Mind control
According to feminist theory, kids are socialized into gender roles. Kids are easy to shape, and they learn what it means to be a boy or a girl (they also learn that heterosexuality is the norm). I've started to accept these theories lately.
A thought struck me, on another subject, that I've often thought about, and that I actually think is related to this. The same way kids are socialized into boys (men) and girls (women), we are socialized into statists, in government-run or government-controlled schools.
The late Albert Jay Nock, author of "Our Enemy the State", wrote that the modern man believes in the state, the same way his medieval ancestor believed in the catholic church. To question the state is as unthinkable as it was for medieval Europeans to question the church. Only a few thinkers will question the state. Everyone else just accepts it, like we accept bad weather.
There is a simple reason. In the middle ages, the catholic church controlled the minds. Everyone had to go to church on Sundays (except Jews). All information came from the church. All education was monopolized by the catholic church.
With the reformation, the catholic church lost a part of the continent. But take Sweden, my native country. The education that was offered was offered by the Lutheran church. The church still controlled the minds, and everyone had to go to church on Sundays, and so on.
With increasing democracy, education was put under the state, instead of under the church. This meant that the state got to decide the curriculum, and what was to be taught. The state now shaped the minds of innocent children.
This turned people into statists. They were no longer fanatic christians, instead, they were fanatic statists. They were unable to question government.
That's where we are today. Because although government no longer have an exclusive monopoly of running schools in Sweden, all schools have to be run within the limits of the curriculum, decided by government. This is still forced upon small children (and since schooling is mandatory in Sweden, to not send your loved ones away to the government indoctrination center is illegal).
A thought struck me, on another subject, that I've often thought about, and that I actually think is related to this. The same way kids are socialized into boys (men) and girls (women), we are socialized into statists, in government-run or government-controlled schools.
The late Albert Jay Nock, author of "Our Enemy the State", wrote that the modern man believes in the state, the same way his medieval ancestor believed in the catholic church. To question the state is as unthinkable as it was for medieval Europeans to question the church. Only a few thinkers will question the state. Everyone else just accepts it, like we accept bad weather.
There is a simple reason. In the middle ages, the catholic church controlled the minds. Everyone had to go to church on Sundays (except Jews). All information came from the church. All education was monopolized by the catholic church.
With the reformation, the catholic church lost a part of the continent. But take Sweden, my native country. The education that was offered was offered by the Lutheran church. The church still controlled the minds, and everyone had to go to church on Sundays, and so on.
With increasing democracy, education was put under the state, instead of under the church. This meant that the state got to decide the curriculum, and what was to be taught. The state now shaped the minds of innocent children.
This turned people into statists. They were no longer fanatic christians, instead, they were fanatic statists. They were unable to question government.
That's where we are today. Because although government no longer have an exclusive monopoly of running schools in Sweden, all schools have to be run within the limits of the curriculum, decided by government. This is still forced upon small children (and since schooling is mandatory in Sweden, to not send your loved ones away to the government indoctrination center is illegal).
Labels: Albert Jay Nock, the state
posted by Johan R. Sjöberg at 1:57 PM
1 Comments:
I agree with you to a degree, in that the state clearly does steer children towards certain ways of thinking and likewise social pressure steers children into broad gender roles.
However, I think you need to be very careful not to fall into 'blank slate' thinking where the mind of a child is empty, just waiting to be filled up with whatever adults fancy. Firstly I had a solid state education, yet still managed to rebel against it. Secondly stories such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer remove any doubt that there are fundamental differences between genders, even if such differences do not correspond exactly to social gender biases.
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