Today has been a very interesting day. I had occasion to enter into a long discussion with a dear and kind man, a close friend, who remains locked in the programming of public school rhetoric. What amazed me was my friend's absolute belief in the illusion that any government held any answers to any problems. I tried to open his eyes to the fact that government holds the answer to no problems, and is, in fact, the creator of most of the problems between humans around the Earth today.
Speaking quietly and patiently (rather than shouting, which I sorely wanted to do!), I explained how government had promoted legal slavery, legal sexism, legal apartheid, legal genocide, legal penal servitude, legal oppression, and many other - legal but not at all moral - systems and concepts. Government schools do this in no small part by programming young children to unquestioningly obey any other human who invokes the title of any sort of "authority." I then took him on a short stroll through a public school, explaining how little children are programmed to be obedient, conform their bodies to unnatural rules, pee only with permission, quench their thirst only with permission, move and talk only with permission, and obey, obey, obey.
Is any of this natural? Do we hang out and speak only when we have permission? Do we stand in lines, and discuss the need for or ask for permission to answer nature's call when we are with our peers in our "normal" everyday lives? Why, then, do you suppose little children are so programmed by government schools and government-paid teachers? They are thus programmed that they might have brains suitably and systematically configured to accept state orders without question!
I pointed out how little children are taught to speak obediently on demand - and only on demand - and to give the correct administrative answers, or else become subjected to shame before their class. How little children are not taught that they are cherished and precious, as each of us deserves to be taught, but rather are taught that their obedience and productivity according to strict guidelines determines their worth to the state and its extension, public schools, and the final extension, the state's paid "authority" in the classroom.
Remember how you may have feared the "principal", that person who held sway and had absolute power (you probably thought held the power of life and death) over innocent little children, and who was, in the mind of any innocent child, easily the biggest bully in the school? Think about how little children's minds are taught not to explore, question and celebrate their curiosity and the exquisite machinery of their bodies, but are taught instead to parrot exactly the same words as every other child, to stand their little healthy, active bodies in lines, to regiment their physical expressions to conform to the common allowed expressions of all the children in the room, as dictated to these children by the illusion of authority of the teacher.
Once taught to accept illusions without question and without critical examination, as school children in state schools are required to do, the human mind becomes conditioned to accept illusions and misconceptions without challenging these illusions and misconceptions against fundamental controlling concepts - especially since the child's (or adult's!) human mind may not have yet learned these controlling concepts.
I reminded this friend of how the posters and signs on the walls, and the adult's orders and discussions, allow into the minds of the child only those words, ideas, slogans, images and rules that work to promote the state. How these innocent little children are exposed only to those concepts designed to teach that the child is property of the state, and that the worth of the child is tied directly to their ability to conform, produce the correct answers according to state programs, to twist their bodies into little desks according to the prescribed posture and physical expressions allowed by the state, and to respond to bells, orders and expectations as a compliant member of a group. "Your worth is your obedience." How, as in any factory - and here, we are examining the state's factory for innocent human children - children can be observed moving from the first grade station of the human drone assembly line to the second grade station of the human drone assembly, not unlike so many pieces of industrial material being shaped to the end use of the state. How this assembly line of conformity and programming moves them onward through high school, state college, and into the factory or office, where the same rules, expectations, and required conformity continue to prevail.
Nowhere in this statist level of existence is any child or human taught that they are their own most precious possession, that they own their life, mind, body, and the product of their efforts. Nowhere are they taught to think for themselves. Nowhere are they taught that they possess minds of the same design and ability as the people who present to these innocents the illusion of revealed wisdom held only by the "authorities." Nowhere are these children taught that they have the same human rights, and same self-ownership as a part of their very identity as humans, as does every other person on earth.
When my friend whined, "But there are so many people! We need government to get things done!", I replied, "There are so many people! - enough for everything that needs to be done, once they know they are free! There are so many people! Who needs government inefficiency and inhumanity and soulnessness to get in the way of compassion, charity, the joy of teaching, and the ability of each of us to solve problems on our own!?"
When we have reached the ethical, spiritual and human level where we have come to know and share the knowledge of each person's individual uniqueness and absolute self-ownership - including their body, life, mind, and their expressions of creativity and survival, as well as their value and intrinsic worth - then we will be able to escape and they will be able to escape from the state.
We each long to know these truths about ourselves. Often, a few words are enough to reach the mind of another person. Some people need only a little valuing, love, and appreciation to awaken to their sovereignty. Some need years of teaching and reprogramming. Once we reawaken the wonderful faculty of curiosity that drives every human to ask questions and seek answers, we will watch their individual escapes from statist thinking. And however much they might need, giving love and appreciation, admiration and respect, are never wasted efforts. For once we begin to sense our worth, we claim ourselves, including our lives and bodies and minds, as our most prized possessions, and we begin to build a protective fortress from the principle of unalienable rights.
I find that we move more mountains, part more seas, and better educate others on how to liberate their own minds and selves, by giving love and expressing appreciation and respect, by pointing out their value, preciousness and uniqueness, than ever we have moved a mind through fear or shame. Teachers do that in public schools, thinking that fear of power (by power, I mean coercive force or its threat) and shame are good tools of teaching. When teachers who toil in state-controlled schools free themselves from their need for the sense of power that comes from their illusory title of authority, when they leave the lectern and sit with the students, becoming themselves human again, we will see the return of self-respect and self-ownership across our country, and around the world.
Quietem nemo impune lacesset.