the kid their own coat to stave off the cold. Classmates also offered bits of their own clothing to the child.

There is no doubt that the teacher’s job is in jeopardy and the kids will be called in to the principal’s office to be lectured on not conforming to Rules unless a waiver of the Rule! in question has been issued.

It appears that teachers are the most totalitarian of dictators.  No wonder they feel comfortable supporting Obama and his thugocracy, while singing the praises of other dictators from all over the world. 

Of course it would be indecorous for our president to actually say “It’s a Rule”.  That would look childish.  That’s why he substitutes the phrase “It’s the Law of the Land” as a useful alternative.  But whether it’s a Rule, or the Law of the Land, the absence of all common sense in the face of reality is simply the act of a totalitarian dictator, regardless of whether it occurs in a school house, or in the White House.

Jim Yardley is a retired financial controller, a two-tour Vietnam veteran and writes frequently about political idiocy, business and economic idiocy and American cultural idiocy.  Jim also blogs athttp://jimyardley.wordpress.com/, and can be contacted directly at james.v.yardley@gmail.com