This year, around 900 students from 41 pilot schools across the country will sit the first ever Leaving Cert exam for ‘Politics and Society’. Introduced in 2016, the new subject supposedly is designed to educate students in regards to both left and right political theory, human rights and other major global issues.

At first, it seems like a great addition to the Leaving Cert curriculum, giving students with a passion for politics a way of capitalising on their interest and allowing them to turn their own private reading and research into hard-earned CAO points. However, like almost all government initiatives these days, once you dig into the material, you find that it stinks of the most subversive elements of ‘progressivism’.

This can be seen in even how the subject was first initially advertised and reported on. The Irish Times, for example, reported on the story, leading with the line: “Students will learn about key thinkers such as Karl Marx and concepts such as capitalism”.

Make no mistake, there is nothing wrong with teaching children about Marx or communism in general, however, if the line read “Students will learn about key thinkers such as Julius Evola and concepts such as egalitarianism”, then there is no doubt that those on the left would call into question the nonpartisan phrasing which supposedly represents the nature of the subject.

The Irish Times also describes how students would be called upon to “critically evaluate ideas such as capitalism”, which, to steal a term from the left, is a blatant dog whistle to the Marxist elements within our modern society. The kind who enforce equality of outcome whilst jeopardising meritocracy and personal responsibility.

However, once you look into the course curriculum of the new course, it soon becomes clear that how the Irish Times reported on Politics and Society was no misrepresentation. Although the course does involve studying some classic 17th century political thinkers such as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, the list of philosophers in regards to the late modern and postmodern era are skewed completely towards the hard left.

The course goes as far as the aforementioned Karl Marx on the left, however only goes as far right as Hobbes, or Robert Nozick if we are discussing 19th century philosophy upwards, who was a libertarian.

If the course was truly balanced, there would be discussion of the rise of far right philosophy, especially during the 20th century. If we are going to be discussing communism and its merits, why not the merits of nationalism? Where is Evola? Where is Nietzsche? Where is Gentile? If the plan was to educate the youth about communism and its failings, that what is the harm of educating the youth about fascism and its failings?

Not to mention the fact that there is a complete absence of classical thinkers on the course; Plato and Aristotle, the twin pioneers of Western thought, are nowhere to be seen.

It’s because teaching the youth about politics and society was never the plan. The plan was clearly to teach the impressionable youth about the legitimate failings of the capitalist system, and then indoctrinate them with the idea that the socialist solution is the only solution.

Had the course even included reference to conservative or right-wing ideologies, then in teaching the subject teachers would have to acknowledge that there is no consensus in how to approach the problems of modern society. The curriculum of this subject makes the problems of the current age a dialectic between the centrists and the far-left, and as such erases the existence of the right and all of its proposed solutions to these aforementioned problems.

It doesn’t matter whether you agree or not with these solutions, this skewing of the political debate in the classroom jeopardises the neutrality of a state education, and eventually the state in general and makes it so that the left and centrist established doctrines, held by the likes of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and every other party in the Dáil, have a monopoly over the minds of the youth.

However, as they say: “the proof is in the pudding”, or, in this case, it’s in the exam paper, and even the most cursory glance over the sample papers for this year’s exam published by the State Examinations commission is enough to prove that the subject has been totally subverted.

The paper is dotted with questions like “name three social structures that perpetuate patriarchy” and “Marxists would argue that those who have the most power or influence can make rules that suit their own interests and not the interests of everyone in the community”, as well as excerpts from legacy media sources depicting Trump as a fat buffoon and perpetuating the wage gap myth.

The paper itself even makes the assumption that climate change is a primarily human caused phenomenon, despite the fact that a majority of geoscientists were found to be sceptical of that view. The entire paper reads like it was written not to test the students’ knowledge, but with the purpose of being a propaganda litmus test designed to examine how successful the indoctrination of Ireland’s children has been.

But the most damning evidence that this extreme left bias does not come from the state itself, but from the third party textbooks specifically designed to help students pass exams. These are so important since they ruthlessly cut out any extraneous information in order to allow the student to achieve the top grade with as little effort as possible.

Looking at one of these textbooks ‘Power And People’ from educate.ie, it quickly becomes clear how complete the exclusion of right wing politics is in the course; no surprise given the Marxist salute on the cover.

In its concluding part for its section on the media, the book lists the four perspectives students need to know for the exam. The four are: Marxist, neo-Marxist, postmodernist and pluralist. There is no populist perspective. There is no religious or Catholic perspective. There is only the centre, the left, and the far-left. The rest is haram and so is not to be mentioned.

Nothing is sacred in modern Ireland, at least not to the ‘progressive’ cult. They will use anything available to them in order to further their goal, to cut, melt and remold society into their socialist utopia. The education system is no exception.
For those of us on the right, it would be wise that we remember this fact. In regards to this new subject, it is clear that it was not created to educate our children, but to indoctrinate them into thinking that socialism is the only solution to the problems of the modern age. It is yet another weapon of the so-called ‘progressive’, a tool to be used against us. As such, we must work to boycott and dismantle this new tool, and the best way to do so is to simply spread the word; the Leaving Certificate has been subverted.

Peter Caddle

Posted by Peter Caddle

Peter is the Burkean's resident expert on all things popular and cultural.