I found myself thinking about the fundamental root of government control the other day. I wondered what is it that all governments need absolutely to control their citizens and keep them complacent. After all, there are far more ordinary citizens in any given country than there are police, military and bureaucrats. So due to the lopsided math, direct force is not adequate to maintain control. Governments need better techniques to put the odds in their favor.
My thinking led me to two main areas that are crucial for government control. Those are control of money and control of education.
Controlling money allows governments to control vast areas of the economy. They can dictate money supply, interest rates, and forms of legal tender. Why would they want to have a handle on these? Several reasons, some of which are creating incentives for consumers and firms to behave a certain way; restricting a free market in the medium of exchange; tracking of transactions; and above all, collection of taxes. How else would governments raise revenue?
With authority over money within a nation, all citizens are essentially forced to play by the rules decreed by the government.
As to education, there is no finer way to gain access to developing minds and start filling those heads with propaganda, brainwashing and fear. The way that our education systems operate today is essentially the same as established in the 1870s. Basically, their purpose is to churn out drones that follow orders from their superiors, do not engage in critical thinking and prepare to be a cog in the wheel.
Consider how a typical classroom is run. A teacher who gets her curriculum from the state repeats (dictates) mostly useless information and misinformation to the students in front of her. At some point, the students are tested where they are expected to repeat verbally or on paper, what she has told them in prior lessons. If the students start questioning too much, they are deemed to be disruptive and punished or ridiculed. Great atmosphere for learning right? No wonder most kids start loathing school around grade 5 or 6. That's when they've had enough of the system.
Simply put, it does not seem natural to learn in this way. People have an innate ability and desire to learn, but the current systems employs a one-size-fits-all method to teaching which simply does not take into consideration different abilities, learning rates, interests and forms of learning.
Any chance that the system will reform any time soon? Nil.
Thus controlling education helps to ensure that adults will all carry around in their heads, essentially the same information and therefore won't question authority too much. And it strikes me as strange that key life lessons are not taught. For example, money and business skills, negotiation tactics, effective communication and natural health.
So it would be quite interesting to see these two levers of power leave the hands of governments. What would happen? I suspect more freedom, more independent thought, more innovation, more curiosity, and more co-operation. But that is just my take on things.
Today we are already seeing the beginnings of a shift away from these two centrally controlled institutions. To liberate money, crypto-currencies have appeared on the scene. Should they take real hold in economic transactions, then it is game over for government control of money.
As for education, we still have a long road ahead of us. Thank goodness we now have the Internet as a vast source of knowledge. The good news is that many adults and teens are breaking out of their indoctrination spells cast in school. Those who haven't lost the urge to learn are finding all sorts of new and valuable information online and using this to de-program themselves.
The bad news is that the extreme majority of kids (mainly from western countries) are still sent to government run schools. Thus, they are getting their brains filled with a lot of garbage. Can this be changed? Of course, anything is possible.
Some trends that are starting to form is that homeschooling and unschooling is gaining more popularity. As well, parents who actually are awakening are sharing information with their children to help them question teachings learned in school.
What would be fantastic to see is a free market in schools. Just as I am free to take my car to any mechanic or auto body shop, schools should compete in the free market. Some school would specialize in certain disciplines while others may offer very general education (e.g. reading, writing and basic math) leaving the student to continue his or her own learning journey. Who knows what solutions the market would come up with? I certainly would love to see this burgeon.
What do you think? Are there other major institutions run by governments that help maintain oversight over the citizenry in such a major way? I would love to hear from you.