Unbending Some Twigs
Sam Aurelius Milam III
| 'Tis education forms the common
mind:
Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined. —from Moral Essays
by Alexander Pope |
I
recently came into possession of a box of used video and audio recordings.
I've been sorting through them, deciding what to keep and what to discard.
One particular recording demanded special attention.
I
don't know who made the recording. The videocassette wasn't labeled.
It shows a children's program, in a large room that's decorated with pictures
of American historical figures, and with bunting, stripes, and balloons,
all in red, white, and blue. It shows the children solemnly approaching
a stage, in single file, with their hands clasped behind their backs, while
the Star-Spangled Banner is being played on a piano. Pews
were available for seating, so the large room was probably a church.
If that's the case, then the abundance of nationalistic symbolism suggests
a cavalier disregard for the doctrine of the separation of church and state.
I'm
not good at estimating ages, but the children seemed to me to be about
five or six years old. At the beginning of the program, they recited
three formal oaths of allegiance. Their recitation was difficult
to understand but, to the best of my ability to understand it, the oaths
were to the U.S. flag, to a Christian flag, and to the Bible. The
children weren't old enough to understand the oaths, or to be legally bound
by them, but the real harm in subjecting children to such behavior is that
it tends to condition them to mindlessly submit to other oaths, later in
life, when they're old enough for it to matter. The oaths were also
a further suggestion of the tacit approval of a unified institution, consisting
of both church and state.
The
children sang or recited various pieces. The words were difficult
for me to understand but, of those that I did understand, some could be
construed as nationalistic propaganda. That might not matter with
adults but these were impressionable children under the influence of a
strongly religious and political setting.
The
video showed that the children were being supervised entirely by women.
By my count, there were five black women and one Asian woman. Only
the pianist was white. That might have been just happenstance.
The children performed their songs and oaths as members of a choir.
With only one exception, they didn't get to perform as individuals.
In fact, there were three microphones, not one. The children recited
political slogans at the microphones, but only in unison, and only in mixed-gender
or mixed-race groups of two or three children each. That wasn't just
happenstance. To me, it seemed more like dogmatically enforced political
correctness. I'm wary of that sort of thing. Even political
correctness can become a religion, especially in a church, and religions
are notorious for punishing people who violate their dogma.
The
children are shown to be immersed in a powerfully patriotic and devoutly
religious setting. I expect that the slogans, oaths, propagandistic
lyrics, and politically correct staff and training are likely to condition
their minds with reflexes that could take the place of thinking for years
into their futures, maybe for their entire lives. I recall, from
more than 60 years ago, being in a similar environment myself, except,
of course, for the political correctness and the feminism. The nationalism
was about the same. That suggests to me why the government can so
easily deceive us and manipulate us, today. See Hindsight,
Blindsight, in the July 2011 issue. As children, we were
conditioned to mindless obedience and jingoistic nationalism. We
were conditioned to uncritically accept false assumptions and misinformation.
It seems to me that the same kind of thing is still happening to the children,
today.
I
noted in Enemies
of Liberty, in the April 2011 issue, that when free public education
becomes mandatory public education, then education becomes brainwashing.
If the indoctrination of the children is actually as thorough as it appears
to be in the video, then I suggest that the time is long past when we should
just start keeping the children at home.
The
video
is available in The Sovereign's Library. Go to sovereign-library.org.uk,
click on Main Directory, click on Videos, and scroll down
to Indoctrinating the Children. Watch the video and make your
own decision.
| July 2020 | Frontiersman,0c/o
4984 Peach Mountain Drive, Gainesville, Georgia 30507
http://frontiersman.org.uk/ |
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