Worldview

Your worldview is initially formed from your reaction to your family, teachers, neighbors and friends. Much of what they believe politically influences what you believe. How you are treated and how you see others being treated offers positive and negative examples. What is important is how you react to these examples.

My family was affluent. The grandpa I spent the most time with was a physician, my other grandpa was a chemist, an executive and an investor; we called him Daddy War-bucks.  My parents were smart and fun, with good looks and were good money managers. They were all conservatives and understood economics.

All were well educated and verbal. I heard about the civil war from my great grandmother. My grandparents told me about the inventions they saw developed from the Industrial Revolution.  My aunts and uncles told me about the Roaring 20s and the Great Depression.

When I was age 10 they gave me a book titled American Communist Party Goals published in 1920. I read it and understood that we were vulnerable.  I determined that most of what my family said was true. We are still in danger of losing our Constitution, our freedom and our economy. All of the goals in that book have been accomplished.

My brain was wired to consider what sounded true and discard what sounded false. If information sounded true, I would look up more to confirm that it was true. If it was false, I just ignored it.

I was totally “self-directed”. I had no heroes. I was interested in what was said, not who said it.  This was useful in school. I became a “self-learner. I taught myself how to play the bugle, trumpet and guitar.

I paid attention in school and did enough homework to keep up, but I was not motivated to get straight As. School was easy for me and my schools were good, so I liked it.  . I always scored 2 grades ahead of my age group on standardized tests.

The kids in my grade school and high school were a riot. The teachers were tolerant, but really knew their subjects and very few were boring. I did all of my extra-curricular activities in high school.

By the time I entered college, I had good judgment. My college was conservative, but the courses included all viewpoints. Minors in Philosophy and Theology were required. I added English as a Minor to round out this “Classical Education” regimen. Psychology was the required Major for a Personnel career, but most of my Psychology courses were graduate seminars for undergraduate credit. I actually took more physical science and math courses than anything else.

My approach was to capture what sounded true and discard what sounded false. It was easy to see that what conservative philosophers said rang true and what others said rang false. It was the same for theology and psychology. I quickly identified the quacks and ignored them. I attended all lectures and read all required reading, but never crammed for tests, but concentrated on building my long-term memory. I was not planning to go to graduate school, so my GPA was irrelevant. I did become a “Fellow” in strategic studies in 1986.

I took 20 hours per semester and worked 6 nights a week as a musician. I was a commuter student and lived at home. I got married at age 21 and graduated from college 6 months later. I completed my BS degree in 3.5 years with a high score on the Comprehensive Exam.

My worldview was conservative. I understood the US Constitution and endorsed the private sector, free market economy. I endorsed very limited government. I endorse self-learning, personal responsibility and self-reliance. I believe the family is the essential economic unit in all economies as it has always been throughout history. I believe governments are corrupt and their powers should be limited. I believe government in the US needs to return to compliance with the US Constitution (as written).

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader