In the previous post, (BATTLELINES FORMING IN LOUDOUN COUNTY | Prince William-Manassas Family Alliance (familyallianceonline.org)), we talked about the difference between teaching our children HOW to think and WHAT to think. Teaching children how to think is instruction for human beings. Teaching children what to think is training for dogs.

The object of training a dog is to gain control over it. Whereas the object of instructing a child is supposed to be an independent, competent, mature adult, an adult who has self-discipline and self-control. Unfortunately, some of our leaders, mad for power, have a problem with independent, competent, mature adults.

What are some of the things some of our leaders are doing to control us, like dogs? Consider the fact that power comes from the fact one has control. Hence, the first thing our more devious leaders must do is convince us that their preferred reality is real, that we have no choice except to obey them, that it is better for us if we obey them. With that in mind, observe how the Biden administration and its news media allies are still struggling to control the narrative.

The new AT age — “After Trump” — began on either Election Day, Nov. 3, or on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20. But either way, reality as we had known it for four years has been abruptly reinvented.

Pfizer had hinted that a vaccine could be ready in late October. Then, mysteriously, it wasn’t. Then, stranger still, it appeared — a few days after Election Day.

Suddenly, after Joe Biden’s inauguration, Illinois, Michigan and other blue states eased some of their lockdown restrictions to get their economies back on track despite little change in COVID-19 rates.

During the Trump Age, the president was supposedly responsible for every death from COVID-19. Now, the media reports that career scientists and health administrators in the federal government, especially at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were largely to blame for past slow testing, and were tardy and lax in apprising the nation of the infectious threat.

The Biden campaign’s widely reported promises of a new, superior COVID-19 plan turned out to be more of the same old, same old from the Trump Age. (continued)

Liberals reinvent reality as the ‘After Trump’ era begins – Washington Times by Victor Davis Hanson

Because dogs are not as intelligent as people, they are relatively easy to control. It may require a shock collar, but the combination of punishment and reward is enough to persuade a dog to obey, even when it is off its leash. If they don’t obey we punish them. When they do obey, we reward them with petting, perhaps a belly rub, or even a treat. The same applies to people, but people, because they are intelligent, may rebel if they believe they should and can successfully rebel. Even a dog may run away if it gets off its leash. Therefore, devious leaders strive to control what the people they seek to dominate believe.

How do our more devious leaders seek to control what we believe?

• Some university administrators measure success by the amount money they bring to their institutions. Using that measure, the unscrupulous have used our universities to develop and now peddle an ideological system they want to replace America’s traditional beliefs. This ideological system includes a hodgepodge of doctrines that includes: multiculturalism, radical environmentalism, transgenderism, Socialism, Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, Human Secularism and so forth. These doctrines all have one thing in common. They give more power to people who cannot be trusted (see College Indoctrination: Students Are Becoming Leftists on Campus | National Review and It’s Time To Stop Paying Colleges For Overpriced Leftist Indoctrination (thefederalist.com)).
• They have promoted public education and empowered bureaucrats at the expense of parental rights. Consider the area of sex education, including issues like abortion and transgenderism. In various parts of the country, state governments have empowered school administrators to support the desires of children to have abortions or to “change” their sex whether their parents approve or not. School choice is the obvious counter for out of control bureaucrats, but the teachers unions oppose school choice. With their opposition to school choice, the teachers unions, representing the people we would expect to be most protective of children, undermine parental rights more than any other special interest.
• Using the techniques we associate with crony capitalism, they have bought the compliance of many large corporations. Consider the example of the COVID-19 lockdown. The big chain stores had relatively little trouble staying open. Big Tech outfits actually benefited from the lockdown. Many small businesses, on the other hand, closed, and many will remain closed. This is just one of the ways large corporations have used government to destroy their smaller competitors. It stands out only because it was so obvious.
• They promote bias in the news media. Crony capitalists own 90 percent of the mass media, including the news organizations. In fact, things have reached the point where the news media openly takes sides. What is not readily apparent is what motivates the news media and the people who own the news media to take sides. Follow the money. Our money. Crony capitalism.
• Big Tech censors Conservatives. This problem has gotten so serious it drove Senator Josh Hawley write a book, (see Big Tech is Rallying Behind President Biden and Blinding the Public to the Facts: Eric Metaxas with Senator Josh Hawley | The Christian Outlook). Ironically, Senator Hawley found himself cancelled by his publisher (see Senator Josh Hawley Gets the Last Laugh on Cancel Culture by Michael Brown (townhall.com).

What can we do to overcome the efforts of our leaders to dominate our beliefs. Fortunately, good information sources remain available to us and our children. Here are several examples.

• The Bible: Many find the Bible difficult to read. That is one reason people form Bible study groups. Why is the Bible so difficult to read and understand? Given the Bible is God’s revelation to us, why should we expect the Bible to be easily understood? What we should be concerned about is whether studying the Bible is worth the effort, and it is. The Bible gives us a different worldview, a more Godly view. The Bible tells us about our Creator and ourselves. Unless we read the Bible, we don’t know the Bible, and we have no idea why we are as we are and what our Creator intends for us. We only know what someone has told us about the Bible.
• Classical literature: Classical literature consists of literary works that have withstood the test of time, and they come from all eras of human history, from clay tablets retrieved from Chaldean ruins to Aristotle’s Politics, Shakespeare’s plays, or to Democracy in America by a French aristocrat. If we want to understand history and the development of philosophy and moral values, the best we can do is to read contemporary literature from the historical periods that most interest us. Then we can glean the importance ancient Greeks put upon human life and heroism by reading the Iliad. We can begin to appreciate the fatalism of the Chaldeans by reading The Epic of Gilgamesh. Unless we read such works — original source documents from the time period of history we are studying — we only know what someone has told us about our history. We don’t actually know our history.
• New media: The so-called mainstream news media is owned by large corporations. These large corporations own news media outlets to further their political interests, not to inform us. Just think about what the CEO of a large company is more likely to believe important. Is it informing you and me or encouraging politicians to help his company get a huge government contract or a regulatory bill passed that increases his profits? Hence, in order to find out what is going on we have to hunt for small, independent news media organizations who depend directly upon us for their profits (see CONSERVATIVE WEBSITES | Prince William-Manassas Family Alliance (familyallianceonline.org)). That is, we need to compare what mainstream news media reports with reports from contrary sources.

Does studying all this material sound impossible? Well, it takes 20 years to educate a child, and we have the time. The problem is keeping our government out of the way, not finding the time. The solution for finding the time is school choice, and education vouchers would give parents the most choice.