Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward

and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd....

Our contemporaries are constantly excited by two conflicting passions: they want to be led, and they wish to remain free. As they cannot destroy either the one or the other of these contrary propensities, they strive to satisfy them both at once. They devise a sole, tutelary, and all-powerful form of government, but elected by the people. They combine the principle of centralization and that of popular sovereignty; this gives them a respite: they console themselves for being in tutelage by the reflection that they have chosen their own guardians. Every man allows himself to be put in leading-strings, because he sees that it is not a person or a class of persons, but the people at large who hold the end of his chain. By this system the people shake off their state of dependence just long enough to select their master and then relapse into it again.1

EDUCATION AS A TOOL FOR HUMAN ENGINEERING

The third printout is dated 1904 and is a report issued by the General Education Board, one of the first foundations established by John D. Rockefeller, Sr.. The purpose of the foundation was to use the power of money, not to raise the level of education in America, as was widely believed at the time, but to influence the direction of that education. Specifically, it was to promote the ideology of collectivism and internationalism. The object was to use the classroom to teach attitudes that encourage people to be passive and submissive to their rulers. The goal was—and is—to create citizens who are educated enough for productive work under supervision but not enough to question authority or seek to rise above their class. True education was to be restricted to the sons and daughters of the elite. For the rest, it would be better to produce skilled workers with no particular aspirations other than to enjoy life. It was enough, as de Tocqueville phrased it, "that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing.

1. A l e x i s de T o c q u e v i l l e , Democracy in America, Vol. I I ( N e w Y o r k : A l f r e d K n o p f ,1945), p p . 290-91, 318-19.

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THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND

In the first publication of the General Education Board, Fred Gates explained the plan:

In our dreams we have limitless resources, and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands. The present educational conventions fade from our minds, and unhampered by tradition, we work our own good upon a grateful and responsive rural folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers of mental learning or of science. We have not to raise from among them authors, editors, poets, or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians, nor lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen of whom we have ample supply. The task we set before ourselves is very simple as well as a very beautiful one: To train these people as we find them to a perfectly ideal life just where they are.... in the homes, in the shop, and on the farm.1

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Here is the fourth computer printout from the past. It is a satire—and a warning. In the year 1949, George Orwell wrote his classic novel entitled 1984. In it, he portrayed the same "futuristic"

scenes that now lie before us as we sit in our time machine. His only error appears to have been the date that became the title of his book. If he were writing it today, it is likely he would call it 2054.