Father’s Day reminds us to honor the patriarchs of our family and thank them for the example and leadership they have shown to shape our lives. But what if we lived in a society without fathers? Without mothers?
You may think I am speaking from the fringe with this question, but the reality is not so far away. Who else has witnessed in their lifetime the gradual erosion of parental influence on children? It used to be a given that the school system largely represented the values of the community it served, but that has ceased to be a given anymore. The state now centrally controls educational curriculum, imposes strict oversight on local policies and in some jurisdictions prevents parents from making their own decisions on key topics that impact the upbringing and values of their children. And that doesn’t even include the impact that the internet and social media platforms have.
In Sweden, a place you would likely not jump to in your mind as a place that suppresses basic freedoms, is threatening to remove children from their families if they do not send their children to school in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sweden, like many other European countries effectively bans homeschooling, instead insisting that state-based schooling be attended with no exceptions, even those who may be immune-compromised.
In their world-view, the state knows best how to raise and educate children, making parents essentially caretakers in the times they are not required to be in school. In countries who espouse a harder versus softer totalitarianism, it is even worse. Children are encouraged to inform on their families for acts or words that go against the government mandates.
Thankfully, the US has not quite reached that level of overreach, but liberty is lost one precious inch at a time. There are many who want to remove the parental influences in our society so they can instill a set of values matching their objectives on the next generation. And if that set of values does not value the basic liberties the Constitution is designed to protect, well, there will be a much-diminished voice left to advocate for basic freedoms for all until they are ultimately gone.
Family is one of the bedrocks of our society. For society to function in a manner that protects freedom, this unit must be strong. So, if you have a parent who has helped instill values in you, be grateful and thank them. And if you are making the effort to instill values in your children, keep up the fight to be an influence in their lives.
In my first book, Call of Kayden, we enter a world where parental structure has all but been eliminated except in a holdout sector called Xenon. Kids are fully raised by the government and most people have barely an awareness of who their birth parents actually are. Gabriel, the main character of the story, discovers his family in Xenon, and doesn’t know how to process this structure. It will make you think about something we currently take for granted.
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