The radical social engineers have always known that in order to succeed with their coercive utopian agendas, they must take children away from families. Two and a half millennia ago Plato wrote extensively in his Republic about how children really belong to the state, and the education of children is the responsibility of the state, not parents. And this education must be compulsory for all children, he insisted.
The communists of course knew the value of breaking up the family and taking children away to brainwash them in the ideology of the state. Vladimir Lenin for example was quite proud to proclaim, “Destroy the family, destroy the nation.”
Hitler also knew this full well. He once said, “This new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing.” Nothing too subtle there: indoctrination must begin at an early age. Indeed, he also said, “Your child belongs to us already”.
All the totalitarians and statists have known how important this is: children must be stripped away from their parents and re-educated by the state. Sadly we have not learned the lessons of history here. The secular left in the West today still thinks the same way.
They still believe families are bad and that parents are oppressors. Children must be liberated from these outdated institutions and freed from their enslaving mothers and fathers and raised by an all-knowing and benevolent state. Or at least that is how they view things.
We had another ugly example of this just recently. A professor of political science at Tulane University and an MSNBC host, Melissa Harris-Perry, spilled the beans on her statist views when she actually said this not too long ago:
“We have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families and recognize that kids belong to whole communities. Once it’s everyone’s responsibility, and not just the household’s, then we start making better investments.”
Yep, she actually said that. We must dismiss the idea that parents have any claim to their own children, and instead allow the “community” (read: the state) to raise them, since the state knows far better than parents how to bring them up.
Of course this is more of the same foolishness that Hillary Clinton dished up years ago when she said ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. Um no, it does not take a village. It takes a mother and a father. Sure, extended families come into play here, but the idea that strangers or bureaucrats or the state is best placed to raise our children is sheer idiocy, and just statist propaganda.
Indeed, even the UN has acknowledged the importance of families and parents for the wellbeing of children. Consider this for example: “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and State” (The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, Article 16, no. 3). And this: “Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children” (Article 26, no. 3).
Yet the secular left thinks this is just so much baloney, and the nanny state must step in to properly do the job. I am not the only one appalled at all this. Other social commentators have also raised their concerns here. For example, Gary DeMar said in part:
“Like all good liberals, Harris-Perry believes that she and her cadre of social do-gooders are better equipped to raise other people’s children, the ones that survive abortion, that is. Prior to the collective taking over the care of our children, according to Harris-Perry, you can kill them at will. They are ‘things’ until the State says they are beneficial to the State and should live.
“Former Texas Republican senator Phil Gramm tells the story about the time he was on an interview show with an educational elitist who held to a worldview similar to that of Harris-Perry. He told her, ‘My educational policies are based on the fact that I care more about my children than you do.’ She said, ‘No, you don’t.’ Gramm replied, ‘Okay: What are their names?’
“The modern liberal collective mentality is a less extreme version of The Matrix, but it’s just as insidious. They want all children plugged into the collective so their energies can be used to grow the State and to be dependent on the State. A statement that Benito Mussolini made comes to mind: ‘Everything for the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State’.”
Glenn Beck tore into this foolishness as well. He said of her statement: “It’s almost a parody of reality. It is so far beyond what we have ever thought as a nation, it’s remarkable… This is exactly what we warned about. This is the fulfillment of so many things that we have said on this program…
“It’s already being implemented with Common Core. It’s already been implemented here in Texas with CSCOPE. You don’t have a right to see as a parent what your children are learning. You go to a Texas school and say, ‘Let me see the curriculum.’ You can’t. ‘Let me see that test that you are teaching through CSCOPE.’ You can’t. You’re a parent. You don’t have a right to know.”
He also referred to Agenda 21, which promotes “the collective” over the individual. This is something he and others have been warning about for years now. For some more information on this, see here:
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/51397
http://www.andysrant.com/2012/12/agenda-21-is-real-so-how-will-it-affect-you.html
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/9387-agenda-21-and-the-movement-toward-a-one-world-govt
The collectivists and the leftists have been pushing all this social engineering and anti-family agenda for centuries now. Obama and his buddies are making real progress in bringing all this about. Yet sadly too many of the warnings are going unheeded.
Given that Margaret Thatcher has just passed away this week, it is well worth closing with one of her many memorable quotes, so very appropriate in this context: “Our children need strong families raising them with sturdy virtues, not to be smothered in the cold arms of the state.”
Thanks Bill, I saw this too… I’m so glad we still have the freedom to homeschool our children, the idea of a state school is frightening to me as a follower of Christ.
Liz Gee
Yes quite right Liz, although we cannot assume we will even have that right for much longer the way things are going.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Hi Bill
I noticed in the write up by Canada Free Press that smart meters have been implicated as part of Agenda 21. After having a smart meter installed at our home in Mount Eliza in October 2011, within a few days my wife and I began to get ringing in the brain and other neurological problems. The electricity company were adamant they couldn’t replace it, so we took our case to the Victorian Ombudsman. After 6 months of deliberations (while we slept on the street in our little camper van), their pronouncement was that, as it was within Australian guidelines, the meter would not be removed. The options they gave us were these: (1) remove the main fuse and live without power, (2) remove the smart meter at our expense and live without power, or (3) sell your house and move elsewhere. Talk about dictatorship.
As a result, my wife and I have moved to Queensland where the roll-out of smart meters has not yet been mandated, but we think it may not be too long before they begin to rear their ugly heads here.
There is a grass roots movement around the world to stop the spread of these rotten things. Go to stopsmartmeters.com.au to see what can be done about this evil.
Vic Trudeau, Mooloolaba
There is a new movement out there called Communitarianism (which is a “new” name for old Socialism/Communism) It sounds most benign to many. What is wrong with putting the community’s interests first? Only if it denies the individual. It much of it does not put the community’s interest first, either.
From being forced onto the UN “Big Brother’s” Smart Meter Grid. (I am still holding out on that — but for how long? People have been arrested in the USA for doing just that.). Our provincial BC, Canada government is threatening us hold outs with “re-education” in order for us to comply with the “communitarian” rule.
We now have micromanaging local governments telling us what we can or cannot do on our private property; what we can or cannot throw out in our garbage (recycling and organics collections). And incandescent lightbulbs will be phased out completely, next year, for more dangerous CFL’s (we must recycle those also, they dictate) — LED’s are crazy expensive!
The poor are becoming poorer, while big government and corporations are becoming richer and more powerful, lording over us all. The middle-class is becoming extinct. The near-precipice collapse of the US and other European countries is almost complete.
We are indeed entering the “end times”, with the darkening road leading to an eventual “One World Order”. I do not believe we can stop the inevitable, as prophesized in Revelation (we may only be able to delay the inevitable.)There is an excellent Italian proverb that comes to mind regarding the situation at hand:
“After the game, the King and the pawn go into the same box.”
No one escapes, except for the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ. In Him, we believe.
Monica Craver
In the “swinging sixties” we started sowing the wind. Now,for our apathy, we’re reaping the whirlwind and there’s the big daddy of all tornadoes on the way. We need to be watchmen and it is never too late for God to intervene. You’re an example and an encouragement to us Bill. Thanks.
Anna Cook
Thanks Bill, I saw this too… I’m so glad we still have the freedom to homeschool our children, the idea of a state school is frightening to me as a follower of Christ.
Liz Gee
Yes quite right Liz, although we cannot assume we will even have that right for much longer the way things are going.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Hi Bill
I noticed in the write up by Canada Free Press that smart meters have been implicated as part of Agenda 21. After having a smart meter installed at our home in Mount Eliza in October 2011, within a few days my wife and I began to get ringing in the brain and other neurological problems. The electricity company were adamant they couldn’t replace it, so we took our case to the Victorian Ombudsman. After 6 months of deliberations (while we slept on the street in our little camper van), their pronouncement was that, as it was within Australian guidelines, the meter would not be removed. The options they gave us were these: (1) remove the main fuse and live without power, (2) remove the smart meter at our expense and live without power, or (3) sell your house and move elsewhere. Talk about dictatorship.
As a result, my wife and I have moved to Queensland where the roll-out of smart meters has not yet been mandated, but we think it may not be too long before they begin to rear their ugly heads here.
There is a grass roots movement around the world to stop the spread of these rotten things. Go to stopsmartmeters.com.au to see what can be done about this evil.
Vic Trudeau, Mooloolaba
There is a new movement out there called Communitarianism (which is a “new” name for old Socialism/Communism) It sounds most benign to many. What is wrong with putting the community’s interests first? Only if it denies the individual. It much of it does not put the community’s interest first, either.
From being forced onto the UN “Big Brother’s” Smart Meter Grid. (I am still holding out on that — but for how long? People have been arrested in the USA for doing just that.). Our provincial BC, Canada government is threatening us hold outs with “re-education” in order for us to comply with the “communitarian” rule.
We now have micromanaging local governments telling us what we can or cannot do on our private property; what we can or cannot throw out in our garbage (recycling and organics collections). And incandescent lightbulbs will be phased out completely, next year, for more dangerous CFL’s (we must recycle those also, they dictate) — LED’s are crazy expensive!
The poor are becoming poorer, while big government and corporations are becoming richer and more powerful, lording over us all. The middle-class is becoming extinct. The near-precipice collapse of the US and other European countries is almost complete.
We are indeed entering the “end times”, with the darkening road leading to an eventual “One World Order”. I do not believe we can stop the inevitable, as prophesized in Revelation (we may only be able to delay the inevitable.)There is an excellent Italian proverb that comes to mind regarding the situation at hand:
“After the game, the King and the pawn go into the same box.”
No one escapes, except for the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ. In Him, we believe.
Monica Craver
In the “swinging sixties” we started sowing the wind. Now,for our apathy, we’re reaping the whirlwind and there’s the big daddy of all tornadoes on the way. We need to be watchmen and it is never too late for God to intervene. You’re an example and an encouragement to us Bill. Thanks.
Anna Cook