How statists indoctrinate their victims

published Mar 19, 2013, last modified Jun 26, 2013

It's "not indoctrination" if they do it.

You went to "civics class". You were threatened with "bad grades" (and the consequences thereof) if you didn't parrot all the "good stuff that government does for you" on the tests.

You were told explicitly and led to believe implicitly, over the course of twelve years, that there is a magical entity, fully invisible, which was created "by the will of the people", divided into three holy branches, which authorize a small group of people to do exceptional, "necessary and good" things that, committed exactly in the same way by anyone else, would be just wrong.

Such as, for example, kidnapping is wrong, but if you are a "government agent", it's "not kidnapping" because it's called "arrest", and it's virtuous. Or mass murder, which is just plain wrong, but if you are a "soldier", then it's "not mass murder" but "war" which is much necessary, and don't you know they do it to protect your freedoms.

Attending these ceremonies was mandatory, and there was punishment if we didn't prove that we could memorize all the attributes of the holy trinitygovernment, its magical Commandmentslaws, how those who refuse to obey the Commandmentslaws are sinners who must be sent to Hell criminals who must be sent to rape cages, and how everything would turn to Judgment day when people cease believinghow necessary belief in the entity is for peace and love. There is literally no element of this cult you subscribe to, that cannot be mapped to a legacy monotheist cult. Even "treason" maps to "being faithful to another God".

And so, you were trained to be terrorized of the punishment that representatives of this entity were allegedly "authorized" to dole out (up to and including death, if you resist them with defensive force, which they counterfactually will call "dangerous aggression" even though they are the ones initiating threats and force), thus training you into unquestioning obedience of their Commandmentslaws. And you were also trained to call that "love""allegiance".

They even made you chant mind-numbing prayers to a cloth. How cultish is that?

Now, where I come from, that's bona fide indoctrination, and if the Christians or the Muslims were forcing people to undergo this today, it would cause everyone to rise up in rage. But, since it's government which does the indoctrination, I guess it's "not indoctrination". Remember, when "government" does something that would be bad for anyone else to do, they call that thing by a different name and pretend it's virtuous. This thing, they call "education" I suppose it's just another "magical exception" for "government employees" to social norms, among the millions that are accepted as an article of faith.

It's a tyranny of words, hiding a tyranny of death. The first step to being free, is having a mind that is free from lies. Abandon the lies -- be free.