The American Hot Box

“Hot Box” is the term to describe the situation when a group studies everything from a singular perspective. It’s a situation where few options exist outside of those provided. Of course the implementation of a hot box varies from one situation to another, but always the conclusions are the same.

All educational hot box environments are built around a singular worldview. That is only to be expected. That’s the nature of any targeted educational system. One would not expect any system to pursue goals other than those prescribed in its stated goals. To do otherwise would destroy the credibility of any such system as it would lack the expected integrity.

Back in the 70s in Christian education we were debating the efficacy of the Christian school as a hot box. Were we removing children from possible influence in the public school? Were we removing parents from the opportunity to interact with influence in PTA and similar groups within their local school district? Were we giving children a rich enough education? These were critical questions of the time because, at that time, the curriculum of the public school systems was not so far down the road as it is today.

In the 70s we could look at public education and see more the influence of Hegel and a dialectical worldview and less the influence of Marx. Science was built around cycles. Students were groomed to view the world as material with everything running in repeating patterns. The most prominent was and is the water cycle. Water evaporates, condenses, rains, pools, and the cycle repeats. Governing systems were also viewed as cyclical, so that if go to the right or the left you would end up with either a (supposed) right-wing totalitarian Nazi regime or a left-wing Communist regime. Linear thought was rejected in favor of cycles.

The presence of Marx’ influence we could see. The Frankfurt School’s influence in sex education was just becoming established. It had been on the fringes for a long time but was at that time being adopted widely. Still, something so blatantly Marxist in a minority status as the volume of parental rejection was high. In retrospect we should have known better.

Today we are further down the road. Not only has the manipulation of the Frankfurt school become a piece of core curriculum but the principles of Critical Theory have become essential components. This may be observed in action without having to read the curriculum. Simply note how many massive school marches for “social justice” take place with students who know nothing about the topic but what they have been taught in school. These are happening more frequently and every year one sees a number of them on television as a sort of show-case object lesson for adults.

Education extends beyond schools. In the 2012 campaign then-Vice President Joe Biden stated that Will and Grace was a recognized educational tool. “I think ‘Will & Grace’ probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody has ever done so far,” he said. “This is evolving.” The cast of the show responded as one might expect.

CBS’ FBI and ABC’s The Rookie, just to cite two shows that I’ve watched recently, make the case, on a regular basis, for a pro-homosexual and anti-white agenda. The FBI discussion is frequently centered on apparent “anti-Muslim” rhetoric. A recent episode of The Rookie took aim at police in general, white people as incapable of understanding, and a number of other stereotypes.

This is nothing new. Training in the various components of Marxist thought has been around for decades. One only needs to observe the anti-capitalist framing of Holiday with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn or the equivalent in Shining Time Station where the one trying to buy and sell instead of living for today is looked down upon. What is different today is that the whole of entertainment, (what is called) news, and schooling is built around.

Entertainment is education. The whole of our social structure has become a hot box.

If we were to emphasize homeschooling as a response we would be doing well. But that, for the most part, limits us to operations within our churches. What is needed is anything that gets us outside our four walls. The challenge is to be creative. But the imperative came yesterday.