RUSH: Tampa, Florida, Eric, you’re next in Open Line Friday. Hello, sir.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. First time, long time. I am a college student, and I’m going to be spending this upcoming semester in England. So I was wondering, college students who are conservative have enough issues with the overwhelming liberal bias on college campuses.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: Do you think now being on the most liberal spot in one of the most, more, liberal places in the world, do you think it would be better for me, as a student there, to um…discuss my conservatism, or just keep my head low?
RUSH: This is easy. First, where are you going? Is this Oxford, by any chance, that you’re going to?
CALLER: This is Middlesex University outside of London.
RUSH: Middlesex. You need to take this seriously as a great opportunity. You may be surrounded by a bunch of these, you know, commie libs. This is not the time to shirk. Hanging around these people, the first thing you must maintain is a cheerful, optimistic outlook about your life, about your day. You’re a happy guy. You go over there. You’ve got an opportunity. You’re a happy guy. You can laugh at things. If political discussions come up, which they no doubt will, do not lie low. Do not keep your head down. You don’t need to be argumentative, and you don’t need to be aggressive or anything, but don’t be afraid to discuss this stuff. It will help you hone your beliefs and be able to express ’em. After all, you’re going to college. Going to college really is about opening up your mind and teaching your mind how to work, not becoming a sponge and a robot for propaganda and indoctrination. So talking to these people with good cheer, ah, they may make you mad, but talk to them with good cheer. Make them your friends if you can, and learn how to express what you feel, what you think in these adversarial circumstances, and you’ll get better at it every time it happens. It will increase your confidence level by being able to do it. So, no, this is a great opportunity. You might even persuade some. You never know. It’s tough, but you might even persuade some of them.
CALLER: All right.
RUSH: You probably won’t be alone. I mean you will be outnumbered.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: Because you’ve correctly identified the hotbed of activity that exists over there. But, no, look at it as an opportunity, and by the time it’s all over with, you will have even strengthened your own convictions by being surrounded by all this. Plus, what year of college are you in now?
CALLER: I am actually in my senior year. Once I’m done over there I only have one more semester.
RUSH: Well, this is a golden opportunity. You’ve been surrounded by commie libs at whatever school you’re going to now, correct?
CALLER: Heavens, yes!
RUSH: All right. Well, it’s not going to be any different over there, and they’re not… It’s all in your attitude. If you get combative and argumentative with anybody, you’re going to alienate them, if you get aggressive. They probably will be with you, but that’s especially when you laugh. You just act like it doesn’t bother you and they’re crazy.
CALLER: Which might be true.
RUSH: Well, it is! All of which is true. So you’re going to be honest, be who you are, let the stuff they say about you that’s not true bounce off. Don’t take any of it personally. Understand they’re really not even talking about you. Everybody, most everybody, talks about themselves when they start complaining about other people anyway. So use this as a great opportunity that you have, especially if it’s your last semester. Have fun with it.
CALLER: Okay. Thank you, Rush.
RUSH: You bet. Happy, happy to help.
RUSH: Adam in Avon Park, Florida, you’re next, sir, on Open Line Friday.
CALLER: Mega dittos, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Appreciate it. Yep. It’s a pleasure. I heard on the news on the radio yesterday — and you may have heard this, too, but — it was talking about the Army is asking a team of doctors to go to Iraq to figure out why the suicides are happening over there. It is said that experts in this… I got this off of the Internet yesterday, it was USAToday.com. It was by Gregg Zoroya. I wanted to be politically correct as far as giving him the… Anyway, just wanted to say that, it says, ‘Experts say harsh and dangerous living conditions combined with a long deployment can worsen existing depression.’ I definitely feel for the individuals, you know, especially the family members of these individuals who have committed suicide, but it just hit me that this is going to be a prime opportunity for the liberals and Hillary to sit there and blame Bush for not bringing the troops home.
RUSH: Ah, they’ll blame Bush. They will blame the military. Like, this is a common refrain. One of the narratives or templates today is: ‘War turns gentle, docile, animal-loving, wonderful young men and women into murderers, into barbarians and then they kill themselves. War is hell, and we must stop it.’ Hell, there was a story we had last week, an unbelievable story, that child abuse by the spouse of a military person who’s still here — the military person has been deployed and the spouse is here — that the abuse that the spouse dishes out to the kids is horrible because the military spouse is deployed and not home. And guess what? It just so happens that white military wives are far more abusive of their kids than blacks or Hispanics. So they have these narratives and they have these stories, and they can fit any story they want into the template, and I think if hey get on this case, ‘We have a lot of sympathy for these poor soldiers. Look at what war is doing to them. Look what Bush is doing to them. We must stop this and bring them home.’ True enough, but it’s like everything else they try. It’s going to fall flat. People have more common sense today than to fall prey to this kind of stuff. Plus, they make these kinds of charges so often that after awhile you just don’t pay attention to it because it’s one thing after another, and you run out of energy to do it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I have a quote for you, and I want to run this by you. We’ll explore the application of this quote a little later. It’s from Marcus Aurelius. ‘The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding one’s self in the ranks of the insane.’ That’s great advice for anybody going to college these days.