I have been discussing “world view” for about a year now.  You would think I would not be shocked or surprised when the progressives among us say things like:

“I guess I am most disturbed by and disappointed by in this country, which is that the educated, so-called elite in this country is too small a percentage of the population.  So that you have this very large uneducated part of the population that carries these ideas..it’s much more about anti-intellectualism than it is about a political..”

Classic Progressive theology!!

The video is 11 minutes long, but you might want to watch it and find out what else Mr. Schiller has to say about those of us who are not a part of the self-appointed ruling elite.  You know who we are.  We are, according to Mr. Schiller: the white-middle-America-gun-toting, racist, not to mention “xenophobic” and anti-intellectual (i.e. stoopid) unwashed masses.  (OK, he didn’t say the unwashed masses part but he probably agrees with that description.)

My issue with this is less about NPR receiving taxpayer funds and more about how the world view of people like this insinuates itself into public programming that we think makes us smarter and our world better.

It’s time to insist that we have a serious discussion about just where this world view is leading us.  The fact that Mr. Schiller thought he was meeting with someone with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood adds a level of urgency that I believe cannot be ignored.

Add to this the fact that Betsy Liley, in this video, equates the questioning of the motives and ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood (in her words, “demonizing” the Muslim Brotherhood) with the internment of Japanese citizens during WWII.  Yes, Betsy, we’ve made some mistakes in the past.  It does not mean we don’t get to do some critical thinking about groups who have stated that they are dedicated to destroying Israel and the western way of life.  Asking hard questions and seeking explanations for the rhetoric spewed by Muslim extremists is not the same as “demonizing” an entire group of people. At least that’s what I believe.

But, then again, who am I to question one of the elite?

UPDATE: March 10th:  NPR Investigation Part II