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| The CLA's flier is an orgy of American symbolism. |
With the basketball season finally coming to an end and the copious amounts of free-time that has afforded me I had the pleasure to indulge myself in one of my favorite of New Trier's extra-curricular offerings, Out-of-the-Box Club. This Thursday's speaker was a representative from a local chapter of the John Birch Society (
jbs.org). In a nutshell the JBS is an extra-Conservative, libertarian national organization founded on a near religious devotion to the Constitution and the protection of our constitutional republic against the threat of Communism wherever (if anywhere) it exists. While the representative that plenty of interesting things to say (including some not-so-PC comments about the Civil Rights Movement), what struck me most was the flier he handed out. It was basically an advertisement for the Campus Liberty Alliance (
campuslibertyalliance.com), which is the youth branch of the JBS national network. Absent from the flier was the McCarthy-esque fear-mongering and fiery opposition to all things un-American, and in its place was a milder call to action which would seem to appeal to any American. Here's the mission statement printed on the flier:
The mission of Campus Liberty Alliance is to educate our country’s future young leaders on faith, family, free enterprise and a free society, and to activate, equip and send them into the marketplace of ideas to recapture and proclaim the virtues of liberty.
I found this interesting in light of our class's focus on conscious construction. It seems to me that the JBS is using this flier as bait to draw in new recruits. It appeals to the sense of patriotism that are almost naturally installed in us as Americans without the hinting at the sharper, more radical thinking the society promotes. In fact the flier shows great empathy for its readers. Perhaps its this kind of advertising that has kept the society's membership steady for the past 50 years.
Max,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I think the most interesting thing about your post is the contradiction between the very focused views and beliefs of the JBS and the vague language in the mission statement. Although the flier reflects the religious views of the group using wording like "faith" and "virtues of liberty", it gives very little description of what the group's opinions on the topics listed are. If they had just given me the mission statement I would have very little idea of the incredibly conservative views of the JBS.
I think that you make a very interesting point, Max. But as justification for their actions, every party wants members, and not many people will openly call themselves extreme right wingers. So they have to package it all nice for the young kids to swallow and then get them to join the club. Then the will nudge them toward their point of view. Then its all a judgement call and rationalization on the part of the kids and their parents. So, it sounds kind of effective. Is this necessarily a bad thing?
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